Decisions looming: Missouri will be in the focus

We’re getting a clearer picture of what Missourians will be deciding in November.

Missouri will elect a new governor, either Attorney General Jay Nixon or Congressman Kenny Hulshof. Both have long resumes. The polls and the political tide favor Nixon – but a lot can happen in three months.

State Rep. Paul LeVota, a Democrat from Independence, is the minority leader in the Missouri House. He’s been saying all year that his party will retake control of the House this fall. OK, that’s part of his job – but really? We’ll see. The Democrats would have to pick up 11 seats, and that looks like a reach.

John McCain and Barack Obama have been in the state several times and no doubt will stop by again and again. Missouri is still seen as a swing state, and McCain remains slightly ahead in most polls. We wonder if Obama will end up doing what John Kerry did four years ago – writing off Missouri weeks before election day, a move that angered Democrats across the state.

There is that whole history thing going for Missouri: The Show-Me State has gone with the presidential winner in every election but one – Eisenhower in 1956 – for a century. Will Missouri be a bellwether again? It looks like it.

Meanwhile, Missourians will only decide two public policy issues this fall, so that part of the campaign could be relatively quiet. The secretary of state’s office certified those issues on Tuesday.

The casinos want two things – no more casinos, no more loss limit – in exchange for a slight increase in taxes. The other issue would let home health workers unionize.

Two other issues failed to meet the criteria to get on the ballot, such as getting enough signatures from different parts of the state. One would have reigned in the use of eminent domain – the government’s power to take land it deems needed – for private development. The other would have required a greater use of alternative energy. Those are two areas where the state could benefit from a fuller debate.