St. Charles County Legislative Delegation

The Journal has recently begun to post vignettes on members of our local delegation. By all accounts, St. Charles County has one of the most powerful delegations in Jefferson City. If only we had more to send! Unless others have information to the contrary, St. Charles County currently has members of its legislative delegation in the highest positions we have ever had in the past.

It began with former Senator Steve Ehlmann who served as minority leader in the Senate. Then the Republicans took control of the Senate and the House in 2002 (the Senate actually took control earlier due to special elections). Carl Bearden became the Chairman of the House Budget Committee.

In 2004, the Republicans maintained and even grew their majorities in the House and Senate and St. Charles County legislators leaped to the front in leadership positions. Bearden became the Speaker Pro Tem and Tom Dempsey became the Majority Floor Leader, the number 2 and 3 positions in the House. Chuck Gross became the Senate Appropriations Chair making him the 3rd most powerful person in the Senate.

All of this has not gone unnoticed. I was at a gathering recently when I overheard a conversation by some members of the delegation regarding a ranking by Pro-Vote of our delegation. Apparently Pro-Vote, an organization that is so far left they can feel the extreme right wing of the Republican party breathing down their necks, rated our delegation as the worst in the Legislature. Here is a list of the "Member Groups". After reviewing this list you will see just how mainstream Pro-Vote is NOT.

Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN)
American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees Council 72 (AFSCME)
American Federation of Teachers (AFT) Local 420
Americans for Democratic Action (ADA)
Ccommunication Workers of America (CWA) St. Louis and Kansas City Councils
Communication Workers of America (CWA) Local 6355
Freedom Inc.
Kansas City Federation of Teachers Local 691
Laborers Local 663
Loretto Women’s Network
Missourians for Choice
NARAL Pro-Choice Missouri
Missouri National Education Association (MNEA)
Missouri Women’s Leadership Coalition
Missouri Votes Conservation (MVC)
National Organization of Women (NOW)
Planned Parenthood Advocates of the St. Louis Region
PROMO
Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Missouri/State Council
Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 2000
Teamsters Joint Council 13 DRIVE
United Auto Workers (UAW) Region 5
United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) District
UNITE-HERE!
United Steelworkers District 11
Women’s Political Caucus—St. Louis & Kansas City

Members of our delegation failed to vote Pro-Vote's way and was awarded the "Worst Delegation". From what I heard, our delegation is really torn up about this :-). I went to the Pro-Vote website and found that Parker had a 56% rating; Schneider had a 36% rating; Faith had an 18% rating; Smith and Rupp had a 9% rating; and Bearden, Davis, and Dempsey had a 0% rating. With a couple of exceptions, we should also be proud that our delegation represents the mainstream of St. Charles County voters.