An American Idiot

Missouri’s well-known nickname is the “Show-me state.”  I’ve known this all of my life but I never realized just how true this statement is.  April 7, Harry Stonebraker handily won his bid for a fourth term as mayor of Winfield, MO garnering 90% of the popular vote.  There was just one small hitch, Mayor Stonebraker died of a heart attack nearly a month earlier.

Ballots had already been printed so damn the consequences and on with the election.  The decision seems foolhardy to me but in Missouri voting for dead people is a tradition – if not the law.  Gov. Carnahan died in a plane crash on October 17, 2000 but won election to the Senate on November 7.  Being dead in Missouri is a political asset.  One local resident noted that Stonebraker and Carnahan greatly increased in popularity following their deaths.

In fact, Missouri law prohibits the removal of a candidate’s name from a ballot within a given period prior to an election.  Call me crazy but it seems like a law that might not have been completely thought out or one contrived to prohibit an election from being influenced – even by the death of a candidate.  If the reasoning is the latter, it works.  The people of Missouri love voting for the dearly departed.  It’s just a bit unclear to me if its due to sympathy, loyalty, or disbelief until they attend the viewing.