RUST COMMENTARY: JO ANN EMERSON HAS EARNED YOUR VOTE FOR THE 8TH DISTRICT -- TWICE!

JO ANN EMERSON has earned your vote ... TWICE! Once as an independent for the general election and once as a Republican for the special election to fill the unexpired term of her late husband, Congressman Bill Emerson, 8th District.

Emerson has asked and worked for your vote. She has campaigned across the 26 counties of the district multiple times.

She participated in all four of the debates and two candidate forums, and by all reports (certainly in the Cape debate which I attended) she was the best informed, most articulate and most importantly ... expounded the views of the majority of the people here in the 8th District. She is also the candidate who is closest to the views of three of the other four candidates ... this can be determined by a reading of her and the other candidates' responses to questions in the Southeast Missourian newspaper this week.

She's taken the heat of a political campaign while maintaining the grace of a former congressman's wife, who is also shouldering the loving care of her mother-in-law (Bill's mother Marie Hahn, who recently suffered a fractured hip).

Emerson brings with her the experienced Southeast Missouri congressional staff of Bill Emerson, who have proven themselves to the voters of the 8th District for their outstanding service to constituents ... while her major opponent, Emily Firebaugh, has Washington-backed media consultants for her staff.

Emerson is well known by the congressional colleagues of her husband Bill, and she is respected in her own right as a working mother who was straightforward with Congress on issues for groups she represented.

While Emerson and EMILY FIREBAUGH agree on many issues ... their ads have been laying out the significant differences. Firebaugh supports labor unions for public employees including the right to strike.

Firebaugh supports partial-birth abortions and continues to misstate the reduced increase in Medicare and calls them cuts -- something she knows and admits are about the same under the Clinton/Gephardt plan.

Twenty of Firebaugh's top 28 major group endorsements came from labor unions ... plus the liberal Emily's List, the American and Missouri Trial Attorneys and the Missouri and National Education Association (NEA), among others.

* * * * *

In a column by STEVE SOWERS of the ROLLA DAILY NEWS, he observed:

"Although a novice at anything but teacher (brief stint) and operating the businesses she inherited from her late first husband's family, the Fergusons, Firebaugh wants us to believe that she would be another Dick Ichord.

"The late Mr. Ichord was Bill Emerson's equal in popularity in the 8th District. A Democrat, he served for 20 years, from 1960-1980.

"Similar to Mr. Emerson, Mr. Ichord maintained homes in his Missouri hometown, Houston, and in the Washington, D.C., area.

"To paraphrase Lloyd Bentsen, who once acidly told Dan Quayle, 'Senator, you're no Jack Kennedy': Emily, you're no Dick Ichord."

* * * * *

In an endorsement the ROLLA NEWS stated:

"Mrs. Emerson is the candidate who ought to be sent to Washington to represent this district. She'll serve us in the same conservative and commonsense way that her husband did.

"Mrs. Firebaugh, who I have known many years and personally like, is running as a "commonsense housewife." For someone with common sense, she is sure running an oddball campaign.

"For instance, she is promoting her endorsement by the arch-liberal National Education Association, and she brought ultra-liberal Sen. Bill Bradley to the district to stump for her! Now, I like teachers and I liked Bradley as a basketball player, but the politics of the NEA and Sen. Bradley are way too far to the left for this district. Parading them around in the 8th District shows a distinct lack of common sense, in my opinion.

"Also, and this surprises me, speaking as a personal friend of Emily Firebaugh's, she has taken the low road in the campaign with her attacks on Mrs. Emerson's place of residence. By trying to portray Mrs. Emerson as an outsider with no ties to the district, Mrs. Firebaugh is only calling into question her own integrity. The fact is, Mrs. Emerson has long been a part of the district. I outlined her community ties in a column last week, so I'll not take the space to go into that again. You can dig the paper off the recycling pile and look at her ties in Cape Girardeau. Again, this shows a lack of common sense on the part of Mrs. Firebaugh.

"Finally, many of Mrs. Firebaugh's political positions are not in tune with those of the district. She told the U.S. Chamber that she didn't favor a balanced budget amendment. At the debate in Rolla, she would not say she opposed the hideous practice of partial-birth abortion, something even many pro-choice believers have done.

"She supports government-run health care like the Canadian system, and if you've been following the news, you know that the Canadian system is having so many problems that doctors are sending patients to the United States. These positions show Mrs. Firebaugh is not the "commonsense" candidate she claims to be."

* * * * *

The WEST PLAINS DAILY QUILL comments:

"... Mrs. Emerson's position, following those of her late husband, U.S. Rep. Bill Emerson of Cape Girardeau, are more closely attuned to those of us Republicans and so-called "Emercrats" in this end of the 8th District than are those of Mrs. Firebaugh.

"Last week I was told by a journalist friend of some credibility that Mrs. Firebaugh has admitted that she sees nothing wrong with collective bargaining and strikes by public employees in Missouri. I don't think the idea of strikes by state policemen, city and county cops and ambulance district employees will sell any better over in Swamp East than it does here in the hilly end of the district. ...

"Mrs. Emerson's commitment is a legacy of her husband to which we can hold her. The only commitment we are sure we can hold Mrs. Firebaugh to are those aims of labor organizations. ...

"Send Jo Ann Emerson to fulfill her late husband's legacy by voting for her for 8th District representative."

* * * * *

The daily Sikeston STANDARD-DEMOCRAT in endorsing Emerson commented:

"We believe the GOP will lose the White House but retain control of Congress. And given that belief, the last thing this district needs is a freshman legislator in a minority party. Despite that, Emily Firebaugh is far too liberal to reflect the majority of the 8th Congressional District. Look up and down her positions on any topic and you'll see that more often than not, your views are not represented.

"And to give you an insight into the Democratic party, candidates are already lining up to challenge Firebaugh should she win election. And the challenge is coming from within her own party. That should tell you something about the support she will get if elected.

"Emily Firebaugh has also taken the low road in this year's election campaign. Her leading political jab is that Jo Ann Emerson has not lived in this district and cannot therefore represent our views. Wrong! Jo Ann Emerson is indeed a part of the fabric of the 8th Congressional District and we trust her experience and insight to help carry our voice to Washington, D.C.

"A return to a Democratic majority in Congress would put some of the most left-leaning liberals in key committee positions than at any time in our history. To read the key Democrats in line for plum assignments reads like the Who's Who of the ACLU Christmas card list. Our nation can ill afford this dramatic shift to the left. If that were to happen, our grandchildren and their children would still be paying for the host of new federal programs that would surely emerge. It is simply too frightening to imagine.

"We believe Jo Ann Emerson represents our view best. She has a moderate-to-conservative philosophy and clearly knows her way around Washington. She begins with a respect established by her husband and is the only one who can carry that legacy forward. She deserves our support, our prayers and our votes."

* * * * *

Incidentally, in a previous column, I erroneously wrote that RICHARD KLINE had not participated in the West Plains debate. I was in error. He missed the major Cape debate because of a "previous commitment" and has admitted he initially felt somewhat afraid of debating two women. But, Kline said that once "I got my feet wet (in debate) my courage expanded to the point that I now know I can debate and I do not have to be a mental giant."

~Gary Rust is president of Rust Communications, which owns the Southeast Missourian and other newspapers.