Calling All Third-Party Candidates

Posted on by David Stokes

Missourinet has an interesting story about the Constitution Party in Missouri (link via Mr. Durrwachter-Combest). Because the party hit the 2-percent statewide vote threshold in the recent state treasurer’s race, it is now poised to receive automatic ballot access in Missouri.

Ballot access status is one of the more important and underconsidered issues for third parties. Until you have it, you must spend a great deal of time gathering signatures merely to get on the ballot — time that would be much better spent trying to convince people that your ideas are worthy of their vote. A very smart way to do this is to run candidates in races in which one of the two major parties sits out. The Green Party has figured this out in the city of Saint Louis, where it has run candidates in races where no Republican files. In those cases, they get votes from all types of people who show up to vote and don’t want to support the establishment candidate, and it has been easy for them to hit the threshold for ballot access in city elections. Now they don’t have to waste time gathering signatures, but can actually try to get people to vote for them.

Now, I am not a supporter of a third party, but it is just as easy a move to pull in strongly GOP districts where no Democrat files. If Green or Libertarian Party candidates file against a Republican with no Democrat opposition, they can readily expect to get a certain number of votes from Dems who show up with nobody to support. Then they can spend less time in supermarket parking lots getting people to sign their candidacy petitions, and more time in supermarket parking lots trying to convince people that their third-party ideals aren’t insane. Isn’t democracy fun!

Reason Talks About Truck-Only Lanes in Missouri

Posted on by David Stokes

From the latest email edition of Surface Transportation Innovations, by Robert Poole of the Reason Foundation:

Progress on Truck Toll Lanes

In September I chaired a panel on truck-only toll lanes at the ARTBA Public-Private Ventures conference. In addition to overview discussions on the federal Corridors of the Future program and the general concept of truck toll lanes, two presentations focused on specific project proposals, one long-haul and the other urban.

The long-haul project would add truck-only lanes (almost certainly tolled) to I-70 across four states: Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio. That would serve the important truck corridor from the multimodal centers of Kansas City on the west to Columbus (and a bit beyond) on the east. Presenter Steve Wells summarized the current supplemental environmental impact study that HNTB is conducting for Missouri DOT on the truck lanes concept. MoDOT has conducted public opinion research which found strong support for the widening of I-70 to be accomplished via truck-only lanes.

Defining Terms

Posted on by Eric D. Dixon

There tends to be occasional confusion in the media about how exactly to pigeonhole the Show-Me Institute. One of the most common inaccurate labels is “conservative,” and “right-wing” would probably take second place. We’ve always been careful to distinguish ourselves as a “free-market” think tank — but many people aren’t sure what that entails, either, presuming it to be perhaps a dissembling appellation for corporate apologists. But, as famed economist Milton Friedman put it, “There’s a common misconception that people who are in favor of a free market are also in favor of everything that big business does. Nothing could be further from the truth.”

Over at Cato Unbound this week, philosophy professor Roderick Long has written an essay that outlines some crucial differences between free markets and state-supported corporatism (link, along with some thoughtful commentary, via my pal Wirkman Virkkala). Essays of response and discussion will be posted online presumably every day or two throughout the next couple of weeks, as per the usual Cato Unbound format. In today’s essay, though, Long got off to a powerful start:

Corporations tend to fear competition, because competition exerts downward pressure on prices and upward pressure on salaries; moreover, success on the market comes with no guarantee of permanency, depending as it does on outdoing other firms at correctly figuring out how best to satisfy forever-changing consumer preferences, and that kind of vulnerability to loss is no picnic. It is no surprise, then, that throughout U.S. history corporations have been overwhelmingly hostile to the free market. Indeed, most of the existing regulatory apparatus—including those regulations widely misperceived as restraints on corporate power—were vigorously supported, lobbied for, and in some cases even drafted by the corporate elite.

It’s no coincidence that the Show-Me Institute’s board of directors designated that one of our six policy areas would study the adverse effects of corporate welfare.

Price Gouging

Posted on by Sarah Brodsky

When the sky darkens and the wind starts to howl, you know what that means: another storm. What happens when the rain or hail stops is equally predictable. There’s a shortage of in-demand goods, and prices go up — then people complain about price gouging.

Over at Knowledge Problem, Michael Giberson has a great post about price fluctuations in response to shortages. He points out that the only way for a store or gas station to stay open and on the right side of the law is to charge high prices all year round.

You’d hope people would conclude that price controls are a bad idea, not that we need more of them. But just in case, Giberson ends with this message:

I’m intending to point out a potential absurdity in the way price gouging laws work, not trying to suggest that the state government become even more involved in fixing prices.

