On Tuesday, April 9th the Chesterfield Township Democrats membership meeting featured a presentation by Jeff Smith, Ph.D., former Missouri State Senator and author of Mr. Smith Goes to Prison.  Jeff gave a personal view on the realities and first-hand experience of life in a federal prison in Kentucky.   The presentation was given to about 35 guests and members and gave those attending his perspective on the state of prisons and the state of prison reform as well as the complete lack of efforts in the prison system to prevent recidivism. If you missed his talk to our group, check out this YouTube video of a presentation he made at the Clinton School of Public Service.  At our March meeting we heard from Samantha Stangl, M.S.W. who represented the Clark-Fox Family Foundation working toward prison reform in Missouri.  The combination of these programs gave our membership and guests a comprehensive view of both state and federal prisons.

Additionally, we had announcements about showmeintegrity.org.  This is a bipartisan group working to preserve the provisions of Amendment 1, Clean Missouri that was passed by Missouri voters last November.  The group is lobbying the MO state house to prevent passage of legislation that would overturn the voter’s referendum.  Jim Moore briefly presented portions of the “People, Poverty and Public Policy” highlighting senate bills, and SB 4 and MO house bill 183 which mandate work requirements for those MO citizens on Medicaid.  He also discussed SB 208 that will repeal the circuit breaker tax credit for seniors and the disabled who rent and HB 584 that will allow online sales tax to be used to reduce highest income tax bracket (originally from 1938).  Details and more information on Jim’s presentation can be found on the CTD website.

The Chesterfield Township Democrats continue to grow and consistently host informative and timely presentations about politics at the state and national level.  Please join us on May 14th when our guest speaker will be local journalist Tony Messenger.  Stay informed and be a part of progressive, positive change.

Guest Speaker – Jeff Smith, Ph.D.
Executive Director
Missouri Workforce Housing Association

Former – Executive Vice President of Community Engagement & Policy
at Concordance Academy, a St. Louis-based nonprofit
that provides comprehensive re-entry services
to individuals returning to the community after prison.

“The fall from politico to prisoner isn’t necessarily long, but the landing, as Missouri State Senator Jeff Smith learned, is a hard one.

In 2009, Smith pleaded guilty to a seemingly minor charge of campaign malfeasance and earned himself a year and one day in Kentucky’s FCI Manchester. Mr. Smith Goes to Prison is the fish-out-of-water story of his time in the big house; of the people he met there and the things he learned: how to escape the attentions of fellow inmate Cornbread and his friends in the Aryan Brotherhood; what constitutes a prison car and who’s allowed to ride in yours; how to bend and break the rules, whether you’re a prisoner or an officer. And throughout his sentence, the young Senator tracked the greatest crime of all: the deliberate waste of untapped human potential.

Smith saw the power of millions of inmates harnessed as a source of renewable energy for America’s prison-industrial complex, a system that aims to build better criminals instead of better citizens. In Mr. Smith Goes to Prison, he traces the cracks in America’s prison walls, exposing the shortcomings of a racially-based cycle of poverty and crime that sets inmates up to fail. Speaking from inside experience, he offers practical solutions to jailbreak the nation from the financially crushing grip of its own prisons and to jumpstart the rehabilitation of the millions living behind bars.” – St. Martin’s Press

Tuesday, April 9th
6:30 p.m. – Doors Open/Social Time
7:00 p.m. – Meeting Starts
Room 1
Daniel Boone Branch
St. Louis County Library
300 Clarkson Road
Ellisville, MO 63011

Please Bring a Friend!

Date:  January 19, 2019

Time: Program starts at 10 a.m.

Where: Meet in front of Union Station, in the park known as Aloe Plaza. An Event map will be available on our Facebook page 48 hours prior to the event.

March: Program will being at 10:00 am with a march to begin at 10:30 and head down Market. It will end in Poelker Park (*pending).  The event will conclude with a selection of speakers, each with a specific message unique to creating change in the St. Louis community. We invite all attendees to remain in the area to turn their inspiration into action at our STL In Action Fair.

STL In Action Fair: BE the change you wish to see in your community! After the march concludes in Poelker Park, vendors, non-profits and community organizations will be set up to offer volunteer and outreach opportunities here in St. Louis. These March Partners will represent a variety of issues and will be as diverse as the local population. In the transformative spirit of the march, we challenge each attendee to commit to at least one hour of action in the next month.

