JO ANN EMERSON OFFERS BEST REPRESENTATION FOR SOUTHERN MISSOURI VOTERS

Speaker Richard Gephardt.

Say that name, and that title, over and over again. As you do, add to it some other names. Names such as David Bonior, Barney Frank, Ron Dellums, John Dingell, Bill Clay, David Obey, Charles Rangel, Henry Waxman, John Conyers and Pete Stark.

Careful followers of congressional affairs will recognize these names as the leading hard-left liberals in the House Democratic caucus, members whose seniority will make them committee chairmen should the U.S. Congress change hands and return House Democrats to the majority. These are the folks who leave no doubt they would send spending soaring, trash a balanced-budget amendment, gut national defense and enact a national health care plan modeled on the 1993-94 Clinton effort to seize one-seventh of our economy and hand it over to the federal government. A Speaker Richard Gephardt and his left/liberal allies are the real issue in the 8th District congressional race.

Missouri voters simply can't view their vote for Congress in isolation. The overriding choice we face is whether we want to go back to the pre-1994 Congress, dominated as it was for 40 consecutive years by a Democratic majority, or whether we believe we took the correct turn in 1994 when Republicans won a majority and undertook the tough work of long-overdue reforms. Jo Ann Emerson represents the latter, reform-focused view, while Emily Firebaugh, her principal opponent, represents a vote to turn back and put the liberals more firmly in control than ever.

The above list of Democrats represents a rogues' gallery of congressional left/liberalism. In this sense, it matters little what Emily Firebaugh says her own positions are (although many of her own stated positions -- support for partial-birth abortions and grain embargoes come to mind -- are shockingly out of line for the conservative folks of southern Missouri). Rather, it is crucial to remember what would be her first vote in January 1997: To organize the leadership of the U.S. House of Representatives. In short: Speaker Richard Gephardt, and his above-listed committee chairmen.

Take a look at the folks who are financing the two campaigns. Emerson's campaign, like those of her late husband, is financed by a mix of Missouri contributors and business and agriculture supporters. Firebaugh's campaign is being financed overwhelmingly by the left/liberal power brokers, including the trial lawyers, who are in for $15,000, and especially including the gigantic funding apparatus of Big Labor. The latter includes the liberal kooks at the National Education Association, who would hand off every last vestige of local authority for running our own schools to an arrogant, distant Washington bureaucracy. Perish the thought. This is the kind of money Dick Gephardt can turn on for a candidate of his choosing.

To whom, then, shall the next congresswoman from Missouri's 8th District answer? Shall she answer to the Washington labor bosses and the radical liberal NEA? Should she win, it isn't too much to say that a Rep. Firebaugh would be a virtual wholly owned subsidiary of the AFL-CIO. If you doubt this, consider that Emily Firebaugh proudly boasts her support for collective bargaining for public employees [ITAL] with a right to strike. [UNITAL] These aren't southern Missouri values.

Or will our next congresswoman answer to the ordinary southern Missourians who were so ably and so faithfully represented these last 16 years by the late Rep. Emerson? Where will our new congresswoman find her new staff? From the ranks of the Washington operatives sent in to run the Firebaugh campaign? Or from the ranks of the able, energetic and responsive staff whose members served Rep. Emerson, and all of us, with such consistent excellence?

Missouri voters should vote proudly -- twice -- for Jo Ann Emerson on Tuesday.