14,894 Idiots in Johnson County

Counting. We all break things down to make sense of them.

We all know there are Five hundred twenty five thousand six hundred minutes in a year courtesy of Seasons of Love from Rent and you know I count them all by LOVE.

We all know who won and lost last week but I thought I take a little deeper look into the number for a second.....a reality check.

John Toplikar received 14,894 votes in a losing effort. Is this the size of the voting extreme right in JOCO or is this the size of the No tax, No annexation group in this county? He beat John Segale as he garnered 7693 votes. John Patrick Segale is on suicide watch right about now. A dude who is a complete idiot and a criminal doubled his vote total. Ouch. I'm not sure if this is the size of the hard core, blind, dogmatic right but if it is on the one hand I'm pleased it is so small and on the other..........scared that there are 14,894 idiots in this county. I guess you could also say since turnout was only about 20% that 14894 represents just the VOTING hard core, blind, dogmatic right and that the real total is about 75,000 registered voters?

Looking at things another way.........I was interested in the power of packing the race with lots of candidates. In the US House 3rd District race where we all but conceded Yoder would roll to an easy victory had a decent challenge in Patricia Lightner. But the real story to me is that more people voted AGAINST Yoder than voted for him. Including Lightner's pull, 35,650 voted against Yoder combining all 8 candidates not named Kevin Yoder. Hmmmm......interesting. Had any three of the candidates in a crowded field NOT run and NOT supported Yoder we could be looking at a Chick Fight for the 3rd....well, some might contend it is still a chick fight. Now, we know Yoder would have pulled his share of those votes but you never know and now we'll never know. Just how big is the Johnson County Tea Party?

Another interesting question is how big is typical JOCO person's sphere of influence? With no money and no big organization behind you how many people like you enough to vote for you in Johnson County. It seems to be about 1,600. Of the "all others" most of them received about 1,600 to 1,700 votes. So if you are a good, decent person between your family, friends and the friends they are willing to encourage your sphere of influence should be about 1,600 people. Even Tom Scherer got 2,545 protest votes but because of the outrage of thinking that a elected job is a family right he should have seen an even bigger turnout. Should have been more. Can't figure that one out.

The lesson might be that to just be in the race when you know you don't have the financial backing or experience CAN have an impact on the final result AND just might hurt your cause mortally. While it might be your right as an American.....it might be just downright unAmerican to run when you know you can't win. But then again, if you are Tom Scherer....please by all meaning don't break the streak now....there might be world record for longest continuous campaign at risk.

Anyway, we now know that if you go missing in Johnson County you should be able to get about 1,600 people to help look for you or at least post a lame message about you on their Facebook page.

Your November 4th Voter Guide

As promised here is all you need to go to the polls....as early as now for early voting at your County Election Office. Don't worry. Jocoeveryman has researched the issues and will tell you how to vote. I won't bore you with elections in Missouri or elsewhere because that is just commentary. I've done lots of research here for you so pay attention people. Here is what you need to know. Your Johnson County Voting Guide.




Johnson County Question #1 on electing Judges: NO. See my previous blog on this topic for details.



Johnson County Question #2 on the Research Triangle: YES. It is a bitter pill to approve a new tax especially one without a sunset clause but this is the cost of economic development that will be recession proof. As long as there are people dying of cancer business will be good. It also unlocks tons of federal money for our region. Tracy Thomas is for it...enough said.




Johnson County Commissioner District 2: John Patrick Segale. Is doing a good job. Keep him there.



Johnson County Commissioner District 3: James Azeltine. Lindstrom seems to be a nice guy who doesn't seem that passionate about the $50K a year, 1 day a week gig. Azeltine is energetic, conservative and wants the job.



Johnson County Commissioner District 6: Calvin Hayden. Toplikar continues to be unbelievably poor at his job but either his voting block of Olathe seems to like stupidity. Hayden offers a real choice as a conservative and the intelligence and energy to make good things happen. If everyone who isn't apart of Toplikar's vast family in Olathe would stand up they could get this done.



Johnson County District Attorney 10th: Steve Howe. I've blogged about my reasons which I'd encourage you to read. He is the one not connected to Morrison or Kline and would take the politics out of upholding our laws.



