Congressman William Lacy Clay, Jr. (D-Mo.) will hold a House joint oversight hearing on hand-held devices meant to collect data for the 2010 US Census that were deemed faulty.

Recently the Secretary of Commerce called for a major change in the design of new hand-held, electronic census gathering technology partly because of failures in the equipment. Because of these flaws, the cost of the 2010 census may increase by $2.2 to $3 billion.

Clay has pushed the department on its failures in the Field Data Collection Automation Program, created for the devices. The hearing will take place Wednesday at 2 p.m. in Washington, D.C.

Reporters at Congressional Quarterly Online are taking a peak at some Missouri Republican strongholds that may be ripe for the picking by Democrat insurgents.

CQ singles out two prime House races in the sixth district, consisting of the rural northwest as well as portions of Kansas City and its suburbs, and the ninth featuring northeast Missouri and Columbia.

The sixth district race stars a four-term Republican incumbent Rep. Sam Graves fighting to stave off former Kansas City Mayor, Democrat opponent Kay Barnes. The fight for the ninth is a nonagon battle royal, featuring no less than five Republicans and four Democrats including current Republican Rep. John Hulshof who’s absconded away to run for governor, leaving his district exposed.

The GOPers are state Reps. Bob Onder and Danie Moore; Brock Olivo, a pro-footballer and Mizzou alum; and former state Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer. The Dems consist of state Rep. Judy Baker, county commissioner Lyndon Bode, Steve Gaw, the former state House Speaker, and Ken Jacob, who lost a Democratic primary for lieutenant governor in 2004.

Like with many Dem. versus GOP battles squaring up for the fall, fund-raising is the dog whistle of potential trouble-a-brewin’.

With more than $1 million raised and $743,000 cash on hand through the end of 2007, Barnes is among the best-funded candidates who are challenging incumbents of the opposite party. Republicans, though, are painting Barnes as a “big-city mayor” and touting Graves’ roots in rural northwestern Missouri. Graves is also well-funded, having reported $1.2 million in receipts and $868,000 cash on hand as of Dec. 31.

Hulshof waited until late January to announce his bid for governor, so most of the candidates to succeed him got off to a fairly late fundraising start. The only exception was Democrat Baker, who entered the race last year as a possible challenger to Hulshof and raised $103,000 by Dec. 31. Candidates in this and all other House races are due to file their next campaign finance reports to the Federal Election Commission by April 15 for activity through March 31.

CQ doesn’t like the Dems chances in other places in Missouri, ranking the Show-Me-State as a righty, hence singling out these districts as the Dems best chances in the GOP’s Fortress of Conservative Missourian Solitude.

Congressman Wm. Lacy Clay (D-St. Louis) today blasted House Republicans as they once again failed to join with the Democratic majority to override President Bush’s veto of the expanded State Children’s Health Insurance Program. The effort failed by just 15 votes.

“Today, President Bush and House Republicans stood between 3.8 million additional children who would be covered by SCHIP and the health care they need.,” said Congressman Clay. “Over 56,000 children of hardworking Missouri families will remain uninsured because the President and the Republican minority continue to refuse to cover them. That is indefensible, especially when the economy is teetering on the brink of a recession. One of the most irresponsible things we could do is to leave millions of children uninsured as their parents struggle with foreclosures, layoffs, and higher prices for gas, utilities and groceries. As a parent, I want every child in this country to grow up healthy, with insurance coverage that helps keep them well. There is no excuse for sustaining this veto, and we continue the struggle to cover every child in this nation.”

The legislation vetoed by the President provided a $35 billion expansion of the SCHIP program which would have provided health care coverage to 10 million American children. The existing SCHIP program was extended last December until March 2009. But without this legislation, 3.8 million additional low-income children of working families will not be covered under the program. In addition, state budget shortfalls and administrative rules from President Bush put children who are covered now in jeopardy of losing health care.

Democrat Mike Garman made his bid for the 2nd District Congressional seat official today. The office is currently held by Republican Todd Akin. Garman is the Vice Chairman of the St. Charles County Ambulance District, and he says his campaign will focus heavily on health care issues.

From the press release:

Mike currently holds elected office as Vice Chairman of the Saint Charles County Ambulance District and is the 6th District Director. The 6th District covers parts of Saint Peters and O’Fallon, as well as Lake Saint Louis, Wentzville and Foristell.

Healthcare will be a major issue for Garman’s campaign. With 19 years of experience in the field, Mike is acutely aware of the medical needs facing residents of his district and is an impressive advocate for patients. He noted recent changes in medical insurance that have placed an ever-increasing burden on the elderly and their families.

“Access to the prevention, treatment, and management of disease must be a right, not a privilege,” Garman said. “When I’m elected, I’ll make sure affordable healthcare is available to the good people of the 2nd Congressional District and everyone living in our nation.”

Mike is currently a Radiologic Technologist for Saint John’s Mercy and specializes in Urgent Care Diagnostic Imaging.

Probably best known (as much as he probably wishes he wasn’t) as the “angry black guy” from the first season of the mother of all reality shows, The Real World, hip-hop author Kevin Powell, who is now running for Congress, is coming to St. Louis.

