DISCUSSING CAPITAL ISSUES: ELECTIONS, SCHOOLS AND CRIME

We applaud Missouri Secretary of State Judith Moriarty, who in her first year of office has discarded one of the dumbest of state election traditions: the biennial Capitol queue of office hopefuls who believe there is an advantage in having their names appear first on a ballot.

The candidates, and most of the time their followers, would camp out on the secretary of state's doorstep, sometimes for weeks ahead of the opening day of filing, idling away time with other candidate loyalists and cluttering a hallway in one of the state's most impressive buildings. The conventional political wisdom is that being first on the ballot can mean a two to three percent point advantage in the final polling, though plenty of "top-name" office seekers have lost over the years when their campaign rhetoric failed to live up to their acumen for early arrival.

In an era when most people are anxious to see their government become more lean and efficient, what exercise could be more wasteful than having fellow Missourians playing solitaire in a Capitol corridor in support of a candidate?

To her credit, Ms. Moriarty said, "No more." The lines will not be allowed to form, and some dignity will be returned to the process; candidates' supporters may waste their time, but not in a public building. If anything, however, the secretary of state did not go far enough in her edict. At some point, even if it is on the day filing begins, some candidates or their underlings will jockey for position to get the ballot's top spot. We join others in suggesting a lottery be held for the determination of ballot position, giving all candidates a fair and civilized chance at the top spot.

Beyond that, we urge all candidates to spend more time formulating ideas to streamline government as opposed to fretting about the votes they may lose through bad ballot position.

While we applaud Secretary of State Moriarty for eliminating the lines outside her doorway, we take a dimmer view of the path she and her staff are beating to the Caribbean ... or more specifically, the casual attitude she has taken regarding the expenditure.

Ms. Moriarty and three members of her staff will go to the Virgin Islands in January for the winter meeting of the National Association of Secretaries of States. The theme of the meeting is "Doing More With Less." The taxpayer expenditure for the trip is at least $4,300.

Asked about the trip, the secretary of state told a reporter: "It sounds wonderful to go somewhere warm in winter when you're from Missouri. I'm not complaining."

Undoubtedly, Ms. Moriarty is not the first Missouri public official to fly off to a more temperate latitude at taxpayer expense during the often harsh Jefferson City winter. Certainly, she is not the first to give an inappropriate response when questioned about it. And perhaps four people from the Missouri secretary of state's office are needed at this conference in the Virgin Islands. What we can ascertain is that millions of Missourians will never travel to the Caribbean in winter, much less with fellow taxpayers picking up the tab. If Ms. Moriarty is determined to set aside governmental business-as-usual, she has set back her efforts in this case.

Missouri taxpayers might grow nervous in learning that the man who helped cook up the state's largest tax increase is again on the public payroll.

Allan Odden of the Wisconsin Center for Education Research provided consulting services earlier this year in helping Missouri lawmakers come up with a new school funding formula. The legislation enacting this formula included $310 million in tax increases. Earlier this month, Mr. Odden was hired to do consulting work for the Missouri Commission on Performance, which advises the State Board of Education on the school funding law. He will be paid $1,000 a day for up to 24 days of work.

One question: When he was working with legislators on the formula and tax package, was he just getting revenue in place for future employment?

Anyway, welcome to the Commission on Performance, Mr. Odden. With performance like that, the state could go broke.

Gov. Mel Carnahan joined with community leaders from across Missouri to discuss urban violence earlier this month. At the gathering, the governor announced the formation of a task force to find "meaningful solutions" to this vexing problem. Asked about the root of the problem, Gov. Carnahan, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, blamed the trickle-down economic theories forwarded by former presidents Ronald Reagan and George Bush. During those administrations, the governor said, people in the cities felt they were abandoned.

Really?

A reminder might be in order that Ronald Reagan was given ample, bipartisan and proper credit for enacting tax incentives for businesses that resulted in a renaissance in construction in St. Louis, where the urban violence meeting was held. In enhancing the jobs picture in St. Louis, was the Reagan administration abandoning the cities?

Two things are striking in Mr. Carnahan's comments. One, we hope the governor knows better than to easily and superficially discount a growing problem of violence with such a partisan response. Two, the 50 or so people in this meeting, who are probably on the front lines of the problem, should have been the first to call his hand when given such a wanting explanation; giving in to such rhetoric does nothing to solve problems.

The only thing trickling down in this instance was the governor's logic.