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Forget about Washington: Mr. Smith goes to prison instead
(by Jeff Fister - January 06, 2010)
I had lunch recently with former State Sen. Jeff Smith, who is going to prison next week.
In August, Smith resigned from the Senate and pled guilty to two counts of obstruction of justice stemming from his primary campaign in 2004 when he ran against Russ Carnahan for U.S. Congress from the third congressional district.
During his heated campaign with Carnahan, Smith participated in an “anonymous” mailing about Carnahan’s attendance record and then told federal investigators that he didn’t know anything about it.
Worse yet, it seems that while the original complaint was dropped by investigators, it was reopened after Smith’s best friend, former State Rep. Steve Brown, wore a “wire” to record conversations with Smith. Smith, Brown and another campaign worker, Nick Adams, then pled guilty to various charges.
Had Smith admitted originally to the mailing-out misdeed, he would have probably just been fined. But lying about it — well, like other politicians before him, it was the cover-up that got him.
The head-scratcher for myself, and for probably a lot of others, was why would a rising young star in Missouri democratic politics, a dynamic, progressive force like Smith, do something that “misguided”?
When I met with him, Smith was calm, talkative and earnest. One thing we talked about were Missouri politicians and St. Louis mayors who had the “it” factor… the charisma to light up a room. For me, Smith had “it” but in a low-key, likeable way. Here was this nice bright West County-raised, Washington University political science professor who really did care about your kid’s education, crime, even the potholes in the alley behind your house. Someone in my office talked about Smith coming to one of her neighborhood meetings. They weren’t going to like him at first — he had run against someone in their neighborhood in an earlier election — but soon were won over by his knowledge of the issues, his ability to listen, passion and yes, his charm.
As you may recall, Smith won over a lot of people in his 2004 race against Carnahan. His youth-powered grassroots campaign, chronicled in the award-winning documentary Can Mr. Smith Get to Washington Anymore?, emphasized face-to-face voter contact. His army of 500 volunteers canvassed nearly 25,000 homes and held 93 coffees throughout the district. Mr. Smith was reviewed favorably in national newspapers and even was short-listed for an Academy Award.
Smith narrowly lost to Carnahan, the David facing a Goliath with Carnahan’s name-brand in Missouri democratic circles (his father, Mel, was governor; his mother, Jean, served in the U.S. Senate; and his sister, Robin, is Missouri Secretary of State). Carnahan had the name, the money, the traditional union support — all of which was nearly upset by this brash young poli-sci professor.
He won the state Senate seat in 2006 and Mr. Smith went to Jefferson City. Smith is proud of his accomplishments there. He was seen as one of the Senate’s leading champions of urban education reform, including charter schools. He also passed some of the first “eco-friendly” policies out of the legislature in decades, including a Green Sales Tax holiday. Lastly, he championed the cause of non-custodial fathers in his high-poverty district, assisting fathers struggling to pay child support and to avoid jail.
After Smith’s guilty plea and resignation, there were a lot of disillusioned supporters, young and old, who felt let down by Smith. These hard-working volunteers, who knocked on doors and made phone calls and drove elderly voters to the polls, were captivated by Smith’s “it” factor and seeming “new way” in politics. I can’t blame them; I, too, felt that Smith was a strong, young progressive urban voice in a legislature ruled by out-state conservatives.
So why’d he risk all that? In high school, there was a stern old priest who yelled at me once, “don’t say everything is relative!” (one of my favorite maxims at the time). It’s either right or wrong, black or white (paper or plastic), he wanted to impress upon me. But in politics, as in life, there are shades of gray. Smith, when his friend secretly taped him, at one point said that he’d be “90 percent truthful” with the federal investigators. 90 percent? For a politician? I’d take that most of the time.
And while another college professor of mine might chide me for my moral relativism, let’s face it. What Smith did was bad — and punishable — but held up against other modern political scandals, it seems more like overly ambitious careerism. Smith didn’t “hike the Appalachian trail,” steal campaign funds for personal use or get caught driving drunk.
What he did do was apparently tick somebody off, and if that somebody is a federal official, then watch out.
Smith leaves next week to serve up to one year and one day in federal prison in Manchester, Kentucky. After that? Smith said he might teach again. What about politics? Smith said he has no interest in running for office again and he is legally barred from holding state office. But when I pressed him, he did admit that he could probably be eligible to run for a national office.
We’ll just have to see where Mr. Smith goes.
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