Gina Loudon

Originally posted at St. Louis Activist Hub.

Shortly after the recent Tea Party convention in Nashville Tennessee, a new group emerged in St. Louis dedicated to fighting against funding for public transportation in the St. Louis region. The misleadingly titled "Citizens for Better Transit" (CBT) was publicly represented by spokesperson John Burns, a relative newcomer to St. Louis politics. Despite the fact that Burns had no particular credibility and was using wildly misleading talking points (which I'll have to discuss at a different time), the local media has been quite willing to treat him as the spokesperson for a legitimate group and to provide him with equal airtime to the pro-transit campaign. In this post and the following, I want to examine the recent political activities of John Burns characterized by the blatant use of misinformation, sketchy connections, and contempt for the LGBT community.

Former state senate candidate and KTRS "political analyist" Gina Loudon blogged about her trip to the "Tea Party Leadership Conference" earlier this week, and had very kind words for Joe Basel.  Basel is facing a felony charge for breaking into Sen. Mary Landrieu's (D-LA) office, was apparently out on bond when he rant into Loudon. 

The weekend was filled with heroes, and none of them were politicians or party bosses. They were people like Joe Basel, who was arrested with James O’Keefe for his phone prank on Senator Mary Landrieu when she refused to speak with constituents who PAY for those phones, and the office she uses every day!

Nothing says "We're not a part of the establishment!" quite like having the the president of the Ohio Coal Association as a top keynote speaker at your holiday "tea party."

Mike Carey (president of the coal trade group), the host of "The Jihadi Killer Hour" radio program, Bill "Obama wants to turn everyone into a Nazi snitch" Hennessy, radio host Dana Loesch, Lemay baker/Ed Martin campaign leader Dave McArthur and a few other uberconservatives are all on the agenda.

Amusingly, the flier for Saturday's "Tea Party" in Kiener Plaza states that "10,000 Tea Partiers" met at that same spot in April.  A more reasonable crowd estimate is actually about 20% of that total, seeing how the maximum capacity for the venue is 3,000 people.

The same flier also indicates that the event is being at least partly organized by former Senate candidate Gina Loudon, now of the Legacy Group.

Certainly not the funniest Daily Show clip, but here's some Missouri flavor from the teevee.

As we noted this morning, Gina Loudon --a GOP senate candidate and wife of sitting Senator John Loudon-- was the recipient of a campaign check late in the first quarter from Ann Michael, lobbyist for the adult entertainment industry's trade group, the Missouri Association of Club Executives.  To borrow a phrase from Paul Harvey - "now, for the rest of the story"...

According to insiders, the industry's contribution to Gina Loudon has quite an interesting pedigree. 

John Loudon sponsored a bill this session, SB714, that related to criminal sexual offenses.  As that bill moved through committee, Sen. Matt Bartle offered a committee substitute that added provisions to the bill that would place legal restrictions on lap dancing, and the substitute passed out of the committee.  But when Loudon brought the bill to the Senate floor, he reportedly brought a Senate substitute for Bartle's Senate Committee Substitute that stripped (pardon the pun) out Bartle's prohibitions on lap dancing.

We wouldn't be doing our job if we didn't point out that GOP primary candidate Gina Loudon, who is running for the nomination against two others for her husband John's senate seat, took campaign cash in the past quarter from an adult entertainment industry lobbyist.

Ann Michael, who is lobbyist for the Missouri Association of Club Executives, and her husband gave a maximum $675 check to Gina Loudon's senate campaign on March 29th.

And frankly, I say bully for Loudon.  I'd much rather see the Republican nominee for the 7th Senate District be someone who recognizes the importance of free speech and expression than someone who has sold her soul (and her office) to private school voucher advocates.

Unfortunately for Loudon, I'm not sure whether the West County GOP primary electorate feels the same way.