This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, Oct. 24, 2012 - Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon says he has plans for the less than two weeks remaining before the Nov. 6 election. Chief among them? Doing his job.
“Just because there’s an election doesn’t mean you take time away from serving the public,’’ said Nixon, a Democrat, as he talked to reporters Tuesday following an official event to present an agricultural achievement award at the farm of Warren Stemme in west St. Louis County.
In khakis instead of his usual suit, Nixon was accompanied by Jon Hagler, the director of the state’s Department of Agriculture who was sporting a cowbody hat.
To avoid mixing politics with policy, the governor stepped away from the official lectern, talking to reporters in the corner of the farm building used for the ceremony.
Nixon has spent millions of dollars on TV ads airing around the state. But the governor’s last public political appearance in St. Louis was a week ago at a large union rally.
Such a low-key campaign profile is striking so close to the election, although Nixon is keeping a high-profile professional schedule. The event at the Stemme farm was his third official event of the day.
Nixon said Tuesday that his plans for “the next 10-11 days’’ call for him “to meet directly with folks around the state.” He declined to get specific.
When asked, Nixon indicated that he believed there was no time for more debates or forums with Republican rival Dave Spence. The two last participated in a forum Sept. 21 before the Missouri Press Association, their only joint appearance.
Nixon reaffirmed that his focus – official and political -- would be on promoting the state’s added jobs, lower unemployment rate, bipartisan cooperation and stable tuition at state-funded colleges and universities.
Nixon deflected a question about the fact that Missouri has 79,000 fewer jobs than when Nixon took office, according to federal labor statistics.
What was more important, said the governor, was that Missouri saw the second-largest drop in its unemployment rate in the country in September and has added tens of thousands of jobs since he took office in January 2009. The state’s rate is now 6.9 percent, lower than the national average. Missouri's unemployment rate was close to 9 percent when he took office.
Nixon was asked if he planned to engage Spence at all in the final days before the election. Since the Sept. 21 forum, the governor has replied only in his TV ads to Spence's various attacks.
Did the governor have a response to Spence’s comment at a Republican rally Monday that President Barack Obama should return to “wherever you’re from?”
Replied Nixon tartly, “I’m certainly not going to engage in ‘how low you can go’ quips.”
Because Nixon is the titular head of the Missouri Democratic Party, his campaign has donated to the state party to cover salaries and activities. Even so, the governor -- a prolific money-raiser -- still has millions of dollars more in the bank than Missouri’s other Democratic statewide candidates (excluding Sen. Claire McCaskill).
Might the governor forward some of his campaign cash to some down-ballot statewide Democrats? (That was the practice of the last two-term Democrat in the governor’s mansion, Mel Carnahan, who doled out money to embattled Democrats who shared the ticket with him in 1992.)
Nixon made clear that he wasn’t up for publicly discussing strategy. "One of the reasons I’ve been able to move forward is because at moments like this, I’m able to keep my thoughts to myself,' “the governor said, chuckling.
The governor waved his regards and then took off in his car to return to Jefferson City – and his job.
Wednesday’s schedule calls for Nixon to be in Springfield, Mo. to “tour Springfield business, highlight bipartisan job-creation policies.”
It’s a campaign event.
