So instead of putting up film from his victory party of him talking about his goals as assessor, I thought you'd like to hear something about the man himself. Because you know there's more to him than just the politician.
Jake expressed that kind opinion of Chip Wood to me several weeks back. He's sincere about it. And it tells me that he understands what filling a nonpartisan post means.
As for Megan, I wouldn't know how sincere he is since he hasn't discussed her with me. But I'm betting he meant every word.
In a last minute effort to get the unions to pour money and effort into his election bid, Jake Zimmerman goes nuts screaming about Scott Walker and the Wisconsin unions.
He makes Jake sound pretty desperate, doesn't he?--right before admitting that Jake's going to win the race.
Zimmerman, with the help of hundreds of thousands of dollars, is a heavy favorite to win today. In this clip, he exposes himself as the far left paid for union lawyer he always was.
Aside from the fact that the writer can't decide whether Jake is a desperate beggar or a shoo in, he also assumes Jake is crooked. His rationale for that accusation is that Jake associates with, gasp, unions. Wait now. The right wingers on SCOTUS made it possible with the Citizens United decision for corporations to inundate elections with their money. But if and when any left wing guy actually gets ahead in the money race, rare though that may be, that makes him bought-and-paid-for. Because union money stinks.
Blink.
I rarely read right wingers. They're too fact-challenged and juvenile. And this posting at 24th State is one more reminder of that truth.
I've never heard anyone do this convincing a job of explaining why every piddly-assed April election matters.
Think maybe the union diehards like Jake Zimmerman?
He was speaking at a 'We Are One' rally at the Communication Workers union hall in St. Louis County Monday afternoon. I'll post pics and interviews from that event next.
The office of St. Louis County Assessor--which will be an elective office as of April 5th for the first time ever--is not and should not be partisan. The winner of that election should leave his party affiliation at the door, and I have no reason to suppose that Republican L.K. (Chip)--you gotta love that nickname--Wood or Democrat Jake Zimmerman will do otherwise. Like many taxpayers, they both believe that the office has been drunk on high handedness.
Jake--since Zimmerman's website calls him Jake, so will I--tells the tale he got from a friend of his, a progressive guy:
someone who likes paying his taxes. He just thought the assessor's office got it wrong. You know, they took a snapshot at a particular time in the real estate market, and he said 'Look, I've got the facts, I've got the sale value of the house down the street, and I can tell you, my house is not worth this much.' And he knew that he would win during the appeals process, so he went in not during the appeals process but in the initial stage, the informal hearing, when the assessor's staff has the opportunity to say, 'you know what, you're right, we're gonna change it.' And he goes and he meets with the woman and he very carefully lays all this out and he gives her the documentation. And she says, 'You know I think you may be right, but the law says we can do it this way, so we're going to do it this way.' [With his wicked grin, Jake twirls a finger in the air and in a high pitched voice hoots at the stupidity of it, then continues his story.] And the guy says 'Look. I knew I was going to win. I had to go to the Board of Equalization, but once I got there, it took five minutes. I gave them the documentation, they said of course you're right, and they reduced my assessment.'
The question is, why was he forced to jump through a totally unnecessary bureaucratic hoop? It's not like it saved the assessor's office any time. It's not like it made the process more efficient. It's not like St. Louis County got any more money out of it at the end of the day. That's just public management stuff.
