News Coverage
Sprawling 6th District a Unique Challenge for Candidates
Published September 14, 2008
Consider the disparity unavoidable, a quirk of constitution, geography and demographics.
Congressman Emanuel Cleaver can drive from one side of his Kansas City district to the other in maybe a half-hour, depending on traffic.
In the district to his north, Congressman Sam Graves can exit his house in Tarkio, Mo., en route to meet his constituents in Cooper County, and the drive will take three and a half hours.
Such is life in the 6th District, a sprawling 26-county layout that touches the northwestern corner of Missouri, runs across most of the state’s roof and drops down to within a shout of the central capital city.
Its more than 13,000 square miles comprise a greater land area than eight states. And its estimated 655,000 residents approximate the population of Alaska.
In St. Joseph, a recent hotbed of 6th District campaign attention, voters seldom know that people in far-flung locales like Lancaster and Prairie Home and Keytesville will see the same congressional candidates on their ballots in November.
But the candidates know. And campaigning for the U.S. House seat comes with long drives and logistical challenges.
“There’s a lot more dirt between the light bulbs,” said Jason Klindt, who’s running Mr. Graves’ re-election campaign.
Steve Glorioso, a veteran of local campaigns in Kansas City and statewide elections, says the 6th District race has closer ties to the latter.
“The way it feels, it’s like a statewide race, just on a smaller scale,” said Mr. Glorioso, campaign director for Kay Barnes, the Democrat looking to unseat Mr. Graves.
Like Missouri, the 6th District has a diversified population. Well, maybe not racially. The district’s 7 percent non-white population pales beside the state’s 16 percent minority residency.
But the district has a mix of blue-collar and white-collar jobs, factories and farms, densely populated suburbs and barely present hamlets.
Out there on the interstates and country roads, the 6th District has more than 200 cities, towns and villages, from Agency to Worthington.
There are 111 school districts all or partially in the district, according to the Census Bureau. Of the residents over age 25, about 10 percent failed to graduate from high school and 25 percent have a bachelor’s degree or higher.
About 34 percent of district residents live in what the government considers rural areas, though those rural areas amount to 98 percent of the land. The Environmental Working Group reported that between 1995 and 2006, the federal government paid $1.8 billion in farm subsidies to those living in the 6th District.
As of 2007, about 10 percent of the people living in the district had incomes below the poverty level in the previous 12 months. Nearly 57 percent of them were women. About 8 percent of the households got food stamps or cash public assistance, said the Census Bureau.
Per capita income in the 6th District is $25,388, nearly $5,000 higher than the average of the other three largest rural congressional districts in the state. The median annual earnings for district residents are $32,891, with males at $40,576 and females at $26,514.
About 66 percent of votes cast for the 6th District House race come from four counties: Buchanan, Platte, Clay and the eastern portion of Jackson. But neither campaign takes for granted the other 34 percent.
In 2006, Mr. Klindt helped run a U.S. Senate campaign in Montana, where big-sky campaigning challenges are the norm. The mind-set of Montanans about distance is different than in Missouri.
“They don’t think anything about driving from Billings to Missoula (about five hours) to go to a Friday night football game,” he said.
But the campaign techniques stay largely the same. “In a large geographical area, you have to rely on a good volunteer network,” the Graves campaign leader said. “These are good folks who volunteer their time for a cause.”
Spreading the campaign message throughout the district remains a concern. The Kansas City and St. Joseph television markets hit about 70 percent of the district residents. In the easternmost stretches, stations in Kirksville and Columbia provide the greatest reach into households, though those outlets reside outside the district and concentrate on the neighboring 9th District.
In all counties, Mr. Glorioso said, campaigns must concentrate on building good bases of support. The county coordinators mean a lot when candidates can’t be everywhere at once, and they understand local concerns.
“From Worth County to Blue Springs, it’s a great distance geographically and demographically,” the Barnes campaign director said. “In some ways you have 26 mini-campaigns.”
