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Tipline: “Why Is He Running As a Republican?” | Missouri Political News Service
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Tipline: “Why Is He Running As a Republican?”

July 16th, 2008 by mopns · No Comments

Term limited 88th Dist. representative Neal St. Onge pictured with his hopeful successor Shamed Dogan.

We received an email this morning from a reader commenting on a post on the Political Fix. Seventh district senate candidate Neal St. Onge is scheduled to attend a “bash WalMart” rally in Ballwin tonight. Interesting tact from a Republican, team up with the Democrats to bash a highly successful company to win the expansive union vote in West County!

From the Political Fix:

Union workers and some political officials have planned an anti-Wal-Mart rally for 6 p.m. this evening at the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 655 in Ballwin.

The union workers are attacking Wal-Mart for selling Chinese goods as opposed to American. Though the stores also stock American products, the union says that buying American-only would help producers here.

The rally is also backed by WakeUpWalMart.com, a campaign affiliated with the national UFCW.

The list of planned speakers:

  • Clint Zweifel, (D-78th Dist.), candidate for State Treasurer
  • Jake Zimmerman, State Representative (D-83rd Dist.)
  • Tony George, State Representative (D- 74th Dist.)
  • Tod DeVedt, candidate for State Representative (D-111th Dist.)
  • Neal St Onge, (R-88th Dist.), candidate for State Senator (R -7th
    Dist.) Read more…

Here is the email in its entirety:

“Why is he [St. Onge] running as a Republican? If the union-made items were the best product, for the lowest price (or at least the best bang for the buck) -I’m sure Wal-Mart would gladly by their wares.

I don’t support a candidate for office simply because they put an “R” behind their name, and I don’t buy a product simply because it is American made by union workers.”

Comments

comments

Tags: Carnahans' · Decision '08 · Tip Line

0 responses so far ↓

  • 1 tom // Jul 16, 2008 at 5:41 pm

    Wal-Mart, the great American success story that republicans like to tout as a GREAT iconic solution to the woes of America.
    The point they don’t like to point out is that Wal-Mart is the grossest abuser of eminent domain of any American corporation.
    Yep I see much reason to slam Wal-Mart but NO one slams them for stealing property belonging to individuals only for not paying a “living wage”
    A sorry state of affairs we have found ourselves in.

  • 2 Saint Onge of AFCL-CIO // Jul 16, 2008 at 5:51 pm

    Yall hatin!

  • 3 Jim Byrne // Jul 16, 2008 at 9:09 pm

    Tom…

    I hope you made up the part about Wal-Mart being the “grossest abuser of eminent domain”. If someone told you that -they lied!

    Please tell us if someone is spreading lies. People generally don’t lies unless they find the audience to be stupid enough to believe them.

    A corporation cannot abuse eminent domain. It is not within their power. Only a city, county, state, or the federal government can abuse eminent domain.

    Read more about Eminent Domain.

    Wal-Mart may be the largest beneficiary of such abuse, but it is a corrupt government that deserves the blame.

  • 4 Graf Shepherd // Jul 16, 2008 at 10:00 pm

    Jim Byrne: great point regarding who bears responsibility for eminent domain abuse. The blame lies with Missouri’s laws and the judiciary that often overexpands them.

    As a side-note, Wal-Mart’s $4.00 prescriptions are a first step to solving the nation’s health care problems–and it’s a step that does not involve socialization. Wal-Mart can provide this amazing service because Wal-Mart seeks the best deals, not because it sponsors narrow-minded economic protectionism.

    http://www.grafshepherd.com

  • 5 Ron Calzone // Jul 17, 2008 at 9:12 am

    Jim,

    You are partly correct and partly wrong about eminent domain in Missouri.

    Ultimately, it does take corrupt local officials to abuse eminent domain, but our current constitution DOES allow that power to be conveyed to private developers.

    Article VI, Sec. 21 makes provisions for local government “for taking or permitting the taking, by eminent domain”. The “permitting the taking” is the basis for conveying those powers to private developers.

    The dentist in Arnold is still fighting THF Reality, the development company owned by Stan Kroenke, who is married to Anne Walton, the WalMart heir. Read about http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E._Stanley_Kroenke

    None of my comments here are intended to support anything that has been said in this thread, I just wanted to point out that we need to change the Missouri Constitution or we will always see influential people teaming up with corrupt government officials to abuse eminent domain, like we’re seeing in Arnold, MO right now.

    As for WalMart, if they can compete in a free market without government giving them an upper hand (e.g. TIFFs and eminent domain), more power to them. The people will be the ultimate winners.

    – Ron

  • 6 Jim Byrne // Jul 17, 2008 at 9:57 am

    Ron…

    Isn’t putting the blame on Wal-Mart like putting the blame on the child for something the parent told them they could do?

    For example:
    In the case of the Arnold Dentist (Dr. Tourkakis); THF Realty would not be involved if the City of Arnold had not abused the power of eminent domain.

    The “permitting the taking” is, and should be viewed by the court as, a delegation of state power to the city, not to the developer. (This is what happens when law schools teach men and women how to “think like a lawyer” rather than to think “like a Framer/Founder”.

    Big business will almost always take advantage of an opportunity. Wal-Mart is not charged with enforcing the rights of the Citizens of Missouri or the Citizens of Arnold. The City and the State are.

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