US House 3rd: Nick Jordan. Moore is a liberal lap dog for Pelosi in Washington and plays the blue dog democrat back home. I like him as the blue dog democrat back home so let's keep him here and take back the 3rd. I researched his voting record. He can't deny it. All the liberal groups give him great ratings and conservative interests give him poor ratings......



US House 2nd: Lynn Jenkins. I really wish this was my district. Boyda is horrible and an embarassment our government hasn't seen since Carol Mosely Braun. Lynn Jenkins is a fiscal conservative and has a great chance to take back this seat. Jenkins is the perfect fit in this district that has become increasingly moderate and Jenkins plays well to that group. Boyda is way too liberal for this red area and only won because the incumbent Republican she ran against last time had scandals surrounding him.



US Senate: Pat Roberts. Not even close and neither will the election. Slattery is a Washington wine and cheese elite who couldn't even be bothered to show up when he did have an elected job. He probably mocks us as stupid farmers to his Washington buddies.



For Kansas House of Representatives and Senate there are far too many for me to understand beyond my own district but here are some to support:



House District 14: Lance Kinzer. The incumbent stalwart conservative. Olathe.


Senate District 7: David Wysong. Champions smoking ban. Mission Hills
Senate District 10: Mary Pilcher Cook. Strong supporter of limiting abortion. Jordan's old seat.


Senate District 23: Karin Brownlee. Good conservative. Olathe.


House District 24: Ronnie Metsker. Has done a nice job in filling mid term vacancy.


House District 27: Ray Merrick. Stilwell incumbent who isn't afraid to challenge the status quo even in his own party. The McCain of Kansas.




State Board of Education District 2: Sue Storm. Her challenger is Republican Mary Ralstin and doesn't have the chops of Storm yet basically supports the same positions. Both are moderate and party affiliation shouldn't matter in this race.




President and Vice President of the United States of America: John McCain and Sarah Palin. Don't believe a guy who has been among the most partisan members of Congress based on his voting record who says he wants to govern from the middle but has never voted anything but liberal and says he won't raise your taxes. If elected Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid will own this guy and we won't be able to stop it. He couldn't govern from the middle if he wanted to because they won't let him. Pelosi and Reid really scare me.




The following are hold your nose and pull the lever votes. In other words, they aren't my kind of candidate but they are better than the alternatives.




KS Senate 11th: John Vratil. A moderate who has significant power in the KS Senate. Better to try to control him than replace him. A key to the Johnson County delegation. To replace him would be lunacy.



KS Senate 9th: Julia Lynn. She is running against former Olathe School Super Ron Wimmer who left the district in the ditch. She is filling O'Connor's unfilled term but needs to show herself more accessible to her constituents. This is dangerous race because Wimmer knows the issues and has name recognition. Don't vote for Lynn, vote against Wimmer.




KS State Rep 28th: Pat Colloton. Another of the Johnson County moderates but she is running against an 18 year old who can't wipe his own nose and would rather be at the Bottleneck in Lawrence than campaign. Conservatives need to coach her up. She has clout in Topeka.




Judges up for Retention Votes: YES.....19 times. Look, if activist Tim Golba who is heading the effort on question 1 won't post any recommendations on his site then none of them must be bad enough to kick out. Do you realize my sample ballot has TWENTY judges to vote for regarding retention? Imagine if we had to endure a partisan campaign from all of them. This would be a boom for printing companies. Think of all the yard signs, bumper stickers, mailers.......gives me a headache just thinking about it. The only NO vote is Charles Droege (Div. 8) who is an ultra liberal appointee of Sebelius. We should get rid of him before he becomes comfortable there.


Go vote! It is your responsibility as a citizen. Don't just waste it.





Say what you want about George W. Bush but this woman got the right to vote because of his resolve and leadership and her daughters will get to go to school and learn to read and learn math and maybe solve some of the biggest problems of our lifetime like maybe a cure for AIDS or cancer or maybe cold fusion or something cool like that...... under the Taliban little girls were not allowed to go to school and their moms not allowed to vote. How cool is voting to her????

And never forget that this guy made it possible. Vaya Con Dios!!!!