Accessibility: Attendees in wheelchairs are welcome. The march path is accessible and ADA compliant restrooms will be stationed along the route. Interpreters will be available at each stage for our attendees who speak ASL as their first language. A viewing area close to the stage will also be reserved for these patrons.

If you would like to join your neighbors in Chesterfield and march together, please use this sign-up form.

Women’s March for Action

A moment when we can come together to pray for those who struggle with hunger—and rededicate ourselves to advocate for legislation that will help achieve the international goal of ending hunger by 2030

Sunday, October 21 (or any Sunday in October))

COMING SOON! 

NOV 8, POVERTY, PEOPLE AND PUBLIC POLICY—

How to lobby your legislator

Scheduled for Thursday, Nov. 8^th at St. Clare of Assisi Church (15642 Clayton Road.  Ellisville), The event presents an opportunity to learn how public policy affects all in our region, and what you can do to ensure the needs of all people are considered by law makers. Featured speakers will be Ms. Tamara Kenny (Director of Advocacy and Community Engagement at Catholic Charities) and Father Christopher Martin (Pastor, St. Clare of Assisi). The meeting is scheduled from 6:30-8:30 with pizza and soft drinks provided.  Please RSVP to Ms. Sally Kellogg (314-256-5901 or skellogg@ccstl.org so that we have an estimate of attendees which will help with plans for food and drink).

Housing Empowers 2018 Annual Conference

The theme of this 117th annual conference is the impact of affordable housing

Saturday, November 17 | Time TBD – Columbia, Missouri

It’s a sad day when people who have given their lives to public service, like the filmmakers behind “Don’t Be a Sucker,” feel the need to speak out against a sitting president. It’s even sadder when Felix Bressart, the Lubitsch stock player who plays the professor in “Don’t Be a Sucker” feels the need to look into the camera with gentle disapproval. There’s no shortage of sick burns aimed at Trump here, from the reference to his “oldest and most persistent enemy, the truth,” to the prediction that his “pure-blooded supermen [will be] defeated by the mongrel armies he despise[s].” But for all the swipes, the film ends on a positive note, speaking to the ideals we continually fall short of, but should continually aim at:

Chesterfield Township Democrats congratulated and endorsed ten club members last night at its August 14 membership meeting. Those ten members all won their primaries on August 7th. They are: LaDonna Applebaum, 71st, Paula Brown, 70th, Kevin Fitzgerald, 89th, Mike LaBozetta, 99th, Bill Otto, 65th, Helena Webb, 100th, and Genevieve Steidtmann, 101st.  All are seeking seats in the Missouri House of Representatives.

John Kiehne, SD 26, seeking the senate seat representing large swaths of western St. Louis County including Chesterfield and Wildwood and Cort VanOstran, seeking the US House seat from district 2.

Candidates presented their individual campaign strategies for the next three months to the fifty plus members attending the CTD meeting.  Please check their campaign websites and Facebook pages for specific needs and direction for supporting your candidate.

Last night’s main topic was the Clean Missouri Amendment.  Maggie Lallor, Regional Director for the Clean Missouri Campaign highlighted the themes to the constitutional amendment which seeks to limit the influence of lobbyists in Jefferson City, make more transparent the financial donations to candidates, and force redistricting by an independent, non-partisan agency among other items.  You can find out more about Clean Missouri at cleanmissouri.org.   In a voice vote, CTD membership gave a full-throated endorsement to Clean Missouri.   Vote YES on Amendment 1!

On a related theme, Mary K. Brown, former Chesterfield City Councilperson for eight years and Wendy Geckler, former Planning Commission member for the City of Chesterfield for twelve years and both members of CTD, spoke to membership about the emergence of “dark money” and unethical campaign tactics by city councilpersons currently on the Chesterfield City Council.  During last April’s election, one candidate received the financial support from outside the city and region beyond the scope of the candidate’s own campaign treasury.  When several CTD members approached the city council to ask councilpersons and the mayor to declare against “dark money” by way of personal and committee resolution, the motion was tabled, and the matter killed.  Chesterfield city council refuses to disclaim the influence of Dark Money their campaigns. Click here for more detail.

Please be sure to put the next meeting of the Chesterfield Township Democrats on your calendar.  It will feature updates on these issues and more, including a workshop for supporting candidates which will be led by Stacy Newman, former Missouri House Representative from district 87.