A Good Kind of License

Posted on by Sarah Brodsky

Missouri licenses all kinds of occupations, ranging from geologists to marital counselors. I’m not a fan of state licensure because it keeps out competition and makes professionals conform to bureaucratic standards. Fortunately, there’s a better kind of licensing out there — the kind offered by private organizations.

This is a great example from the Post-Dispatch: certified lactation consultants. You have to take a course and pass an exam to receive the certification from a non-profit board. This could be a useful credential for someone seeking employment in a hospital. At the same time, an experienced mom can be a consultant, too, without acquiring either this certification or a license from the state.

New Charter Schools to Watch For

Posted on by Sarah Brodsky

Two language immersion charter schools, focusing on French and Spanish, are scheduled to open in St. Louis during 2009. When they say “immersion,” they really mean it — no English class until third grade! As should be noted with regard to all charter schools, this model isn’t right for every child — but for families that want early language instruction, it’s a wonderful opportunity. The new charters have a website and even a blog. I’m expecting good things from them, and I hope we’ll see new schools opening to teach additional languages as educational choices expand in Missouri.

The Stock Market Game

Posted on by Sarah Brodsky

In the past, I’ve been skeptical of The Stock Market Game. I thought the curriculum neglected basic principles of investing and gave students the erroneous impression that they can predict the future and pick winners in the stock market. Now, I’ve changed my mind. As reported in the Post-Dispatch, This team at McKinley Classical Leadership Academy has clearly learned from the program:

Lissner, president of Acropolis Investment Management, has studied the market for more than 30 years. Papes, who attends McKinley Middle School in St. Louis, has been purchasing imaginary stocks for about a month.

At this point, their financial philosophies are pretty much the same.

“You just have to be lucky,” said Papes, whose class has been playing the Stock Market Game for the past four weeks.

There are a few more great quotes in the article about the random nature of stock prices and the futility of active management. This is inspiring news from a public school in St. Louis, and it’s also some of the best financial analysis I’ve seen from a newspaper in a long time.

Jefferson City Leadership and Saint Louis

Posted on by David Stokes

The leadership teams that both parties will have during the next two years in Jefferson City have been announced. It is striking — not necessarily bad, but striking — that for the 21 leadership positions chosen in both houses by both parties, exactly one went to someone from either St. Louis County or city, reports the Star‘s Prime Buzz. That’s one position out of 21 for an area that contains one fourth of the population of the entire state. (Even more on game days, especially those rare Sundays in September when both the Rams and the Cards play at home.)

I realize a little explanation can partly explain this:

  • All three Republican senators that solely represent portions of St. Louis County or city (assuming one holds on after the recount) were just elected this week, so they will be freshmen.

  • If you were to look past leadership positions to committee assignments, I think you would find a number of GOP House members from St. Louis County (Icet, Bivins, etc.) heading important committees next year.

  • During the past session, both Senate leaders were from St. Louis (Gibbons and Coleman), so maybe it’s just a little flow of the political tides.

  • Senate Democrat leadership does have a St. Louisan in the number two spot.

Which really just leads me to ask: Why don’t the House Democrats have anyone from St. Louis in leadership? Perhaps everyone with any seniority at all ran for higher office (Hubbard, Donnelly, Zweifel, Page, Wright-Jones, and probably a few more), and the choices from St. Louis were limited. But considering the overwhelming support for the Democrat ticket in the city, and how most of the gains that the House Democrats made were in St. Louis County, you would think there would be a spot somewhere for a St. Louisan. Maybe I need to remember, though, that we are a statewide think tank, and I should stop being so provincial. …

Two other asides from election day are worthy of posting here, without getting too partisan:

  • I can prove my non-partisan bona fides by the fact that I did vote for one victorious Democrat. I voted for my incumbent state rep because he was A) unopposed and B) is also a very nice person, and a genuinely dedicated public servant (as well as a reader of this blog), so I was pleased to give him my vote. One of these days, I am going to make it to his morning forums at the Pasta House. …

  • I spent election night in 1994 in Chicago. Since then, I have hung out on every major election night with two wonderful friends, Sherman and Tom. Well, I had a great time this year in Kirkwood with Tom (along with my family, until my wife took the baby home). We ended the night perfectly at PJ’s Tavern, after hanging at Allendale, before I took a cab home to University City. (Election nights like Tuesday require a fair amount of drinking.) But it did hit me several times on election day that Sherman was no longer with us, and it reminded me how much I miss him.
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