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Politically Speaking: Kavanaugh’s views on murky political money prompt a McCaskill ‘no’ vote

Senator Claire McCaskill speaks at Lona's Lil Eats in St. Louis on Aug. 30, 2018.
File photo I Carolina Hidalgo | St. Louis Public Radio
Senator Claire McCaskill speaks at Lona's Lil Eats in St. Louis on Aug. 30, 2018.

U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill’sdecision to vote againstBrett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court is a key topic of the latest Politically Speaking podcast.

St. Louis Public Radio’s Jason Rosenbaum and Jo Mannies look into how undisclosed political money is playing into the contest between McCaskill and GOP Attorney Josh Hawley. It comes as millions of 501(c)(4) cash is going to support Hawley’s bid — and to ensure McCaskill wins a second term.

Rosenbaum and Mannies also talk abouta court decisionto not oust Councilman Ernie Trakas, R-South St. Louis County, from office. A special prosecutor contended that Trakas was violating the charter because he was doing legal work for school districts. But a judge ruled that Trakas didn’t run afoul of a prohibition against a council member working for a governmental agency.

And Politically Speaking’s weekly analysis of a competitive election on the Nov. 6 ballot turns to Missouri’s 2nd Congressional District, where Republican incumbent Ann Wagner, R-Ballwin, is taking on Democrat Cort VanOstran.

Follow Jason on Twitter: @jrosenbaum

Follow Jo on Twitter: @jmannies

Music: “Brain Damage/Eclipse” by Pink Floyd

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

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.
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.