A circuit court judge ruled last Wednesday that State Rep. Connie Johnson cannot appear on the ballot as a candidate for state senate because she doesn’t meet the residency requirement.

Johnson was sued by State Rep. Robin Wright-Jones, another candidate for the 5th District senate seat. Johnson’s removal would make the August 5th contest a two-person race, between Wright-Jones and the frontrunner, State Rep. Rodney Hubbard.*

But not so fast! Johnson says she plans to appeal the judge’s decision. This statement comes from her attorney, Rufus Tate:

We are disappointed. However, Representative Johnson is a lawmaker. Ultimately, she believes in the rule of law and judicial restraint. Therefore, I have been instructed to proceed with a notice of appeal, request to stay the circuit court order, and a request for an expedited appeal, including oral arguments.

Our legal position has not changed. Representative Johnson is and has always been a resident of the 61st legislative district; she has never abandoned her domicile at 5969 Tara Lane. To suggest that Rep. Johnson would have purchased this house on Maple for any reason other than to accommodate her mother’s increasing medical needs is to ignore incontrovertible evidence. We wouldn’t be having this conversation but for pressing medical needs of her mother.

Juxtaposing the Supreme Court ruling in the “Kit” Bond case and the Court of Appeal’s decision in the Jennings city councilman case with this one causes us concern.

We are also very concerned with whether the circuit court exceeded its jurisdiction to hear the matter. Section 115.531 RSMo required a hearing to begin not later than April 29, 2008. That did not happen because the Contestant was not ready to try the case. That unreadiness should have proven decisive for the Contestant in the circuit court. The law is plain and unambiguous. When you file a primary election contest petition, you better be ready to go to trial immediately. That is not open to debate.

The process has been taxing emotionally and financially. Justice has been too long delayed. We do not feel that the matter of jurisdiction has been sufficiently addressed so far. Therefore, we will have to wait a little while longer for justice in either the Court of Appeals, Eastern District or the Supreme Court.

UPDATE: This response comes from the other party in the case, Robin Wright-Jones:

Yesterday, Missouri Circuit Judge Russell Long issued the ruling that Representative Connie Johnson, because of Representative Johnson’s residency in the 5th Senatorial District was not
established that she shall be removed from the ballot as a candidate for Senator of the Missouri’s
5th Senatorial District. Judge Long’s ruling was based on the evidence presented during the trial.
This ruling is a victory for the people of Missouri and the 5th Senatorial District.

I am strongly committed to representing the values of those that live and work in the district.
There is absolutely no room in our government, and particularly with our elected officials, for
misdeeds, deception or fraud. This is particularly true where the standard for those working in the
corridors of the institutions where laws are proposed and passed should meet the highest morale
principles. I promise that I will meet and even exceed the highest principles possible. I will not
engage in any behavior that will sullen the image of my office or negatively diminish my ability to
do my work on behalf of my constituents. I invite all the other candidates running for public office,
particularly the other candidate running for Missouri’s 5th Senatorial District office to do the same.

Upon being elected to the Senate, I will preserve that integrity with fair and honest
representation. It’s time now to run this primary race.

*Hubbard is a client of PubDef.net publisher, Antonio D. French

Father Michael Pfleger, a Roman Catholic priest and social activist in Chicago, was interviewed last month by Fox News. His honest commentary on the character assassination of Rev. Jeremiah Wright, the villainization of Minister Louis Farrakhan, and America’s false image of Dr. Martin Luther King is well worth watching.

Senator Barack Obama was in Missouri today. He delivered a speech (posted below) in Cape Girardeau, the heart of the conservative southeast section of our state. Here’s the video:

Several Missouri Republican leaders used Obama’s appearance in the state as an opportunity to slam him as a “raise-your-taxes, increase-the-bureaucracy” Democrat who is too left of Missouri values. Here’s audio from a conference call today with Lt. Governor Peter Kinder, Congresswoman Jo Ann Emerson, and Republican Chairman Doug Russell.

AUDIO: GOP Conference Call on Obama Visit

Kinder, a Cape Girardeau native, went further by releasing the following statement:

Obama’s visit to Cape Girardeau cannot hide the fact that his call for increasing taxes would hurt Missourians already struggling with out-of-control health care costs and higher gas prices. We must keep Missouri’s economy strong by keeping the government and Barack Obama out of our pocketbooks. The problem for Missourians like you and me is that Obama’s solution to every problem is bigger government, more government and higher taxes. Missourians will not accept someone who wants to increase the payroll tax and increase the capital gains tax and even increase the tax on gasoline. My friends, we do not want to go down this road!

I also remember, as many of you do, that Barack Obama told his liberal friends not too long ago in San Francisco that folks like those in Southeast Missouri were bitter and clinging to our Second Amendment rights and our religion. I am sure that Southeast Missourians will have a lot to say to Barack Obama about those elitist comments, and many other issues as well.

What I find particularly intriguing is that recently, the liberal New York Times did not tab Missouri as a bellwether state despite our knack over the last 100-plus years of picking presidents. It is my suspicion that the New York Times has concluded that a liberal like Barack Obama cannot win Missouri, and from where many of us in Southeast Missouri are sitting, they are probably right.

Here, as promised, is the text of Obama’s speech:

It’s great to be here in Missouri with my good friend Claire McCaskill. This is a state that voted for change when you sent Claire to the Senate in 2006; you voted for change in February when we surprised the pundits and pulled out a victory; and this is a state where we will compete to win when I am the Democratic nominee for President.

