Missouri redistricting has pitted together Missouri’s two biggest and self-indulgent political dynasties against each other for one epic primary. Russ Carnahan, the one-time golden boy of Missouri Democrats (until he opened his mouth) and Lacy Clay, who dumped his wife via the media and on whose watch Missouri’s First Congressional District saw unemployment soar. Now the two are going to battle it out over the title of Most Leftist Member of the House. Grab your popcorn.
Carnahan lunged at Clay:
Carnahan, who lost his 3rd District seat to redistricting, cited the high unemployment rate among African Americans in a broadside alleging that Clay “supports financial predators that have ripped millions out of (minority) communities.”A statement from the Carnahan campaign began by blaming a “Republican Do-Nothing Congress” that protects the wealthy, adding: “Congressman Carnahan sees similar results every day in the St. Louis region, driving past payday lenders, rent-to-own stores and other financial predators that have stripped wealth from our communities, all the while bankrolling our opponent.”
Awk-ward. Before you mistake the Congressman for a moderate, remember: Carnahan proposed to fix this problem by supporting President Obama’s stimulus when sent billions of dollars overseas to create jobs in countries like South Korea, France, Italy, and many others. Maybe he supported it because his brother benefitted from it? The Congressman has never really clarified.
Meanwhile, Clay hit Carnahan for the latter’s TARP vote (for which Clay also voted to pass):
“While I was fighting to save jobs and prevent home foreclosures in St. Louis, Russ Carnahan voted to give Wall Street speculators a $700 billion bail-out,” Clay said at a press event hosted by the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers in St. Louis. “I voted to protect my constituents, not to line the pockets of the predatory financial criminals whom my opponent richly rewarded.”
Carnahan, greeting voters downtown, responded that the TARP (Troubled Asset Relief Program) vote at the the end of the George W. Bush presidency was needed to prevent an economic calamity …
While Clay didn’t vote to concur with the Senate on TARP, he did vote for its reforms which perpetuated, rather than ended, TARP. A clever answer, but it doesn’t exactly place Clay in the clear.
Clay also, like Carnahan, voted for Cap-and-Trade, thus lowering the boom on jobs in coal states like Missouri. Like Carnahan, Clay also voted to send billions of American dollars to create jobs in other countries while our own unemployment soared. On the Clay dynasty watch, Missouri’s first district has been unable to stop the loss of business or attract new business. Carnahan’s leadership in the 3rd district wasn’t much better; the candidates’s combined districts constitute the St. Louis City area, which has high unemployment. (Unfortunately, while some articles trumpet a modest decrease in numbers, this article reluctantly highlights the real reason behind it as prospective workers dropping from the job pool entirely due to lack of work, in keeping with the national trend.)
Not much variety in the Democratic primary.
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