Powell, the former editor of Vibe magazine, is running as a Democrat in the 10th Congressional District in Brooklyn, New York. The invitation to his St. Louis event says that Powell is “widely considered one of America’s most important voices in these early years of the 21st Century.”

Wow! That’s coming a long way from throwing a phone at Julie and claiming that black people can’t be racist because they don’t have power.

Powell will be at the Regional Arts Commission building, 6128 Delmar Blvd, on Monday, November 12, from 6:00 to 8:00 PM.

Republican Chris Sander, a mortgage company executive from Ellisville, has filed to run for Congress against Democrat Russ Carnahan. This is Sanders’ first bid for political office.

Following appearances today by General David Petraeus, the U.S. commander in Iraq, and Ryan Crocker, the U.S. ambassador in Baghdad, before the House Armed Services and Foreign Relations committees, U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill issued the following statement:

“When President Bush asked the American people in January to support a new way forward, he said this surge was going to be about giving the Iraqi people a chance to stabilize. He set forth himself in that speech in January nine benchmarks that he said he would hold the Iraqi government accountable for.

“Unfortunately, so far, we have not heard enough about why these benchmark aren’t being met, and why is it that we have been able to sacrifice as a country now on the ground for longer than our troops fought in World War II, why is it that the Iraq government cannot take meaningful steps towards securing their own country and living with each other.

“I think there is some good news in what General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker have said today – the fact that they acknowledge that drawing down troops is the right way to go.

“But unfortunately, I don’t think there has been enough conversation yet about something other than the two extremes. I don’t think any of us in Washington want an expeditious drawdown of all our troops in Iraq. And on the other hand, I don’t think most people in American want us to continue to stand in the middle of a civil war. I think there is something in between. I will look forward in the hearing tomorrow, I will look forward to questioning General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker, as I know many other senators will, about what would be in between.

“I think the logical thing is to change the mission, to change our mission from securing Iraq and providing stability to that nation to what we really should be doing which is fighting terrorism. We should be fighting terrorism in Iraq with our troops on the ground, but at a much lower level than we have now. And we should be refocusing our troops in other areas of the world where terrorism continues to be a problem, and in fact is growing because we are bogged down in Iraq. There is a better way than what we are doing now.

“I think that General Petraeus – although I think he is an honorable man, and I think both he and Ambassador Crocker are giving their best judgment – they own this strategy on behalf of the commander-in-chief, and they are obligated to defend it. I think there has to be somewhere in between the president’s stubborn opinion that nothing should change and the position of some on the left who believe everything has to change tomorrow. We’ve got to find that middle ground. It’s important to the American people, it’s important to the men and women risking their lives.”

State Representatives Jeanette Mott Oxford (whose birthday is today, according to the Arch City Chronicle) and Jamilah Nasheed recently appeared on a “A Nation Deceived,” a podcast dedicated to discussing the impeachment of President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney.

Listen to the entire show right here…

This year, Nasheed sponsored, and Oxford co-sponsored, HCR 46 calling for Congress to impeach Bush and Cheney. The resolution never got a hearing.

In Congress, St. Louis Congressman Lacy Clay is a co-sponsor of House Resolution 333, calling for the impeachment of the Vice President. Last year, Clay was one of 33 Democrats to co-sponsor a resolution seeking to investigate grounds for impeaching President Bush.

THOSE MISSING EMAILS - Congressman Lacy Clay may have a lot of work headed his way very soon.

A report released Monday by the House Oversight Committee found that the GOP email server used by White House Officials has not retained all of the emails sent through it. As some of the missing emails cover official business, the failure to retain those messages constitutes a breach of the Presidential Records Act.

The Information Policy, Census and National Archives Subcommittee, of which Clay is the chairman, oversees the Presidential Records Act.

VYING FOR VILLA’S SEAT - St. Louis Young Democrat Jake Hummel has announced that he will run for the 108th district seat of Rep. Tom Villa, who must vacate his seat due to term limits.

Hummel is an electrician with IBEW Local 1 and the Vice President of the St. Louis City Labor Legislative Club. His campaign’s kick-off is at 5:30 PM this evening at the IBEW Local 1 Hall, 5850 Elizabeth Street.

KEEPING IT IN THE FAMILY - State Rep. Fred Kratky has announced that he will step down from his seat in the State House early, and that he wants his wife, Michele Kratky, to take his place.

His departing wish isn’t necessarily a sure-thing, however, as Michele Kratky still needs to win the nomination of the Democratic party in order to have a chance to take her husband’s former legislative position and finish his current term.

Louisiana Congressman William Jefferson was indicted today on federal charges of racketeering, soliciting bribes and money-laundering. Readers may recall that back in 2005, the FBI raided Jefferson’s home and found $90,000 in cash in his freezer.

According to the AP, the 63-year-old Democrat maintains his innocence. He was re-elected last year despite the looming investigation.

Back in September, PubDef.net photographed Jefferson in a happier moment, “Electric Sliding” with California Congresswoman (and St. Louis native) Maxine Waters in Washington D.C.

Click here to read today’s FBI press release.