Before the mid-term election, The Missouri Times Publisher, Scott Faughn takes to the road and visits with candidates, voters, consultants, and bar patrons around the state bringing you the best ground coverage leading up to Election Day.
Today he was in the Northland of Kansas City.
I left Coffee Zone and headed to the Northland of Kansas City. In this cycle, Kansas City is going to be one of the hottest battlegrounds, and right at the top of the competitive list of seats is HD14 where one of the democratic party’s young rising stars Rep. Ashley Aune is seeking re-election in a new district that is more republican than her last one.
I followed her around while she knocked on a few doors in the Monticello subdivision. Kudos to her because this neighborhood looked chock full of republicans. Right as you pull in the subdivision you see one of Senator Luetkemeyer’s re-election signs.
It was early in the day so there wasn’t a lot of folks answering, but the ones who did were telling. It’s not hard to see that this neighborhood is republican. However, she has talent and I watched her take an older grey-headed white guy with an American flag patch on his sweater (aka a republican) talking about CRT who I have to figure had no intention of voting for any democrats and move him to where if I had to guess he is gonna vote for one, her.
I asked her how she goes about separating herself from the national democratic brand- which isn’t doing well in the Northland- and she said: relationships.
I stopped in The Alley for a Bud Light and I’ll be honest with you- folks were real eager to talk politics. They seem to all have previously been democrats or at least ticket splitters who are pretty ticked about gas prices and damn near everything else. However, a little over half of them had heard of Rep. Aune, and she fared well. It will be interesting to see if she can outrun the brand in a changing Northland.
I called Senator Luetkemeyer and asked him about the political climate in the Northland and told me, “As I’ve been campaigning, people in the Northland are concerned about two things: inflation and public safety. Rising prices at the grocery store are front-of-mind for most voters. People also want to make sure we’re keeping our community safe and supporting our police officers. Overall, I think the environment is trending favorably for republicans to have a good night on November 8.”
From there I went down to Jackson County where I caught up with Rep. Jon Patterson who is running, and I mean running, for House Floor Leader and new Rep. Chris Lonsdale, and Dakota Worrell (no kin to Todd Worrell who was once the victim of a terrorist attack in Jackson County) who is running in a very competitive race to unseat Rep. Robbie Sauls in Independence.
Doc Patterson said that thus far he has put around 35,000 miles on the car. “If a member wants to visit with me, wherever they are in the state, then I’m on the way.”
Lonsdale won a tough primary where he was the underdog, and Patterson says he will be a freshman to watch, “Chris won what was maybe the toughest primary in the state. It was a dogfight and he is one of the freshman members to watch.”
I tend to agree with him.
I asked him the how folks were sitting in north Clay County, “High energy. People are really wanting accountability from the federal government to the schools.”
Dakota is a young candidate, but Patterson is bullish on his chances as well in a good republican year. “Dakota is out-hitting doors every day. We are optimistic about his chances to flip that seat.”
He says he is focused on his doors and is going to have knocked 3,000 before Election Day.
From there I went to the KMOS studios in Warrensburg for our election special with Mike Mahoney, Jo Mannies, Jennifer Bukowsky, and Rep. Keri Ingle. To be honest with you I could listen to Jo and Mike talk politics all night, but we only had an hour.
You can watch it here: https://www.kmos.org/news/2022-midterm/
In the end, the final US Senate predictions were:
Jo Mannies: Schmitt +9
Jennifer Bukowsky: Schmitt +18
Rep. Keri Ingle Busch +2
Mike Mahoney: Schmitt +11
Scott Faughn: I went Larry Pleus on Price is Right and went Schmitt +12.
After the debate, me and Mahoney had a couple beers at Fitters. We felt a little bad about our predictions so we ordered a Busch.
Well, I ordered a Busch Light, and he made me look like a wuss and went full Busch.
Scott Faughn is the publisher of The Missouri Times, owner of the Clayton Times in Clayton; SEMO Times in Poplar Bluff; and host of the only statewide political television show, This Week in Missouri Politics.
