Urban Go-Team Daily Round Up 1

Go-Team once again has arrived! Theme? Campaign 2016.

This brought us first to meet with candidate for state representative Ben Murray and with current state senator and U.S. Congress hopeful Maria Chappelle-Nadal.

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Murray, campaigning to serve Missouri’s 80^th district in South City, began his professional political career working under a generally progressive Russ Carnahan, then-U.S. Representative of Missouri (Carnahan quickly endorsed Murray as he announced his run).^{^[1]} In 2008, Murray assumed the role of organizing director within the Missouri Progressive Vote Coalition. Since 2013, he has worked for St. Louis County Assessor Jake Zimmerman.^{^[2]}

In all, he boasts 13 years of active support for progressive causes, including advocacy for the “right to choose,” LGBTQ rights, racial justice, labor rights, and the environment. Though the Democratic Party will be running unopposed, Murray faces two attorneys — Peter Meredith and Rob Stelzer — for the nomination.^{^[3]}

Chappelle-Nadal enters the race with for the 1^st congressional district’s spot in the U.S. House of Representatives with 11 years of experience in Missouri’s state legislature. During her past 6 years in the Senate, she has served on the Education Committee, the Seniors, Families, and Children Committee, and the Veterans Affairs and Health Committee.^{^[4]} Additionally, Chappelle-Nadal was a part of the National Democratic Committee from 2005 to 2009, and was elected to head the University City School District from 2010 to 2015.^{^[5]}

Her self-proclaimed “hustle (or crusade)” revolves around her manifestly strong belief that “no one deserves to die,” in particularly as a result of neglect or apathy. Though outspoken in any area of policy, she claims her focus lies heavily on racial inequity (#Ferguson) and on radioactive waste cleanup at Westlake Landfill and other sights less known, if not still unknown. She will face off with current Representative William “Lacy” Clay in November.

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Chappelle-Nadal began the policy discussion, diving immediately into West Lake and related issues. Her interest began when, after reapportionment, she learned of the smoldering fire nearing radioactive waste now in her district at West Lake Landfill. With much research (“research is everything,” she reminded us), she came to several major findings.

Firstly, there was a thirty year period predating the Department of Energy in which landfills were simply not regulated.^{^[6]} In that time, corporate chemical processors Monsanto and Mallinckrodt were able to dispose of the leftovers and byproducts of Agent Orange and highly concentrated Uranium, respectively, in landfills around St. Louis.^{^[7]} ^{^[8]}

Understandably, the continued exposure to the uncontrolled, traveling radioactive substances has caused unusually high cancer rates. But at 450 times the expected rate of appendix cancer alone in the immediate region, Chappelle-Nadal, like anyone grasping that scale in any capacity, was appalled.^{^[9]}

Proposing a set a bills requesting fair buyouts of homes bordering West Lake Landfill and compensation by former employers to employees who faced exposure at work, she received strong pushback not only from the national corporations invested in keeping their histories buried, but from St. Louis city legislators who feared losing a $1.76 billion Defense Department contract.^{^[10]}

Chappelle-Nadal recalled a series of messages from Just Moms STL during the aftermath of Michael Brown’s death, when she took part in daily marches on the streets of Ferguson. Frustrated with the lack of response from government officials across the board, she found strength in “these white women who were talking about black power,” realizing their connection: “The silence for Mike Brown is the same that allows what’s happening in Bridgeton.”

Thus explains her hustle for Ferguson and West Lake — or, put more broadly, for ethics and integrity.

* * * * *

Oliva asked Sen. Chappelle-Nadal what actions she would take to address radioactive waste and its effects if elected. The Senator would like to provide federal recompense for the previous negligence of government agencies — including making Missouri a downwinder state (victims legally guaranteed high compensation) — and a Congressional panel to investigate the entire history of the EPA and its predecessor in handling nuclear and chemical waste, the DOE.

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In response to a question by Arthur — “Are states anachronisms?” — Murray and Chappelle-Nadal each responded.

Chappelle-Nadal expressed her desire for “unison” between the layers of government, saying “I hope our states are accountable for what we have to go through as well [as the Federal government].” Going on, she observed that “when there is a disconnect [between levels of government], that is when the people lose.”

Murray suggested the ability to raise the minimum wage as well as the dominance in crafting and providing education as signs of state governments’ continued relevancy.

* * * * *

The conversation next shifted briefly towards campaign finance and strategies, general economics, and education.