C051130 02/11/2011 CITIZENS FOR JAKE ZIMMERMAN Sandy Rothschild & Associates 7751 Carondelet Ave. St Louis MO 63105 2/10/2011 $2,500.00
C051130 02/11/2011 CITIZENS FOR JAKE ZIMMERMAN Stone, Leyton & Gershman 7733 Forsyth Blvd. St Louis MO 63105 2/10/2011 $5,000.00
C051130 02/11/2011 CITIZENS FOR JAKE ZIMMERMAN AT&T Missouri Employee PAC One AT&T Center St Louis MO 63101 2/10/2011 $1,000.00
C051130 02/11/2011 CITIZENS FOR JAKE ZIMMERMAN Electrical Workers Voluntary Political 5850 Elizabeth Ave. St Louis MO 63110 2/11/2011 $1,000.00
C051130 02/11/2011 CITIZENS FOR JAKE ZIMMERMAN One Missouri Fund P.O. Box 16761 St Louis MO 63105 2/11/2011 $1,000.00
C051130 02/11/2011 CITIZENS FOR JAKE ZIMMERMAN Central St. Louis Co. Fire Fighers PAC 115 McMenamy Rd. St Peters MO 63376 2/11/2011 $600.00
C051130 02/11/2011 CITIZENS FOR JAKE ZIMMERMAN Professional Fire Fighters of Eastern MO Local 2665 PAC 115 McMenamy Rd. St Peters MO 63376 2/11/2011 $1,000.00
C051130 02/11/2011 CITIZENS FOR JAKE ZIMMERMAN McCulloch for Prosecutor Committee 928 Kimswick Manor Ln Ballwin MO 63011 2/11/2011 $5,000.00
C051130 02/11/2011 CITIZENS FOR JAKE ZIMMERMAN Kirsten Kaufman 41 Central Park West New York NY 10023 Homemaker 2/10/2011 $1,000.00
C051130 02/11/2011 CITIZENS FOR JAKE ZIMMERMAN Kenton Knickmeyer 10 Douglass Ln St Louis MO 63122 Attorney 2/10/2011 $1,000.00
C051130 02/11/2011 CITIZENS FOR JAKE ZIMMERMAN David Kaplan One PO Box Square Boston MA 02109 Attorney 2/10/2011 $1,000.00
C051130 02/11/2011 CITIZENS FOR JAKE ZIMMERMAN Terry Bloomberg 47 Frontenac Estates Dr St Louis MO 63131 Developmental Child Care 2/11/2011 $2,500.00
C051130 02/11/2011 CITIZENS FOR JAKE ZIMMERMAN Janet ONeal 2214 Lakewood Dr. Cape Girardeau MO 63701 Homemaker 2/11/2011 $2,400.00
C051130 02/11/2011 CITIZENS FOR JAKE ZIMMERMAN Stephanie Peterson 129 Lodge Creek Circle Charlottesville VA 22903 Homemaker 2/11/2011 $1,000.00
C051130 02/11/2011 CITIZENS FOR JAKE ZIMMERMAN Patricia Wolkowitz 11581 New London Dr St Louis MO 63141 Retired 2/11/2011 $2,500.00
C051130 02/11/2011 CITIZENS FOR JAKE ZIMMERMAN Kenneth Kranzberg 50 Picardy Ln St Louis MO 63124 Kranson Industries 2/11/2011 $2,000.00
C051130 02/11/2011 CITIZENS FOR JAKE ZIMMERMAN Robert Blitz 61 Portland Dr. Saint Louis MO 63131 Attorney 2/11/2011 $2,500.00
No, those are not the fires of hell swirling around Jake Zimmerman (state rep from Olivette). He spoke a week ago at a picnic, standing rather near the barbecue pit. He urged us to fight back against Republicans between now and November. (If you've never heard Jake speak, you're past due.)
In looking forward to the coming legislative session, State Rep. Jake Zimmerman, D-Olivette, acknowledged that he will be working with a number of unhinged members of the Missouri House. He waved Cynthia Davis aside as by no means the most wackadoodle of them and called to the attention of the audience at West County Dems two Republicans who have outdone even Cynthia.
Jim Guest, R-Pluto (pictured at right), believes that the government has been implanting electromagnetic chips in citizens' brains in order to control them and torture them. Blink. This assertion was striking enough to get Guest a mention in a New York Times article about a British psychologist who tracks the crazies on the internet. Unfazed by the notoriety of one of its members, the House leadership, as Fired Up! points out, has granted Guest tacit support by appointing him chair of the Real ID and Privacy Committee.
Ed Emery, R-Lamar, is out there too. In 2006, he inserted language into a special committee report claiming that abortion causes illegal immigration. Seriously. (We've killed so many of our babies that now we have to have Mexican workers come here to fill the gap.) Democrats on the committee refused to sign the report, but nine Republicans signed it.
Zimmerman's reaction?
"It makes complete sense if you're insane. ... These are our colleagues. But that's okay. Such has ever been the way with state legislatures. It wasn't so long ago that an Arizona legislator introduced a bill to change Pi from 3.14159 to 3.10 so that it would be easier for math students.
