When I was a kid growing up in Eastern Jackson County, two factions
fought over control of Jackson County and all the
patronage jobs, plus other benefits. They were the Tom Pendergast’s faction ,
called the Goats, and Joe Shannon’s faction, known as the Rabbits.
Pendergast owned a concrete company and got the City of Kansas City to pay him
to pave Brush Creek, a creek running through Kansas City, and the only creek
in the nation that was paved.
There
were hardly any Republicans in Jackson County, and the
Democratic voters were known as either Rabbits or Goats.
Pendergast would buy the loafers vote with a half pint of whiskey, and
then buy the poor peoples’ vote with some food and by having county workers
drive around with truckloads of coal to shovel in their coal bin.
Since Harry Truman was Eastern Judge of Jackson County, and a Goat, my
dad almost always voted with the Pendergast faction. Our
Democratic Committeeman, who was also the road overseer would come by before
every election and hand my dad a sample ballot and tell him “This is how we are
voting this election” and then he would say, “Looks like you could use some
gravel”. The next day county trucks would be spreading gravel on our
driveway.
They do
it differently now, but they still buy our votes. Obama spent
almost $20 on every vote he received. Claire spent about $12,
Nixon spent $6, and even our State Representative candidate in Lafayette County who lost spent
$10 for every vote he received. I figure all the Democratic
candidates spent about $60 for my vote. The next election, I’m
going to write a letter to the State and National Democratic Committees and tell
them since I always vote Democrat to spend a little less on their television
advertising and just send me a check.
Jack can be reached at
PO Box 40,
Oak Grove, MO 64075, or jackremembers@aol.com.
Visit www.jackremembers.com
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