I was privileged to speak to the Lee’s Summit Republicans last Thursday evening and honored so many folks came to listen. It was good to see my friend Bill Lewis and Jackson County Legislator Bob Spence, two of our elected officials, in attendance.

As I prepared my speech, I was a bit stumped on what subject to speak about. As a candidate on the campaign trail, I had a stump speech which I gave many times. The reason for stump speeches is to ensure the candidate engages the voting public on the issues he feels are the most important to his listeners and to repeat those issues and the solutions he proposes often enough that the voting public hopefully identifies him in a positive way when they enter the voting booth. For this talk at the Lee’s Summit Republicans I had complete freedom.

When President Bob Gough, who maintains the Greater Kansas City Pachyderm website, invited me, he suggested the possible subject of Chris Koster switching parties which is interesting for the politico’s. As I thought about Senator Koster’s conversion I remembered reading him saying had to leave the Republican Party due to its ‘extreme agenda’. I recalled having read those words earlier, when the defections of Kansas Republicans like Paul Morrison were taking place last year, and the phrase struck me more as a Democratic talking point rather than honest assessment of reasons to switch parties. As I contemplated the political landscape, I considered the larger battle we face in the current culture war – traditional value Americans vs. Secular-Progressive Americans, and viola! I had the makings of a hopefully interesting discussion.

In analyzing the switch on Koster’s part, I came up with the following political advantages and disadvantages.

Advantages:

Having run as a Republican in this area, I know switching to Democrat will instantly garner more media coverage and it will be sympathetic coverage. Columnist may take shots at Dems once in a while but not when it counts.

He will have immediate and continuing access to union money and their political machine AND the unions will not work against him.

Democrats also get the political machines in Kansas City and St. Louis working for them rather than against them.

No more pesky pro-lifers bothering him about supporting Stowers and, now, the abortion industry.

Disadvantages:

He lost a lot of trust, but this will be lasting only among Republicans. The Democrats, by and large, will welcome him as one of their own for a variety of reasons, a primary one having hurt the pride of the Republicans.

Chris Koster broke trust with the voters who elected him, the volunteers who have worked for him, and the contributors who have supported him. Strictly from a political perspective this will not hurt him much in his run for Missouri Attorney General in the Democratic primary. Most of his previous voters won’t be voting in that one, Democratic volunteers will fill the void, and he had already garnered significant funds from Democratic sources such as Stowers and the unions. If Chris makes it to the general, a big if at this point, it will be a wash since his Senatorial district is almost 50-50.

Tomorrow, I will continue with my analysis of the Kansas party jumpers.