Ring-A-Ding-Ding
And so, with little fanfare or aplomb, Mayor Kathryn Dusenbery has finally announced what Parkville political insiders have known for months – that she intends to challenge Republican Tom Pryor for the commissioner’s seat in Platte County’s 1st District.
As reported on ParkvilleLuminary.com earlier in the week, Mayor Dusenbery was basically outted by the Republican party leadership in the area on the night of the Kansas City primary elections. Pressing her for details on her future ambitions, Mrs. Dusenbery caved in to the powers that be and admitted that she would run for Platte County Commissioner and then spent the rest of the night granting press interviews and writing e-mails to city officials, explaining her decision.
That Mrs. Dusenbery is running should come as no surprise – for one, she’s earned the right to throw her hat in the ring and be taken as a serious contender. For the past several years, Mrs. Dusenbery has given spirited – if not polished – leadership in Parkville and she has shown an increased amount of interest in the politics of Southern Platte County and the region as a whole. Since Parkville is considered to be one of the cornerstones of the Kansas City metropolitan region, she has also garnered a lot of attention from around the city and her name has been routinely mentioned whenever the topic of higher office comes up.
Her candidacy raises several issues, of course. For one, Mrs. Dusenbery will have to run against Tom Pryor, and Mr. Pryor enjoys the support of the aforementioned “powers that be,” namely the James Thomas / Jeff Roe camp. For while Mrs. Dusenbery says she is a Republican and sprinkles her political conversations with Ronald Reagan quotes, she is going to have to go a long way to convince said powers that she is the kind of Republican for them.
Mrs. Dusenbery was the kind of Republican for them when it came to current State Rep. Jason Grill’s seat, however. For the past several weeks, rumors that she would be tapped to run against Grill – the Parkville Democrat – two years from now have run rampant. The brain trust behind such a move apparently forgot that Mrs. Dusenbery is a mother of three and a second life in Jefferson City seemed highly unlikely.
The Republican party, which is now split between two factions in Platte County – the “ultra-right” (aka “wing nuts”) and the “moderates” (aka “RINOs”) – will have to deal with this news, the primary election, and the certain Democratic challenger. Mr. Pryor already knows how he will run – as a “fiscal conservative.” He will also retain the services of local political mastermind John Elliott.
Mrs. Dusenbery will have to come to several other conclusions.
First, she will have to come to grips with the fact that the “ultra-right” and all of their political might may turn against her in a big way. She will need to explain her support of the oft-criticized ambulance district, a plan that raised taxes and ended up costing Parkville taxpayers far more than what the ambulance service had originally asked for in the first place. That’s rich campaign fodder for her opponent. She will need to build a strong coalition among the moderates and take advantage of the bad blood Mr. Pryor and his supporters have created in the area in order to mount a strong challenge.
There is little doubt she’d make a great commissioner, the question now is how will she campaign? This is party politics now, and doesn’t everyone love a ring-a-ding party?