The Quick Reverse
For all the noise about ethics last month, quick: Name the only person to be fined for an ethics violation from the last election cycle.
I was incredulous as anybody when The Luminary learned that the answer to that question was Tom Hutsler – the guy writing letters to the Missouri Ethics Commission complaining about Kathy Dusenbery “not taking things seriously.”
So I called Tom and asked him, “Seriously…how could you [mess] up that badly?” Yeah, yeah, I know. It’s no big deal (it is). Everyone does it (they don’t). It’s not news (it is).
A lot of people are surprised to see Tom and I laughing and joking around at public events. I’ve always liked the guy’s developments and often say so, too. And all last week, as I interviewed him and updated the story on ParkvilleLuminary.com, it wasn’t contentious. He knew he [messed] up. But he wanted to move on. (Hey, we all do.)
He was late, he said, because he was busy with the opening of his new restaurant, Tommy T’s. (And I can vouch that the burgers are good because I have to watch all the food prepared for me in his namesake restaurant.) I’ve managed restaurants; I even served on the board of directors for the Kansas City Restaurant Association. I understand. That was, of course, The Luminary’s main point when endorsing Gerry Richardson for the Parkville mayor’s seat. Hutsler should be way too busy taking care of English Landing to worry about the mayor’s post.
But after seeing his financials from the election, it occurred to me that Tom is also suffering from a dearth of bad advice from the two to three people downtown who like to goad him and manipulate him into pulling former mayor Kathy Dusenbery’s pigtails for nonsensical reasons. Guess how much money those folks gave him for his election campaign? Zero. Of course, these same folks like to be big shots with other people’s money (OPM). I’m sure if they could have figured out a way to use the downtown tax district’s money in Tom’s campaign, they’d have been all over it.
Also in the rearview mirror is the so-called Dusenbery “ethics” case. People have asked for my take, and I’ve given it to them. I don’t agree with the Ethics Commission when they say she acted improperly, and I think the mayor was wrong to say she made a mistake.
The ordinance does not say that a sitting mayor cannot respond to campaign literature that talks about her actions in office. The ordinance states that representatives of the board or employees of the city cannot claim to represent the city in election matters. Every lawyer I spoke with in the last few weeks agreed. If the law does say that, I was told, it should be changed. Note to Mayor Richardson: That law needs to either be changed or made more clear. We can’t have people trying to hijack the election process every year over this sort of chicanery.
For those hoping to bloody Dusenbery in the matter, the opposite has happened. It has galvanized her District 1 County Commission support, and if you saw her list of supporters in her thank-you advertisement a few weeks ago, you’d know it’s an impressive list. According to the last campaign financials submitted by both Dusenbery (the Republican) and Bill Quitmeier (the Democrat), Dusenbery is outraising Quitmeier nearly 2-1. After her fundraiser at Don Julian’s in Riss Lake, that number may easily balloon to 3-1.
But her success has, once again, exposed the rift in the Platte County Republican Party that has festered ever since Tom Pryor defeated Michael Short for commissioner in the 2004 election.
Dusenbery has shored up her support of the Parkville businessmen and moderate Platte County Republicans, but she has struggled to make inroads with the conservatives. Some of that is by design: Dusenbery thought she was in for a primary fight against outgoing District 1 Commissioner Tom Pryor, so she went the other way – going so far as to hire a Democratic Party strategist for her campaign.
The feisty Quitmeier — whom many Democrats hope will reverse the Republican advantage enjoyed in many of the past commission elections – has been openly courting the right wing of the Platte County Republican Party. Republican District 6 Chairman James Thomas – the guy behind the guy behind Congressman Sam Graves – confirmed to me the other day that Quitmeier actually had the brass to send him a fundraising letter.
Look, it’s one thing to be bipartisan, it’s another to have party envy. Either be a Republican or a Democrat and get on with it already.
The right wing in Platte County, led by Thomas, of course don’t want Quitmeier to win, but it does want Dusenbery to eject the Democrat from her campaign. The center doesn’t want Dusenbery playing nice with the right. Congressman Graves is no doubt waiting on Quitmeier’s call. We can’t wait to see what’s next.
My advice? Stay committed to your decisions but flexible in your approach.