So anytime Zimmerman is tempted to get impressed with himself, he says:
"I look in the mirror and I remind myself that I make the same salary and have precisely the same job as Jim Guest and Cynthia Davis.
The upside of all their nuttiness is that it's so easy for Democrats to point all that out in campaigns. And besides:
For those of you haven't heard State Rep. Jake Zimmerman (D-Creve Coeur) speak, let me see if I can recreate the experience. He begins discussing a topic by sounding like an Ivy League math professor. Then gradually, almost without you noticing it, he morphs into ... a NASCAR announcer. Yes, definitely. But with wit. And a grin.
At the West County Dems meeting on Monday, he started his analysis of the race for Bond's U.S. Senate seat in the measured tone of a Harvard professor--with only the name he gave an imaginary Republican candidate belying his seriousness:
This is likely to be, as we discussed before, a not so hot Democratic year, right? Let us engage in a thought experiment. Let us say that the Republicans had found some random fill-in-the-blank Republican to run against Robin Carnahan. They went to Missouri's heartland, okay? They went to one of those places named after an exotic foreign land, which is where you find all the good Republicans. They went to Warsaw, MO or Versailles, MO, maybe even to California, MO, Cuba, MO. Possibly they went to Houston, MO, which is by the way in Texas County. And once there, they found Eldridge McGrinchypants. And Eldridge McGrinchypants sits on the back of his tractor and dispenses homespun wisdom with just a hint of Paul Bunyan style tall tales. And old Eldrige doesn't have much money in the bank, but by God, Eldridge McGrinchypants knows a thing or two about common sense. Let's suppose that they had found Mr. McGrinchypants and they had invested a couple million dollars in him, which they found from their big donors. They're Republicans. They're good at finding a couple million dollars when they need to.
After Jake Zimmerman regaled the West County Dems with his version of why, at the national level, Democrats and the country are not doomed, he led his remarks on the state scene by wailing in the same mock Old Testament prophet of doom voice as he had for the national scene.
"Jay Nixon is not a Democrat! He's not working on health care for children! He's screwing the city of St. Louis! Nothing good is happening! Republicans control the legislature. They are going to drive us off the cliff! Cynthia Davis is going to make it so that we can't get divorced anymore and God knows what else! Everybody's going to prison! (He paused in the tirade to confide: "That part's true.") "We're DOO-O-O-OOMED!")
Then, morphing back into a 21st century man, Zimmerman smiled and asked the crowd: "Jay Nixon's been dealt a rough hand of cards, hasn't he?" Zimmerman likened it to the hand that Bob Holden was dealt: both governors found themselves in tough economic situations where they were forced to make unpopular budget cuts. And both started off with a "silly scandal." In Holden's case, it was the "one million dollar inauguration"; in Nixon's case, the e. coli outbreak at Lake of the Ozarks. Zimmerman's take on the recent scandal was "I for one am stunned that the Lake of the Ozarks is anything less than crystal clear, pure drinking water."
The real problem for both, of course, is the sick budget. The state of Missouri is in "perpetual structural imbalance." Revenue is fixed, and the only way to get more funds is to go to the voters--who are none too fond of voting for more taxes, especially in the middle of a recession. In both cases, the legislature passed a pie in the sky budget and forced the governor to make the realistic cuts. Holden, for example, because the legislature had overspent, was forced to withhold funds. In the middle of Holden's State of the State address, Rod Jetton stood up and, in Joe Wilson "You lie!" style, yelled: "Release the funds, governor! Release the funds!" The accusation stuck, and Holden owned that problem like an albatross.
State Rep Jake Zimmerman always brings out an SRO crowd at West County Democrat meetings, and Monday's gathering was no exception. Summarizing the feelings of "disconsolate" progressives everywhere, Jake wailed, "We're dooooommed." Truthfully, it's not hard to find things to complain about these days what with Loopy Joe Lieberman gumming up the works on health care reform and the relentless repetition of Sarah Palin's latest nonsense in the media.
But Zimmerman cautioned his audience to take a step back and look at the long view. A year ago, no one had heard of a "public option." The goal was to get more people insured and to put an end to some of the more outrageous acts of venality committed by the insurance companies. And it looks like some of those major goals are going to be achieved soon. Keeping in mind how long it has taken to get to this point, we really should be at least a tad optimistic about the future.
