MISSOURI WATCH: AN OPEN LETTER TO THE GOVERNOR AND THE AUDITOR

Dear Mel and Margaret:

Congratulations to you both! The filing deadline passed and neither of you picked up a serious opponent, so you will represent your political parties in November as their candidate for governor, the highest office in the state and to millions of your fellow citizens, the most important one.

Both of you are now in the process of raising enough money to conduct a vigorous campaign over the next several months, and despite the rather strange circumstances hovering over candidates as a result of confusing contribution laws, the truth is that you must secure a rather sizable fortune to buy the staff, advertising and trappings that seem to be required these days. It's neither fun nor pleasant to beg for money, but that's the situation candidates all over the country now face, and, unfortunately, Missouri is no exception.

Having begged, borrowed or stolen (an expression, not a description of your activities) sufficient funds to conduct your campaigns, you will then be faced with a decision on how best to spend that money, which really isn't yours even though you're responsible for it. With two, three or four million to spend, your campaign staff will suggest that the best way to win office is to allocate a sizable portion of it on what's generally called negative advertising. These advisers are not born mean, but they think they know what works, since such ads have been effective in past campaigns in our state and 49 others.

Negative ads attract viewers for several valid reasons, not the least being the negativity that permeates all of today's media. The fact that most voters harbor negative feelings about all politicians, and often about the political process in general, adds to the luster of attack advertising. As both of you know, there was an age of gentler campaigns just a few years ago, but negative advertising has grown in acceptance as each election seems to top the previous one for insults, character assassination and verbal abuse.

This brings me to a conversation I had the other day with a professor of political science at Oxford University, who recently was on the campus of Southeast Missouri State University. While discussing the political process in the U.S. and in other western democracies, the visitor expressed sorrow at the way our American campaigns are now conducted. It is his belief that campaigns determine to a very large degree the way government is viewed by the governed.

Noting the brief period allotted to campaigns in his native country, the visitor said he had concluded that the inordinate length and raucous conduct of candidates tended to diminish the respect of voters for the entire political process. As a matter of fact, he said it is his view that much of the outside world believes Americans are no longer capable of governing themselves, noting that Europeans are generally dismissive of the American democratic system. I hope he's wrong, but I have read similar statements from others whose opinions I also value, and I venture that the assessment, whether we like it or not, is more correct than we here in Missouri are willing to admit.

This letter is meant to convey not only the views of a distinguished foreign professor, but to express the hope of one very undistinguished teacher of political science that you two will bring about a change in the way we have been electing our public officials in this state. The intrigue of the Holy Roman Empire pales in comparison to the attack ads that have been run in recent elections in Missouri, regardless of how enthusiastically they may have been received by the partisans in both political parties.

You see, Margaret and Mel, most Missourians aren't rapid Republicans or Democrats. The majority vote for candidates offered by both parties, and the majority believe that campaigns should inform, not insult. Yes, Missouri, there are clean elections, even though the genre is seldom witnessed anymore.

You two have the power to turn 1996 from the mud and slime of recent campaigns and make this one a model for the rest of the country. Can you imagine the respect and admiration waiting for state candidates who reject negative campaigning and return the political process to something more than mud wrestling?

No R.S.V.P. is necessary. Missourians will know your response when they see your first campaign ad.

~Jack Stapleton of Kennett is the editor of the Missouri News and Editorial Service.