Like a calm before the storm.
The heated rivalry between State Rep. John Burnett and John Joseph Rizzo is no big secret. The two have gone back and forth for years in an exchanges of political left hooks and right jabs.
Already some political watchers throughout Kansas City are predicting that Northeast’s State House race is one of the hot races to watch as the two will undoubtedly duke it out for the chance to represent us in the Missouri house. The attack ads, we are sure, are merely waiting in the shadows before being sprung on one or both candidates.
Some of the attacks, which have mostly remained said behind closed doors or in confidence, have even bordered on eerily personal.
In their last go around for the seat, Burnett beat Rizzo by only seven votes — and don’t think that has not gotten some in the Rizzo camp fired-up for this next round and vice versa for Burnett.
Tonight (Wednesday, July 9) though, is the first chance the two will square off publicly and once again open the flood gates of what could become another bloody political season for Northeast.
This pup has only one dog in this fight and it is the neighborhoods that these two claim they can better represent.
But let’s cut though the fur and get to the heart of what is at stake here: the success or failure of these neighborhoods that more than 30,000 call home. Northeast as a whole stands in a very unique position as major projects and some help begins to trickle in through neighborhood revitalization and crime prevention.
At the same time, though, the city is shrinking its support and the neighborhood groups that already give their hearts to this area are going to start looking to county and state leaders to keep that success rolling.
Reducing this seat of authority into a pile of hateful mailers and vindictive ads is not going to serve anyone any good.
Now, this dog has some years in her and is not naive enough to think one editorial is going to make every politician fly straight this election season.
Still, we hope through this we can maybe remind every candidate that there are still a lot of good people counting on whomever takes this seat to turn right around after the campaign party and get to work. The winner will be expected to immediately begin giving every last bit they can to get resources, projects and money to flow from the State to the streets of Northeast.
As we ride this calm before the storm, it might be good to ask how any candidate for any position representing Northeast will accomplish this though another hateful flyer clogging our mailboxes.