Yes, the filibuster thing is a pain in the..............
Representative Jake Zimmerman (D - 83) introduced a bill to change Missouri election law yesterday:
HB 499 Changes the laws regarding the use of paper ballots at elections
Sponsor: Zimmerman, Jake (83) Proposed Effective Date: 08/28/2009
CoSponsor: Colona, Mike (67) ..........etal. LR Number: 1035L.01I
Last Action: 01/29/2009 - Introduced and Read First Time (H)
HB499
Next Hearing: Hearing not scheduled
House Calendar HOUSE BILLS FOR SECOND READING
To amend chapter 115, RSMo, by adding thereto one new section relating to ballots.
Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the state of Missouri, as follows:
Section A. Chapter 115, RSMo, is amended by adding thereto one new section, to be known as section 115.428, to read as follows:
115.428. 1. For each election in which a state or federal office or measure is on the ballot, each individual who is eligible to cast a vote in the election shall be offered the opportunity to cast their vote using a paper ballot card. It shall be the responsibility of each election authority to provide a sufficient number of paper ballot cards to comply with this section.
2. Any paper ballot card which is cast by an individual under this section shall be counted and otherwise treated as a regular ballot for all purposes, unless the individual casting the ballot would have otherwise been required to cast a provisional ballot.
3. The election authority at each location where ballots are cast shall post in a conspicuous place a notice stating that paper ballot cards are available at that location and that a voter may request to use such a ballot. Such notice shall be printed by the secretary of state as part of the voting instructions required by section 115.417 and provided to the local election authorities.
4. Notwithstanding the provisions of section 115.063, the direct cost incurred by an election authority for the actual physical printing of a sufficient number of paper ballot cards to comply with this section and section 115.247 for all elections in which a state or federal office or measure is on the ballot shall be paid by the state in the manner provided for in section 115.077.
[emphasis added]
That's right, it would require that voters be given the right to request a paper ballot. Why is that so important (aside from the mistrust of electronic touch screen machines in the popular culture)?
I forget whether Friday evening was billed as a banquet. Whatever they called it, I wouldn't call it a banquet. The food, which was strictly incidental, was a rubber chicken buffet--without the chicken. Cold roast beef, sandwiches three times the size of a postage stamp, dice made of cheese, and sliced veggies.
Also incidental were any speeches that were made. Somebody spoke to himself on the microphone for five minutes. I couldn't decipher a word of it at the back of the "banquet" room. No one paid the least attention to him. They were there for the main attraction: each other. It was a chance to network, trade war stories, briefly make the acquaintance of like minded people you'll never see again. Everybody nibbled fried mushrooms from their five inch plates and circulated. In fact, I dropped a fried mushroom and the woman I was talking to--we'll allow her to remain nameless--smiled, picked it up and popped it in her mouth. She was efficient and unembarrassed. I hadda love it.
Jay Nixon spoke for five minutes or so to rally the troops. Maybe three fourths of the people in the room quit talking for that. As soon as he stopped, a couple of hundred conversations resumed. So did the band. Hearing what was said was problematic.
I talked to Ken Jacob and Judy Baker, both vying for Hulshof's seat in the Ninth. Ken likes to split wood. "Like Bush," I said, but Ken explained that he himself chops wood. Bush saws it. OK. Judy's excited about the year and her campaign. But she does moan that she's got to find a way to be less ... "boring." Not that she is. All she means is that she's no fun to gossip about. She should start a rumor that she has ties to organized crime. That'll jazz up her image.
Steve Gaw was there, too, but I didn't get a chance to meet him. Saturday, maybe.
Jake Zimmerman (D-HD 83)is still in the "we might do it" stage of planning a post legislative session fundraiser. A given dollar amount would get you in and give you one vote in the "goofiest Republican bill of the session" contest. Additional money would get you more votes.
Jake is thinking maybe five would be a good number of bills to put in the running. If this fundraiser happens, one of the hottest contenders for the award will have to be the bill filed by Jim Lembke (R-HD 85) banning human-animal hybrids from being developed in Missouri.
