Northeast News
December 2, 2015

John Rizzo announced last week that he’ll be surrendering his Missouri House seat to run for the State Senate seat vacated by Paul LeVota. As you may recall, LeVota resigned after some inappropriate, sexually charged texts surfaced between he and his intern. All this leads this newsdog to ponder the possibilities for the House seat Rizzo is vacating and the race that could possibly shape up.

The Senate seat race could be the more interesting of the two given there are already two challengers who have some pretty good political acumen going into the race. Sugar Creek Mayor Matt Mallinson has expressed some interest in the 11th District Senate seat, as has Jessica Podhola, a governmental affairs official with the International Painters and Allied Trades Union.

As for the now vacant Rizzo seat in the 19th House district, the time could be ripe for a GOP takeover. However, this dog doubts that will happen given the voting percentages of Democrat to Republican in the district runs about 70-30, respectively. We’ve heard rumblings of a political newcomer on the Democrat side filing for the vacant Rizzo seat, but much could happen between now and the end of filing season.

This pooch knows one thing is certain in either race; voter turnout will be a key factor. Republicans and Democrats alike will have to energize their base in order to secure either seat, something that has been a challenge in Historic Northeast over the last few election cycles. Candidate filing opens on Feb. 23, 2016, and this news pooch will be paying close attention. Politics in Northeast is never boring folks. Let the games begin.