Dave Raithel
Democratic Candidate for
Missouri House District 44

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The General Elections of 2022 are behind us. I say to every person and every organization that endorsed my campaign, made contributions, answered a helpful phone-call, provided a forum: Thank You.

The future doesn’t look as bleak to me as it did a year ago, even up til November of the elections. In Boone County, we are buoyed as David Tyson-Smith returns to the Missouri Legislature, pointing the way for newcomers Kathy Steinhoff, Doug Mann, and Adrian Plank.

I am not, however, sanguine. Avoiding the more worse harms on the ballot is a relief, but not grounds to halt.

Consequently, I and other Democrats ponder the question: What’s to be done about Boone County’s 44th Missouri House District? Should anyone try again? Should I try again, as I am encouraged, regardless losing 9 to 5? What’s to be gained from running in a district that most people agree cannot be won by a Democrat?

Over the next few weeks, into spring, I and others will be figuring what to do. I entertain a coalition of Boone County voters who have, over successive elections, voted for increased minimum wages and against “Right to Work”; who voted to expand Medicaid; who voted for election reform with Clean; who voted to legalize marijuana – twice.

I contend those voters are not election deniers or conspiracy fans. Those voters want better roads and reliable broad-band. Those voters want reliable and better funding for their schools and school buses. Those voters are fine with their school boards and parent committees setting curricula. Those voters are fine having their library boards decide what books to shelve and who can get them when. Those voters want public officials they can trust to tell the truth, so they can trust their local health boards.

We know the paradox: Voters elect people who thwart what the voters say they want. The voters are placated with tax cuts, drippings of a few dollars for the mass of them.

The sources of the paradox, we also know: A woman’s dominion over her body; the Public’s need to regulate firearms.

It’s a conundrum.

Interested persons are welcomed to drop me a note with their thoughts on what to do, either below (email) or over at my Facebook candidate page.

Once again, thanks to everyone for the help and support.

-Dave Raithel

I'm Dave Raithel

a Democrat for the 44th Missouri House District.

I came to Boone County in 1977 for college on the GI Bill. I am a husband, a father, and a grandfather; a musician, a philosopher, a farm hand; a truck driver, now retired. I am a graduate of St Charles Senior High; Washington University in St Louis; and the University of Missouri - Columbia.

I have a home and a garden, a canoe and a trailer, and a dog; a rifle and a shotgun and some pistols. I have no talent for small talk or tolerance for dissemblers. I have no money, no status, and no power.

I do, however, have a moral compass.

It directs me to freedom of speech and expression, freedom of worship, freedom from want, and freedom from fear. It negotiates justice and equality, the right to be left alone, and duty to community.

I am a "d" Democrat.

Yet, I am more Republican than the incumbent of the 44th District. The incumbent does not serve a public interest. She serves a political religious sect. She would force her religion on other persons through law. She promotes conspirators who trash representative democracy and undermines confidence in the neighbors we know running our elections.

Her politics are a doctrine of misery for the sick and poor, an indifference to labor, an undue concern with private matters between the legs of strangers, an arrogance belittling people who know more about disease than she does, a contempt for public school boards. She does not infer Black Lives Matter from All Lives Matter. She preaches the untruth that more guns in the hands of more people will make us safer. Nothing of her politics suggests a sense of common good. For her, it's all things sectarian all the time.

As a Democrat, I know how to be more Republican than her.

Guns are not plowshares. Black Lives Matter. I believe in public non-sectarian schools and boards of health. Your intimate affairs, and your children's, are none of my business. I believe that no one owes anyone an explanation for the body which God, or Nature, has given them. I know the sick need healing; my neighbors don't cheat counting votes; losing is not a conspiracy.

A Democratic Republic cannot stand on the private faith of some persons. A Democratic Republic is grounded on reason and public evidence. I will go to Jefferson City to represent the people of the 44th on the grounds of reason and public evidence.

Missouri House District 44

The new District 44 is contained entirely within Boone County, Missouri and covers many of the smaller communities including Centralia, Hallsville, Ashland, and Hartsburg.

The new 44th is nearly all of Boone County outside Columbia city limits, south of I-70 from county line to county line and east of MO Route 124 north of I-70.

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