There is a lot of talk these days about how the Democratic Party is divided. But I’m not worried, because I know that we’ll be able to come together quickly behind a common purpose. There’s too much that unites us as Democrats. There’s too much at stake for our country. And there will be a clear choice on November 4.

Now there’s one thing we know for sure about this election. The name George Bush will not be on the ballot. The name of my cousin Dick Cheney will not be on the ballot. But while the Bush-Cheney ticket won’t be up for reelection, the Bush-Cheney policies will, because John McCain is running for four more years of the same approach that has failed the American people.

There is a reason that a record number of Americans think that we’re on the wrong track. We’ve lost hundreds of thousands of jobs just this year. The cost of everything from health care, to a tank of gas, to college tuition has skyrocketed while wages have stayed stagnant. Millions of American families are facing foreclosure. We’re spending tens of billions of dollars fighting a war that should’ve never been authorized and never been waged.

Meanwhile, Americans have lost faith that Washington can or will do anything about problems they face day in and day out. Because the troubling statistics only begin to tell a story found in communities and at kitchen tables across the country. It’s a story of empty factories shut down forever because the jobs have been shipped overseas and nothing took their place. It’s the story told by a mother who can’t sleep because she can’t afford health care for her sick child; a father who lost his job but can’t afford a tank of gas so that he can look for a new one; a family that doesn’t know where they’ll be living in a month or a year because they’re about to lose a home.

It’s a story of an American Dream that is slipping away. And what the American people need at this defining moment is leadership that restores the fundamental American belief that you can make it if you try in this country – that your dreams matter more than the demands of special interests or the convenience of political posturing. That’s why I’m running for President. That’s why we’ll be united as Democrats. Because Washington has failed the American people, and this election is our chance to turn the page.

John McCain has served his country with honor, and I respect that service. But for two decades, he has supported policies that have shifted the burden on to working people. And his only answer to the problems created by George Bush’s policies is to give them another four years to fail. Just look at where he stands and you’ll see that a vote for John McCain is a vote for George Bush’s third term.

Four more years of George Bush’s tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans who don’t need them and didn’t ask for them.

Four more years of a health care plan that works for the healthy and the wealthy while tens of millions go without care, and families struggle with rising costs.

Four more years of a President who supports privatizing Social Security.

Four more years of a war that has cost us thousands of lives and a trillion dollars without making us safer, while we run up a mountain of debt that is mortgaging our children’s future.

Four more years of a White House that is run by the kind of lobbyists who run John McCain’s campaign, while Washington tells the American people – “you’re on your own.”

Well we know that the American people cannot afford any more of the Bush-McCain program. Not this time. Not when the stakes are so high. Not when the opportunities are so great. We need a new direction in Washington. We need new leadership in the White House.

We know that government cannot solve all of our problems, and we don’t expect it to. We don’t want our tax dollars wasted on programs that don’t work or perks for special interests that don’t work for us. We understand that we cannot stop every job from going overseas or build a wall around our economy, and we know we shouldn’t.

But that is not an excuse to spend another four years doing nothing to reclaim the American Dream for working people. We’re the nation that built the largest middle class in history. We all have a stake in each other’s success. We can’t continue an economic program that rewards Wall Street at the expense of Main Street because then we all end up hurting. It’s time to end a failed approach that tries to build prosperity from the top down, and renew our common prosperity from the bottom up.

Instead of a tax code that rewards wealth and not work, we’ll provide an income tax cut of up to $1,000 for a working family, and eliminate income taxes altogether for any retiree making less than $50,000 per year.

Instead of more inaction on health care, we’ll finally bring this country together, stand up to the drug companies and insurance companies, and make health care affordable and accessible for every single American.

Instead of putting a secure retirement at risk, we’ll safeguard Social Security, we’ll protect pensions instead of CEO bonuses, and we’ll help all Americans save more so they can have a retirement that is dignified and secure.

Instead of gimmicks like a gas tax holiday that rewards the oil companies while doing nothing to lower gas prices in the long-term, we’ll raise fuel efficiency standards, invest in alternative energy, and create millions of Green Jobs that will free this country from our addiction to oil.

Instead of a blank check to fight an endless war in Iraq, we can end this war, restore our military, finish the fight against al Qaeada, and invest some of those dollars to put millions of Americans to work rebuilding our roads and bridges, laying down new rail lines and new broadband, and making sure that all of America can compete and win in the 21st century.

That’s the new direction we need in this country. The other party has already decided to run on the failed policies of the past; that’s why we need to be the party that stands for the future. Everywhere I go, I meet Americans who can’t wait another day for change. Change that refuses to let lobbyists drown out the voices of the American people.. Change that puts folks back to work. Change that finally delivers on the promise of health care you can afford, and an energy policy that makes sense. Change that leaves behind partisanship that stands in the way of progress, because we’re all in this together as Americans.

This is our chance to build a new majority of Democrats and Independents and Republicans who know that four more years of George Bush just won’t do. This is our moment to turn the page on the divisions and distractions that pass for politics in Washington, so that we can write the next chapter in the history of American prosperity for all Americans.

St. Louis City Treasurer Larry Williams is very likely on his way to his seventh term as the czar of city parking, so it is understandable that he, being the responsible financial stalwart that he is, wouldn’t want to spend too much on campaign literature. But Williams’ latest campaign handout has left more than a few people unnecessarily worried about the welfare of our fair treasurer.

“Who died?” asked one person who saw the piece on my desk.

The front of the four-page campaign brochure looks eerily like a funeral program.

Click here to download a PDF of the piece.