Smells Like GOP Fear Missouri Progressive Charts For Congress — DeLear, Four Others Face In Aug. 5 Primary

DeLear, Four Others Face In Aug. 5 Primary

ST. LOUIS, Mo. It’s less than five months from the 2008 general election. If you can’t smell the fear among Republican candidates, you’re either:

a) watching re-runs of “Grey’s Anatomy” in the darkness of your home theater.

b) converting your diesel-powered Hummer to run on vegetable oil.

c) noseless.

d) Kurt Cobain.

Those in the know know that no Republican-leaning congressional district is safe from Democratic threats in the waning hours of George W. Bush’s corrupt presidency. Already this year, two supposedly deep-red districts turned a brighter shade of purple after blues won important special elections.

In Illinois’s 14th congressional district, Democrat Bill Foster will serve out the term of former House Speaker Dennis Hastert who resigned. In Mississippi’s 1st congressional district, Democrat Travis Childers will finish the term of incumbant Rep. Roger Wicker after Gov. Haley Barbour appointed him to fill the seat of former Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott who resigned due to an indictment of his brother-in-law.

And by Byron DeLear’s logic, the waters of Missouri’s 2nd congressional district are also ready to turn bluer.

“All bets are off in any of these districts that traditionally wouldn’t be considered front-tier races,” said the progressive-populist Democratic candidate. “I think the statistics of these two special elections indicate that we have a chance to turn it around here.”

DeLear told the Iconoclast in an exclusive interview that he believed in the possibility of a Democratic uprising in the Midwest so much that he moved back to his home state last year. With his move, he brought his experience of an unsuccessful campaign to dethrone pro-Iraq War Democrat Rep. Howard Berman in California’s 28th congressional district during the 2006 midterm election. DeLear now faces four first-time challengers seeking the Democratic nomination in a primary contest on Aug. 5.

The District

But defeating incumbant Rep. Todd Akin will still prove to be difficult in the November general election. Akin is one of the most radical of Republicans in the second reddest congressional district in the Show Me State. By map, the 2nd district looks like a giant amoeba heading east to devour the city of St. Louis.

The metaphor is accurate considering the class structure residing in the 1,288-square-mile district. With a median household income of $61,416 and a poverty rate of 3.6 percent, it’s safe to describe the 2nd district as super affulent. In Texas terms, it’s not unlike Colin County just north of Dallas with rows of suburban McMansions, office complexes, and strip malls.

Historically, the area now known as Missouri’s 2nd had been a swing district. In the 1980s, Democrat Bob Young represented it. Said Dave Robertson, a political science professor at the University of Missouri at St. Louis:

“[Young] was an average Tip O’Neil-style Democrat, a real ‘let’s get pork for the district’ kind of guy. He was one of the last people who was a real working class guy. He had worked his way up in a pipe-fitters union. I don’t think he had a college degree. He was one of two people in the House in the 80s who didn’t have a college degree. He really was a working class guy who fought for union issues. That’s how the district has ch