Joan Bray<\/a>.] As a result, Tracy knows her way around the state capitol and its arcane rules. She\u2019s earned street cred in her district as an engaged and visible community volunteer and leader. And she\u2019s got endorsements from respected progressive groups, like NARAL, PROMO and Missouri Women\u2019s Political Caucus. It also helps that the district she\u2019s running in almost always elects a Democrat to the State Legislature.<\/p>\nI\u2019m totally comfortable talking her up to voters, not just because of her official credentials, but also because I\u2019ve worked alongside her, observed her competence and intelligence, and experienced the positive vibe and high energy level that she exudes.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, I\u2019m not canvassing for Tracy under normal circumstances. It\u2019s complicated. Tracy is running in a special election for a seat vacated when her predecessor moved into a newly created elected position. Missouri\u2019s governor\u2014a Democrat\u2014took his\u00a0 sweet time calling for a special election, so there was a lot of suspense, much wasted time, and zero public awareness of what was going on. The special election will be on November 8\u2014but there\u2019s nothing else on the ballot in the 83rd<\/sup> district, so it\u2019s going to be mighty hard to get folks out to vote.<\/p>\nBut compared to the next thing I\u2019m going to tell you, those unusual circumstances are mere annoyances. Here\u2019s the biggie: Under Missouri statutes, in a special election like this one, the local township political committee determines who the candidate will be. Tracy thought she had a pretty solid chance of being picked.\u00a0 But, no:\u00a0 When it was time for the committee to vote, Tracy got caught in an internecine, micro-geo-political rivalry between committee members from the municipalities in the 83rd<\/sup> district. Tracy lives in one of them, but committee members from another wanted a native son\u2014even though Tracy clearly had better credentials, more experience and a strong base. So, using a back-room system of weighted voting that I can\u2019t explain because it makes no sense to me, the committee anointed someone other than Tracy. Did I mention that the eventual candidate had a heavily weighted vote and got to cast it for his own nomination?<\/p>\nSo, you might ask, how is it that, having not been selected as the candidate by her Democratic committee, Tracy\u2019s got me out here with a clipboard and campaign literature this afternoon?<\/p>\n
Tracy is running as an independent.<\/p>\n
And that\u2019s even more complicated. Just to get on the ballot, she had to gather signatures totaling 2% of the votes cast in the 83rd<\/sup> District for the Democratic candidate for governor in the 2008 election. [Try figuring that out without a calculator.] \u00a0Okay, it\u2019s not a huge number, but it\u2019s a hurdle many states\u2014and let\u2019s be honest: political parties\u2014put in the way of upstarts who want to run outside of our jealously guarded, roped-off, two-party system.<\/p>\nTracy got the signatures, no problem. But now, as volunteers like me talk to voters, we have to explain that, while Tracy has strong democratic values, she\u2019s going to appear on the ballot as an independent. And as anyone who has canvassed knows, you often get less than a minute to make your case. So, let\u2019s see, I\u2019ve got about 60 seconds to say that I\u2019m volunteering for Tracy McCreery, there\u2019s a special election they\u2019ve never heard of in six weeks, she\u2019s running for state rep in their district [and sometimes you have to explain what that is, and why it\u2019s important], she\u2019s got great qualifications, AND, when you vote for her, you need to vote for the candidate, not the party. And I have to do all of that while also trying to get the campaign flyer into the person\u2019s hand before they shut the door on me and go back to watching the football game.<\/p>\n
Don\u2019t get me wrong: It can be done, I\u2019m going to do my best to do it, and Tracy can win, despite the unreasonable obstacles that unreasonable people and circumstances have plopped in her path.\u00a0 She\u2019s an articulate, smart, rational candidate who exemplifies the kind of person that people on the left\u2014and not just here in Missouri\u2014should be actively backing, rather than wasting energy bashing right-wing extremists. \u00a0We certainly shouldn\u2019t have to settle for less qualified candidates when there are people like Tracy who are willing to do the hard work of getting elected and governing. So, it makes me crazy when I see how petty politics and insider power struggles get in the way of the much bigger, much more important goal that we all should share: \u00a0getting real progressives like Tracy McCreery elected, up and down the line, all across the country.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It\u2019s political canvassing time in Missouri\u2019s 83rd State Representative District, and I\u2019m out on the not-very-mean streets of an affluent, inner-ring suburb in St.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":11942,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[162,119,573],"tags":[1269,861,631,1264],"yoast_head":"\n
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![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.occasionalplanet.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/Tracy-McCreery-2010_mug.jpg\" "\\"Tracy")
<\/a>