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Politically Speaking: Jefferson County basks in electoral spotlight as election season heats up

St. Louis Public Radio | By Jason Rosenbaum,
Jo Mannies
Published September 28, 2018 at 6:27 AM CDT
Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley appeals to supporters Monday at a rally in Imperial, Mo., to promote his bid for the U.S. Senate.
Jo Mannies I St. Louis Public Radio
Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley appeals to supporters Monday at a rally in Imperial, Mo., to promote his bid for the U.S. Senate.

St. Louis Public Radio’s Jason Rosenbaum and Jo Mannies look at the importance of Jefferson County in this year’s statewide election.

Whenever there’s a competitive statewide election, Jefferson County often gets a lot of attention. That’s because voters there almost always pick winners of statewide elections — as they did in 2016 and 2012.

The traditionally Democratic county has become more Republican in the past few years. And voters’ preferences for candidates who oppose abortion rights may help someone like GOP Senate hopeful Josh Hawley, who is running against U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill.

But McCaskill may get a boost from the vote to repeal right to work, which bars unions and employers from requiring workers to pay dues as a condition of employment. Jefferson County residents voted overwhelmingly to repeal right to work in August.

Mannies and Rosenbaum also talk about the impact of Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court nomination process, especially because Hawley made the appellate judge’s confirmation a major part of his campaign. They also talk about the end of the legal fight over Clean Missouri, a proposed constitutional amendment that will overhaul state legislative redistricting.

Follow Jason Rosenbaum on Twitter:@jrosenbaum

Follow Jo Mannies on Twitter:@jmannies

Music: “Night Lies” by Bang Camaro

Copyright 2021 St. Louis Public Radio. To see more, visit St. Louis Public Radio.

Missouri News
Jason Rosenbaum
Since entering the world of professional journalism in 2006, Jason Rosenbaum dove head first into the world of politics, policy and even rock and roll music. A graduate of the University of Missouri School of Journalism, Rosenbaum spent more than four years in the Missouri State Capitol writing for the Columbia Daily Tribune, Missouri Lawyers Media and the St. Louis Beacon.
See stories by Jason Rosenbaum
Jo Mannies
Jo Mannies has been covering Missouri politics and government for almost four decades, much of that time as a reporter and columnist at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. She was the first woman to cover St. Louis City Hall, was the newspaper’s second woman sportswriter in its history, and spent four years in the Post-Dispatch Washington Bureau. She joined the St. Louis Beacon in 2009. She has won several local, regional and national awards, and has covered every president since Jimmy Carter. She scared fellow first-graders in the late 1950s when she showed them how close Alaska was to Russia and met Richard M. Nixon when she was in high school. She graduated from Valparaiso University in northwest Indiana, and was the daughter of a high school basketball coach. She is married and has two grown children, both lawyers. She’s a history and movie buff, cultivates a massive flower garden, and bakes banana bread regularly for her colleagues.
See stories by Jo Mannies