Former Mo. politician plans bid for office

~ Bill Burlison said this week that he will seek the 159th District Missouri House seat.

Former U.S. representative Bill Burlison, a Democrat who lost his Congressional seat to the late U.S. Rep. Bill Emerson in 1980, is planning a comeback in Missouri politics.

Burlison said this week that he will seek the 159th District Missouri House seat currently held by state Rep. Billy Pat Wright, R-Dexter. The 2008 elections will produce a Democratic landslide as voters seek a change from eight years under President Bush, Burlison said, and he expects the voter backlash to reach all the way down the ballot.

"They have taken us into a war that is unjustified and unnecessary, based on fraud, deceit and lies," Burlison said. "You can make a pretty good case that President Bush and Vice President Cheney knew this from the beginning."

Burlison returned to Missouri early this year after finishing his second term as an Ann Arundel County, Md., County councilman. He established his residence in Advance, where his wife's family owns land.

He moved to Maryland following his defeat in 1980, an election that included allegations that Burlison used his political connections to help obtain a promotion for a post office employee with whom he was allegedly having an affair and for mailing hundreds of $12 checks to voters shortly before the election.

Those old issues won't return to haunt the new bid for office, Burlison predicted. The 1980 defeat, he said, was the result of the big turnout for Ronald Reagan.

"The voters didn't believe it 25 years ago, and I certainly don't think they will believe it now," he said.

In Maryland, he ran unsuccessfully for county council seats in 1982 and 1994 and a state legislative post in 1986 and 1990. He won the council seat in 1998, and considered but withdrew from a race for Congress in 2006.

In Missouri, the 1980 defeat was Burlison's only election loss. He was elected prosecuting attorney for Cape Girardeau County in 1962 and won the congressional seat in 1968.

In challenging Wright, Burlison will go up against a two-term state lawmaker who has proved his ability to raise money and win votes. In the 2006 election, Wright took 57 percent of the vote against former Dexter High School coach Boyce Wooley. Wright beat Wooley to win the seat in 2004.

In 2006, Wright spent $62,889 to win re-election, compared to $28,695 for Wooley. The Missouri Republican Party and the House Republican Campaign Committee spent a combined $36,123 on independent expenditures to keep Wright in office.

In an interview, Burlison focused on the national political picture to explain how his candidacy can succeed. Asked about the needs of the 159th District, which includes Stoddard County, a substantial portion of southwest Cape Girardeau County and a small section of Wayne County, Burlison said: "It needs an individual who has had substantial training, substantial experience and who is willing to insist on making a strong effort to determine what people want and what they need and then proceed to implement that and carry that out in the state legislature."

Wright did not return a call seeking comment.

rkeller@semissourian.com

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