Murray conveyed irritation with Missouri’s current campaign regulations, citing that Missouri lacks limitations on both gifts and monetary campaign donations.^{^[11]} He explained that although ethics reform has been unanimously supported among his constituents he’s spoken with in his regular door-to-door campaigning, there remains much skepticism over any politician’s intentions, on top of that over the actual plausibility of passing legislation that truly benefits the people. Emphasizing that the issue of this non-representation and soft corruption — the quid pro quo between lobbyists and legislators — is bipartisan and deserves to be treated as such, he evoked examples of members of both parties recently resigning in the face of scandal.^{^[12]}

Both Murray and Chappelle-Nadal complained about the “watered-down” revolving-door law passed this past year, which requires a 6-month waiting period after resignation before accepting employment as a lobbyist.^{^[13]} Both candidates would have preferred longer in waiting.

Yet, as much as each expressed distaste for “the game,” both described constant fundraising as an absolutely essential part of participation in government as a legislator. Still, Chappelle-Nadal admitted to (or maybe more accurate, bragged of) accepting money from those she politically does not agree with nor vote for, showing that some freedom still lives in the choices of a lawmaker.

Regarding the importance of regular contact with the inhabitants of the district, Chappelle-Nadal praised the potential in town halls. She related an example of locating an aging trucker who had transported radioactive and chemical waste, allowing her to locate a previously unknown deposit of radioactivity.

In the realm of economics, both candidates endorsed debt forgiveness as a necessary step towards correcting the remnants of our slave-age societal structure. Chappelle-Nadal stressed that it is not equality (equal access) that we need, but equity (aid proportional to need).

Murray, in regards to Donald Trump’s candidacy and his success, remarked that white, working class Americans are not wrong in their frustration. ‘The white working class is working more and more for less and less,” he noted. However, their anger has been redirected away from its source, he continued to explain, and towards more vulnerable groups including Mexicans and Muslims, who have little to nothing to do with today’s middle class economic woes. If anything, “Immigrants have really enhanced an area of the city that needed some ‘fresh blood’,” he maintained.

On education in response to a flurry of questions by Dominic, Chappelle-Nadal voiced her image of “teachers as first responders.” In the 1^st district, where about the unemployment rate among people of color hovers around 16%, the number in poverty, 36%, and 60% of students receive free or reduced lunch, “We’re asking [teachers] to be social workers in many cases,” she clarified.

“They should be payed more,” both candidates conceded, Chappelle-Nadal suggesting “incrementally” to keep good teachers in the district.

* * * * *

Both candidates, despite their apparently poor odds, are confident that this year’s race more than most will favor them. “We have the ‘Bernie Revolution’ and Ferguson colliding,” said Chappelle-Nadal of this election’s unique atmosphere.

And as far as advice for all of us in politics and civics: “Like chess […], know all the players and what move they’re going to make,” recommended Chappelle-Nadal. “It will take time, but you can make real change.”

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Polling

Delmar Loop

Go team participants spent the afternoon conducting political opinion polls in the Loop, asking the following questions: (click here to see the survey)

^{^[1]} http://themissouritimes.com/23186/ben-murray-looking-to-replace-term-limited-colona-in-district-80/

^{^[2]} http://www.murrayformissouri.com/biography/

^{^[3]} http://themissouritimes.com/23186/ben-murray-looking-to-replace-term-limited-colona-in-district-80/

^{^[4]} http://www.maria2016.com/about/

^{^[5]} Ibid.

^{^[6]}http://energy.gov/management/office-management/operational-management/history/brief-history-department-energy

^{^[7]}http://www.globalresearch.ca/war-crimes-agent-orange-monsanto-dow-chemical-and-other-ugly-legacies-of-the-vietnam-war/5488004

^{^[8]}http://www.stltoday.com/business/local/exelon-waste-from-mallinckrodt-downtown-site-shipped-to-west-lake/article_ddd4c3a9-c46f-5ca9-90a2-827fbb1c4c27.html

^{^[9]} http://www.coldwatercreekfacts.com/2015-health-maps/

^{^[10]}http://www.stltoday.com/business/local/st-louis-hopes-to-use-billion-dollar-construction-projects-to/article_ced2b503-e48e-5405-a750-22f1c947723e.html

^{^[11]} http://www.kansascity.com/news/politics-government/article40542564.html

^{^[12]} http://www.kansascity.com/news/local/news-columns-blogs/the-buzz/article41200797.html