The Empire Strikes Back

Democrats in Jefferson County were not happy with the 2010 election. Jefferson County is owned by the Democrats, but voters had the temerity to turn a bunch of them out of office and elect Republicans to replace them (it is clear from its coverage that the Jefferson County Leader is quite upset with the idea of a GOP-dominated County Council).

In 2012, at least one spurned politician will be trying to reclaim his rightful place in office. I refer to Jeff Roorda, former State Representative from the 102nd District who was defeated by Paul Wieland. Jeff Roorda is recently most famous for a bit of an altercation he had on the House floor in March 2010. In the wake of redistricting, he will be running in the 113rd District. He was going to run for State Senate in 2014, but he changed his mind (at least for now; he’ll probably still make that run when the time comes).

His path to the general election has quickly been cleared like a running lane for Rams’ running back Steven Jackson (oh, wait, bad example). His two potential challengers dropped out as soon as he announced. It is especially surprising that one challenger, Charles Huey, dropped out. That guy, a 27-year-old alleged political consultant, has been running for office left and right (literally) since at least 2010. He was a Tea Party Republican running for state legislature in 2010, then he was a Democrat and Phil Amato crony running for Health Department board or something in 2011, and as for 2012, who knows now? [ed. – Windsor School Board and Rock Ambulance Board] He really wants to be elected to something. But I digress.

I suspect it was Roorda’s connections that prompted the other candidates to drop out. The same connections that got Roorda not one, but two, offers for cushy placeholder jobs while he waited for election season to roll around. The first was “special assistant to the director of public safety” and the second was a newly-created business manager position with the St. Louis Police Officers Association.

Yeah, Roorda used to be a cop. He got fired from the Arnold PD in 2001 for some poor conduct, namely filing a report with false statements to cover a colleague, for one. Then he tried to take sick leave for his wife’s childbirth, was rejected, then alleged that his chief verbally abused and intimidated him via an Allegation of Employee Misconduct Report. Then he sued the city (all these details can be found here). Secret recordings were involved, too.

Roorda isn’t terribly liberal. He got a “C” grade from the Jefferson County Tea Party in 2010, and he talks a good moderate game. But shenanigans seem to follow him wherever he goes (even at his current job), which I think it would be best if he kept, instead of rejoining the legislature.