Archive for September 2020

State Rep. Deb Lavender is the latest guest on the Politically Speaking podcast, where she talks with St. Louis Public Radio’s Jason Rosenbaum about running in the 15th Senate District.

The district takes in portions of south central and southwest St. Louis County, which includes Kirkwood, Ballwin, Manchester, Twin Oaks and Valley Park. Lavender is squaring off against Sen. Andrew Koenig, a Manchester Republican who won the seat in 2016 by nearly 20 percentage points.

Koenig is slated to record an episode of Politically Speaking in October.

Here’s what Lavender talked about on the show:

• Missouri’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, including whether the state should implement a mask mandate. Gov. Mike Parson has decided against such a move, while his Democratic opponent, state Auditor Nicole Galloway, has backed it.
• Whether the Legislature could provide any guidance for schools struggling to decide whether to teach students in person or virtually this year due to the pandemic.
• The successful ballot initiative to expand Medicaid, which she supported. And she talked about how she would follow through on that constitutional amendment if she were elected to the Senate.
• Koenig’s sponsorship of legislation that banned most abortions at eight weeks of pregnancy, which is one of the reasons Lavender jumped into the race. She explained why she opposed that measure, which is currently being challenged in court.

Lavender is a physical therapist who garnered a reputation for persistence, running for the House in 2008, 2010 and 2012, losing each time to then-incumbent Rick Stream, R-Kirkwood.

When Stream had to leave the House due to term limits in 2014, Lavender won the 90th District House seat against Republican Gina Jaksetic, but it was a narrow victory — making her a big Republican target in 2016. She ended up winning by a wider margin of victory over Republican Mark Milton. And she ran unopposed for a third term in 2018.

Originally, Lavender was planning to run for a fourth term in the House in 2020. But she chose instead to run against Koenig after the passage of his abortion legislation caused an outcry among Democrats supportive of abortion rights. Since getting into the race, Lavender has raised more money than Koenig in a seat that historically has been Republican-leaning.

Follow Jason Rosenbaum on Twitter: @jrosenbaum

Follow Deb Lavender on Twitter: @DebLavender

Music: “Purple Rain” by Prince

The Republican nominee for St. Louis circuit attorney, Daniel Zdrodowski, is the latest guest on Politically Speaking. He joined St. Louis Public Radio’s Rachel Lippmann to discuss his philosophy for the office and his strategy in his campaign against incumbent Democrat Kim Gardner.

Gardner has also received an invitation to record an episode of Politically Speaking.

Here’s what Zdrodowski talked about on the show:

• How he believes Gardner’s refusal to prosecute certain cases, for a variety of reasons, has led to a spike in violent crime in St. Louis. As of Wednesday, there had been 191 people killed in the city — just three fewer than all of last year. The city is on pace for nearly 270 homicides, which could set a new record.
• His mixed feelings about legislation pending in the Missouri House of Representatives that would allow the state attorney general to prosecute first- and second-degree murder cases under certain circumstances. While Zdrodowski generally opposes state government meddling in local affairs, he said, “I believe that the city has gotten so bad that any necessary help should be welcomed or at least be open to.”
• How campaigning in north St. Louis could make the race close, even in a heavily Democratic city. “I’m getting to know the voters out there, getting to hear what things are their biggest concerns, and letting them know there is an alternative option to the Democrats,” he said.

Zdrodowski had stints as a boarding house operator, a bouncer and a country recording artist before attending law school at St. Louis University. He then spent six years at firms throughout the St. Louis region handling a variety of cases before starting his own firm.

He was one of Mayor Lyda Krewson’s original nominees to the Board of Freeholders but withdrew from the process so he could run for office.

Follow Rachel on Twitter: @rlippmann

Music: “Spring,” by Antonio Vivaldi, performed by the Classical Concert Chamber Orchestra

Democratic lieutenant governor nominee Alissia Canady is the latest guest on Politically Speaking, where she joined St. Louis Public Radio’s Jason Rosenbaum and Jaclyn Driscoll to discuss her run against GOP incumbent Mike Kehoe.

Kehoe is slated to record an episode of Politically Speaking in the coming weeks.

Canady easily won the Democratic nomination for the post last month against Greg Upchurch.

Here’s what Canady discussed on the show:

• How her upbringing in eastern Kansas City and going to law school in South Dakota shaped her worldview. She also talked about how her experience as a city council member in Kansas City made her ready to take on the lieutenant governorship.
• Her mindset toward the low-income housing tax credit, an incentive aimed at cultivating housing for the poor, elderly and veterans. The lieutenant governor holds a seat on the Missouri Housing Development Commission, which appears ready to restart the state program that’s been dormant for close to three years.
• Her view of the special legislative session that’s focusing on violent crime. While some of the items have passed with bipartisan support, ideas such as allowing the attorney general to intervene in St. Louis homicide cases had more opposition.
• How she could use the responsibility of presiding over the Senate to help Democrats in the GOP-dominated chamber.

Canady is an attorney who served as a Kansas City Council member for one term. She ran for mayor in 2019 and narrowly missed making the runoff in a contest that Quinton Lucas eventually won.

Before she ran for public office, Canady served as an assistant Jackson County prosecutor. She’s a graduate of South Dakota State University Law School.

Follow Jason Rosenbaum: @jrosenbaum

Follow Jaclyn Driscoll: @DriscollNPR

Follow Alissia Canady: @alissiacanady

Music: “L.E.S. Artistes” by Santigold

D.B. Dowd has spent a lot of time collecting and studying the history of illustration, a category of artwork that art historians and art museums have often overlooked.

His interest was sparked when the son of illustrator Al Parker offered to donate his late father’s papers to Washington University, where Dowd teaches illustration, design and cultural history.

When Dowd got a look at the materials, stacked in a California garage, he glimpsed artifacts from a once-prominent line of work that had become all but forgotten, he said, because it doesn’t fit into a history of fine art.

“There was nowhere for that stuff to go. It had no cultural home because it’s this in-between, deeply contingent stuff that illustration always is,” Dowd said. “I was fascinated by that reality. I was saddened and fascinated.”

Dowd recommended that Washington University take the materials. It is the cornerstone of what became the school’s Modern Graphic History Library — a collection that was named after Dowd in 2016.

His own work includes Graphic Tales, a blog where he’s published observations about visual culture since 2007; “Stick Figures: Drawing As A Human Practice,” a book-length examination of the history of the art form; two collections culled from “Sam The Dog,” a pointed political cartoon series about race and class that he published in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch in the late 1990s; and the newly released “A Is For Autocrat,” a full-throated indictment of Pres. Donald Trump communicated through the form of an alphabet book for very young readers. He authored it with designer Scott Gericke.

Follow Jeremy on Twitter: @jeremydgoodwin