CO MO MONEY: Buying new Mayor? Or putting Buffaloe on Blast?

Selling out? Or speaking freely?

COLUMBIA, Mo 3/8/25 (Op-Ed) -- In twenty years of covering campaigns for the Columbia Heart Beat, I've never experienced a campaign season duller than this one. Imagine my excitement when I read about a planned protest at Mayoral front-runner Blair Murphy's Friday meet and greet.

Murphy was a wannabe oligarch who supported fascism, said a Facebook post encouraging protestors to exclaim, "Hell Yes! I'll be there!"  A nursery full of "baby oligarchs" might be there, too. And there would be placards and picketers lining the sidewalks.

The perfect story, right?  

Exhausted after straddling a roofline to repair storm damage, I nonetheless attended Mr. Murphy's event, staying over three hours.

Did I see any fascism? Nope.

Baby oligarchs? No, unless the infants and littles there harbored distant ambitions.

And Mr. Murphy? The same down-to-Earth small business owner I'd earlier met, standing by the same platform and ideas, albeit under limits that have hindered local campaigns for over a decade: special interest candidate forums that preclude public questions; and costly consultants who advise stump speech "vagueness". 

The protestors picketing outside were equally down-to-Earth. No "loony left". No "bozo blue".  Those I questioned -- Harry, Gabe, Rebecca, Jen, Dena, Sebastian, Bryan the organizer and Laura the West Ash Neighborhood Association president -- had understandable concerns.

Their biggest worry, illustrated with hundred dollar bills: Why is so much money saturating Murphy's coffers?  $182,000 so far, with whopper donations in ten grand increments. And $25,000 from a PAC once connected to the Town Bosses, rich developers who threw around a lotta heft at City Hall.

Were these wealthy business owners staging a comeback? Would they throw up more concrete jungles like the student apartments that menaced the community a decade ago? Would they try to Blight Columbia again, for tax credits and eminent domain power?

The protestors' other big concern: "Mr. Murphy is not talking to us. He's not attending our forums, or reacMurphy greets future voterhing out to our people. Will he be a mayor for all of us, or just a rich and chosen few?" 

Center Project supporters Harry and Jen told me they have an upcoming candidate forum to address issues specific to the LGBTQ community and the general public. "Murphy talks about budget cuts, but what budgets? What cuts?" are among questions they'd like to ask, if only Mr. Murphy would agree to attend.

You couldn't ask for better neighbors than the Center Project (CP), which bought a troubled building on a residential street in North Central Columbia and if memory serves, approached the City Council for a commercial use variance. I stood up to support that variance. And when the Center Project went to sell the building to the city for a new headquarters, I stood with other neighbors insisting City Hall not even think about using eminent domain to get it on the cheap. The city bought it fair and square, with CP staying in the neighborhood and taking wonderful care of their new home, a century-old house with Victorian flourishes.

Mr. Murphy did similar things. He bought a century-old business, Johnston Paint, that had passed through its family founders to employee owners. For a bigger space with free parking and easier access, Mr. Murphy and his family sold the old headquarters and built a new one, of which they take immaculate care. The paint and building supplies they sell are orderly, easy to find, in bright and inviting displays. Retail is one tough business. To do it that well is one huge undertaking. 

The 40-person crowd at Mr. Murphy's meet-and-greet included other small business people whose name tags I recognized. A mix of seniors and Millennials. And moms and dads with kids and babies. People who grew up together, started at Grant Elementary and graduated Hickman High, talking about how time flies, how challenging every day can be. Money, health, children, love, memories, bills, taxes, life-saving surgeries and civic pride.

Coach Drinkwitz blended in so well I barely noticed him. Bad journalist, huh? I should have asked him about all the controversy during the one campaign season he stepped into the fray. But I don't do interviews at private events. And I pay for my own food and drink. 

A decade plus ago, meet-the-candidate events featured Town Bosses and their consiglieres prowling the crowd. They drove local politics for years. A PAC-like entity called the Central Missouri Development Council was a POX on a lot of houses, mostly lower income or in the First Ward.

But most of the Town Bosses are gone now. Their heirs have nowhere near the lobbying interest their parents and grandparents had. I'd be a dinosaur calling them out for oligarchy (fascism is irrelevant hyperbole regardless).

Laura, the West Ash NA president, told me she thought a lot of "Blair's interior decorating style." She followed me into the event and pooch in arms, engaged in what looked like a cordial conversation with Mr. Murphy's wife.

Bryan, the protest organizer, is well-educated, well-spoken, a good writer and communicator. His ideas for city reforms, expressed in a regular Missourian column, hit home with a lot of readers. 

So why the big bucks? Terrible optics for sure. But is the money buying? Or as the Supreme Court decided, is it speaking? The Buffaloe campaign should ask why all these prominent people would throw a record amount of their Free Speech at her rather than to her. Mayor Buffaloe should be an incumbent shoo in. But she's been a disappointment to enough people that along comes this unassuming guy, putting his life's work on the line, getting called every name around, to replace her.

My question: If Murph becomes Mayor, can he, will he, be able to close the divide his many predecessors left behind?