You yelled to take back our country, so we are. Happy?

By @BGinKC

By the time the day was over, my voice was hoarse from phonebanking to GOTV right up to a half hour before the polls closed, and the sign-garden in my yard will stay put, because all of the people I supported in the primaries won their races.

Some damn fool challenged Emanuel Cleaver and lost by an embarrassing 60+ points, and on the Republican side, Jacob Turk just won’t stay throwed. I can tell you right now how that race will turn out… Turk 38 +/- 4  Cleaver 62 +/- 4.  On the bright side, after this loss, Turk will have enough of ‘em under his belt to turn pro.

Jason Kander and Chris Koster were a fordrawn conclusion, as was Carnahan. Everyone knew they were going to be the winners of their primary races for Senator, Governor, and Lt. Governor, respectively. The first two are statewide officeholders already, and the third is a Carnahan. Kander is an Afghanistan combat vet, and that matters outstate. He’s been running against Roy Blunt, not his primary opponents, all along. But the three that made my heart sing were the Democratic primary races for Secretary of State, Treasurer and Attorney General. All of those races were won by friends of mine. Judy Baker will make a great Treasurer, and Teresa Hensley, who is already a prosecutor of one of our ex-urban counties, will be one damn fine Attorney General. But Robin Smith, a woman of color, will protect voting rights in this state like a lioness protects her cubs.

Oh, but my children! The people I wanted to win didn’t just emerge victorious – every single Sinquefield sycophant who had an opponent lost, and lost big. You know what keeps me making $25 donations through Act Blue? The fact that he throws away over ten million bucks – to no effect – every cycle, and my puny donations usually go to winners.

Catherine Hanaway took more than $4.5 million from Sinquefield and his various political action committees and ended up finishing fourth in a four-way gubernatorial primary.

Kurt Schaefer got $3.5 million from Sinquefield and was defeated by University of Missouri law professor Josh Hawley by nearly 30 points in the attorney general primary.

Bev Randles got $2.5 million of Sinquefield donations but still lost to Mike Parson in the lieutenant governor primary.

Will Kraus, who only received $120,000 from Sinquefield, was soundly defeated by Jay Ashcroft in the race for secretary of state.

The only statewide candidate to receive significant support from Sinquefield who will be on the ballot this fall will be Eric Schmitt, who was unopposed in the Republican primary for state treasurer

You spend eleven million bucks, you kinda want to get more names on the ballot in November than one guy, who ran uncontested, and who is probably going to lose because even though he didn’t have an opponent, a lot of people didn’t bother filling in the oval by his name.

Missouri has no limits on campaign contributions, per Rex Sinquefield’s request. We used to have the toughest campaign contribution laws in the nation, but Rex didn’t like them, he wanted to write checks with lots of zeros, not just two, so the Republican state legislature happily, gleefully even, with dollar-signs in their eyes, skipped into their respective chambers and put a pricetag on politics.

Apparently this offended the folks of Missouri who work for a living, because Sinquefield money seems to be the kiss of death for statewide candidates. They do not do well. He keeps writing checks, and his candidates keep losing. This bothers me not one little bit.

Meanwhile, four blocks away in Kansas, the Earth shook under the feet of the Worst. Governor. Ever. as moderate challengers to the ultra-conservative Brownback Brigade that allowed him to drive Kansas into the ground lost to primary challengers right and left; and the worst congresscritter this side of Louie Gohmert, Tim Huelskamp, lost huge, by more than 10 points,  to political neophyte Roger Marshall, who will probably win because he is a Republican and they don’t call it the Big, Red One for nuthin.’ It sprawls over 63 counties and cows outnumber people exponentially. He won’t even face a Democrat. An Independent and a Libertarian have filed, but if there is a Democrat in Liberal, KS they are gassing up on their way to Colorado.

No matter what, the people have spoken, and they don’t like extremism or its practitioners. If Kansas in August is indicative of the way America is going to go in November, we’re not in as much trouble as some people are invested in making you believe we are.