Sunday, October 25, 2020
Watch the Debate Between MO SD 19 Candidate Judy Baker and MO SD 19 Sen. Incumbent Caleb Rowden
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
ABC 17 News aired a debate Oct. 8th, between two political veterans seeking a contested state Senate seat Wednesday.
State Sen. Caleb Rowden, R-Columbia, and Democratic challenger Judy Baker faced off in the debate televised on KMIZ. Watch a replay of the debate in the player below.
Rowden served multiple terms in the House before winning election to the Senate in 2016. Baker has also represented Columbia in the House and run unsuccessfully for Congress and state treasurer.
Former Sen. Claire McCaskill Defends MO Sen. Candidate Judy Baker
Former Sen. Claire McCaskill defends Judy Baker in impromptu press conference
By Langston Newsome
Columbia Daily Tribune
Clair McCaskill Defends MNEA MO Sen. Candidate Judy Baker
Former U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill held a press conference in Columbia on Thursday to defend state Senate candidate Judy Baker against “terribly unfair” and “dishonest” attack advertisements.
The appearance at the Boone County Courthouse plaza took place less than 24 hours after Wednesday’s state Senate debate between Baker and Majority Floor Leader Caleb Rowden, R-Columbia.
The political campaign ads allege that McCaskill accused Baker of “bad management practices” that cost taxpayers nearly $2 million in 2002.
McCaskill strongly refutes that claim.
McCaskill, the then-Missouri state auditor, concluded that “the University Hospital and Clinics lost almost $10 million in revenues due to insurance denials and other write-offs that could have been prevented. The University Physicians (UP) also lost over $2 million for similar reasons” in an audit of the University of Missouri’s health care system from July 1999 through January 2002.
Baker served as interim director of the University of Missouri’s University Physicians practice plan in 2001.
“He’s lying in those ads about me and about Judy Baker,” McCaskill said of Rowden on Thursday. “... The facts behind that audit are very simple. That audit began before Judy Baker ever worked for the University Physicians group and in fact, for seven months of the audit period, Judy Baker had nothing to do with that group.”
McCaskill also said that Baker was hired to help solve the issues cited in the state’s audit. Those problems included issues related to billings, accounts receivables and credits within University Physicians.
“To say that I criticized her for a problem that she was hired to fix – well that’s just lying,” McCaskill said.
The Rowden campaign doubled down on its position on McCaskill’s audit in a statement issued Thursday.
“Partisanship can’t stand in the way of facts,” the statement reads. “I understand the statements Claire McCaskill made as Auditor are inconvenient today to her political preference. However, her statements were factual then and they are factual now.”
McCaskill also refuted claims that Baker personally profited during the rollout of the Affordable Care Act while serving as a regional director for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
The reason for scheduling the press conference was to help correct the record after seeing the attack ads, McCaskill said. She did not notify Baker beforehand.
Though McCaskill speaking out in defense of Baker comes right after the only 19th District Senate debate, the 2002 audit in question was not discussed during the forum.
“We stand behind Auditor McCaskill’s audit — even if MSNBC political commentator McCaskill won’t,” Rowden’s campaign statement reads.
Sunday, October 4, 2020
Vote NO on Amendment 3!
Missouri Constitutional Amendment
NO on Constitutional Amendment 3
Amendment 3 is a trick by politicians in the Missouri legislature to undo the groundbreaking ethics reforms passed by Missouri voters in 2018. It would alter the lines drawn for legislative districts in Missouri, allowing the most hyper-partisan and gerrymandered maps since Mississippi (circa 1972). If Amendment 3 were to become law, children would no longer count for the purposes of determining population in legislative districts.
NO on Constitutional Amendment 3
Amendment 3 is a trick by politicians in the Missouri legislature to undo the groundbreaking ethics reforms passed by Missouri voters in 2018. It would alter the lines drawn for legislative districts in Missouri, allowing the most hyper-partisan and gerrymandered maps since Mississippi (circa 1972). If Amendment 3 were to become law, children would no longer count for the purposes of determining population in legislative districts.
The Dirty Missouri Amendment has been condemned by civil rights leaders, community leaders, and citizens who were part of the 2018 campaign to outlaw gerrymandering.
The growing list of Dirty Missouri opponents
The politicians’ attempt to overturn the will of Missouri voters — and to force a radical gerrymandering scheme into our state constitution — has already been condemned by editorial boards across the state. Read for yourself:
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