Last night our home phone rang and my wife picked it up. She looked at me and said, “do you want to take a political survey’? Of course I said “yes”, and she handed me the phone.
A nice young man was on the line and he asked me a few initial questions about who I was supporting in local races and how I felt about some general subjects. He focused in on the Missouri District 2 Senate race, and the questions got a lot more specific.
Most of you have taken these polls, where they want you to answer “much more likely’, “a little more likely”, “no difference”, “a little less likely”, or “much less likely”. He then gave me a number of statements about each candidate and wanted to know if the statement changed whether I might vote for that person based on the scale above.
The candidates in the republican primary for this state senate seat are Bob Onder, Vicki Schneider, and Chuck Gatschenberger.
The young man started with a number of statements regarding Chuck Gatschenberger. They were all positive things that a Republican primary voter would likely embrace, such as Chuck’s pro-gun and anti-abortion stances.
He then moved on to Bob Onder, and the statements were all negative things. I will not relate all of them here, but one example was that he “voted to name a bridge after someone who was later investigated…”
You get the idea. This was a push-poll. This is a negative publicity smear tactic. Undoubtedly it was funded by the Gatschenberger campaign.
I realize that politics is, well, political. I know these things are not new. I am aware that negative campaign ads are effective in campaigns. And yet, I really hate this crap.
As you know I have been attempting to become much more involved and informed about issues at the state and local level. As a result I have attended meetings of both the St. Charles County and Lewis and Clark Pachyderms, both Republican groups. I have been attending a local Patriots group, and have gone to several Dinners, most recently Paul Curtman’s epic event. I have never met or even spoken to Chuck.
I contacted Chuck in regard to his vote against Right-to-Work, but we did not connect. I stopped by his office in Jefferson City and left him a note, but he did not respond. I followed Chuck Gatschenberger on Social Media perhaps a year ago, but he has not seen fit to return the favor.
This is not about me, I know people are busy and I am not exactly a lobbyist waiting to write a check. But some people are just a little less available than others. If I cannot connect with someone, given all of this effort, how does anyone do so? I have been able to connect with others, including my state representative Ron Hicks. I have also had conversations with Chuck’s opponent in the upcoming primary, Bob Onder.
Bob is a good guy, and for all I know so is Chuck and I’m sure Vicki is a nice lady as well. They are all pro-life and pro-second amendment. One of them is going to win on August 5th.
But as I have related before, there are two groups of Republicans doing battle in this country. Last night’s defeat of Eric Cantor in his primary is a great example. The split in the House of Representatives is another. John Boehner and the establishment want to ride the failure of Obamacare to victory this fall. While I abhor Obamacare, this is a terrible strategy. They are relying on their opponent’s negatives to lift them to victory. Would it not be better to rely on a positive message, core values, and good strong ideas for restoring our liberty and constitutional principles?
It seems this same divide presents itself both locally and at the state level. The St. Charles County Republican Central Committee appears to be divided between the establishment and people who want change. The same appears to be true at the state level, with the entrenched establishment interests fighting against the liberty-minded “new Republicans” who want to return to a set of core values and away from cronyism and status quo.
Obviously I find myself in the latter group. I am sick of big government and lobbyists and corporatists running the show. I am not sure John Boehner shares my distain for Big Government, and I am not sure Blaine Luetkemeyer or Roy Blunt do either. If we are to change the image of this party, then these establishment, pro big business, Democrat-clones must go. We must be a party that operates on clearly stated principles and not by polls or corporate donations or lobbyists’ pressure. We must have positive ideas, rather than just criticism of Barack Obama or Jay Nixon.
If Chuck Gatschenberger was not behind last night’s push-poll, then I suggest he find out who was and put a stop to it immediately. If he was behind it, then I suggest we do not need another establishment crony negative campaigning politician with a lack of core values in Missouri Senate District 2.
I am unhappy with last night’s phone call, but that is not the main reason I would oppose Chuck Gatschenberger. In addition to his vote against Right-to-Work, he was one of the deciding votes on the side of keeping red light cameras in Missouri.
Last night’s push poll did not mention the votes on Right-to-Work or Red Light Cameras or other things that may not sit well with liberty-minded Republicans. Of course that is how negative campaigning works.
If we are to change this country we need to start changing who we elect. I suggest we start on August 5th with someone with a positive message and core values and passion to correct the path we are on. I recommend we find a liberty minded constitutionalist, someone like Bob Onder.
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