How stupid can one man be? Doesn't Lembke realize that it would put Missouri on the world map to have--in the flesh!--a centaur, a satyr, or a minotaur? Sheesh.
But, hey, let's just pray that Pervez Lembke continues idling away his hours coming up with this kind of nutcake idea instead of focusing on impeaching judges who rule the "wrong way" in child custody cases.
The picture is courtesy of Wikipedia, as part of its explanation of the term "tin foil hat".
When Jake Zimmerman spoke at the last West County Dems meeting, he painted himself as a one time St. Louis County Council candidate and then "party-unifying state rep candidate". The crowd laughed, knowing that Temporiti had talked him out of running against Barbara Fraser in the primary for the Council seat and into running for her just vacated state rep seat. Jake joked, "I'm sorry, did I just pat myself on the back?" But joking aside, his point was that Democrats have to find ways to work together to get as many Dems elected as possible.
Don't misunderstand Jake's character. He's not into increasing our numbers just as an exercise in power. Rather, he's thrilled to help write the laws that govern this state. It feels like a childhood dream come true to him, but that dream would be "a heck of a lot more vivid, and in bright, beautiful colors that involve good public policy, if we had a majority in the House of Representatives." It's because he wants the possibility of a passionate debate about policy where he actually has the chance to win, to keep thousands of children from being cut from the Medicaid rolls, for example, that he--and Rachel Storch--have allowed themselves to be tasked with becoming cold and calculating cynics. Think of Rachel as Nancy Pelosi and Jake as a slightly chubby Rahm Emanuel. His job is to look at Mike Garman and to look at Byron DeLear, both running for Akin's seat, and see--not a person in either case--but a turnout machine.
Last Monday, Jake Zimmerman, the Democratic rep from Olivette in St. Louis County, spoke at the West County Dems meeting. But he had nothing of substance to say. He announced that to begin with.
He and Rachel Storch are heading the House DCCC, and, on the assumption that he was speaking to people who already understood the importance of getting Ds elected in this state, he spoke not about policy issues but about his new responsibility to be "a cynic", to calculate coldly what moves will get the most Democrats elected to the Missouri House in 2008.
What follows is close to being a transcript of the first ten minutes of his talk, but his words and mine are so intermingled that I gave up on putting in quotation marks.
The last election showcased a grand strategic debate within the Democratic Party at the national level, and that debate is important to understand, not only for its national implications but also because the same debate is currently playing out at the state level.
The debate involves three universes of people. The first universe is represented by Nancy Pelosi and Rahm Emanuel. Their goal before the 2006 election was short term, to get the Democrats into the majority in the House. The only thing we care about, they'd have said, is immediate victory, because if we control the House, we can stop the Bush agenda and change the direction of the country.
Located in the heart of Westport --
The Original Kansas City
Californo's: Elegant dining in a delightful atmosphere,
located in the heart of Westport
The office of St. Louis County Assessor--which will be an elective office as of April 5th for the first time ever--is not and should not be partisan. The winner of that election should leave his party affiliation at the door, and I have no reason to suppose that Republican L.K. (Chip)--you gotta love that nickname--Wood or Democrat Jake Zimmerman will do otherwise. Like many taxpayers, they both believe that the office has been drunk on high handedness.
In looking forward to the coming legislative session, State Rep. Jake Zimmerman, D-Olivette, acknowledged that he will be working with a number of unhinged members of the Missouri House. He waved Cynthia Davis aside as by no means the most wackadoodle of them and called to the attention of the audience at West County Dems two Republicans who have outdone even Cynthia.
Jim Guest, R-Pluto (pictured at right), believes that the government has been 
For those of you haven't heard State Rep. Jake Zimmerman (D-Creve Coeur) speak, let me see if I can recreate the experience. He begins discussing a topic by sounding like an Ivy League math professor. Then gradually, almost without you noticing it, he morphs into ... a NASCAR announcer. Yes, definitely. But with wit. And a grin.
Jake Zimmerman (D-HD 83)is still in the "we might do it" stage of planning a post legislative session fundraiser. A given dollar amount would get you in and give you one vote in the "goofiest Republican bill of the session" contest. Additional money would get you more votes.
When Jake Zimmerman 
