Friday, January 11, 2019


The most prolific transit advocate in KCMO history has a longstanding grudge match against the daily paper but the fortunes of the institution have never been worse whist the mayoral field is exceptionally crowded -- THEREFORE, anything could happen in this coming silly season contest.

To wit . . .


The newspaper has harped on him about residency issues but a truly outsider campaign targeting dead-tree media might be the best chance this candidate has to stand out from the crowd.

Here's his latest argument:

Fake news KC Star unfairly slams mayoral candidate Clay Chastain, yet again, to try and make sure he doesn't win the mayor's race.

For 39 years the far left-leaning, Johnson County-based and know it all KC Star editorial board (now led by Kansan's Dave Helling and Steve Kraske) has treated Clay Chastain badly even though Clay has been a community activist trying to improve Kansas City by...

1. fighting to restore and protect its parks, historical neighborhoods and historic structures,

2. single-handedly saving Union Station from demolition,

3. single-handedly winning the 2006 light rail election the corrupt city later overturned and

4. single-handedly fighting city hall’s on-going abuse of the people's democratic petition process.

Today’s Star editorial titled, “This candidate for KC Mayor appears to live in Virginia. Shouldn’t that be a problem?” – is no exception. The biased news side of the Star also wrote a recent article titled, “Why won’t he (Chastain) just leave us alone?” Because “Fake news” KC Star (who always uses unflattering pictures of me looking angry), under your leadership the city has…

1. become the fifth most dangerous city in the nation,

2. suffered decades of broken down infrastructure and inner-city neighborhoods,

3. lost over 100,000 residents in the last 50 years,

4. witnessed its public school enrollment drop from 78,000 students to 12,000,

5. seen its affordable housing wither away,

6. given away tons of precious taxpayer money to wealthy developers (to further line their fur-lined pockets), rather than properly directing that money towards helping fund KC’s schools, libraries and infrastructure and has,

7. nary a smooth paved street south of the river! So, “Shouldn’t that be a problem,” KC Star?

Even though Helling wrote a recent editorial saying, “He (Chastain) can’t win,” Helling and the biased Star are nevertheless obsessed with taking another cheap shot attacking Chastain. This time over the fact Clay is running for mayor while only living in Kansas City part-time. Clay told the Star he will move back to KC full-time if the voters hire Clay to be KC’s next mayor. But for now, Clay cannot leave his job in Virginia because he has the responsibility of taking care of his youngest daughter there.

For the record, nowhere does the city charter specifically prohibit part-time residents from running for mayor. Not only that, the courts have ruled (Pat Roberts and Kit Bond cases) that a candidate resides where he says he resides, as long as the candidate has a direct connection to the community in which he is seeking office.

No one can doubt Clay has a direct connection to the place he calls home - Kansas City - because in addition to his long-term activism Clay has continued to be a KCMO registered voter, most of Clay's family lives in the KC area including his 2-grand children and Clay's parents are buried alongside each other in an eastside KCMO cemetery.

A vote for Clay is a vote against…the biased Kansas City Star, the corrupt inept government at city hall the Star backs up and the Johnson County elite who control Kansas City politics for their own self-serving purposes.

A vote for Clay is a vote for... A New Focus, New Ideas & A New Kind of City - the Return of "The City Beautiful."

Mayoral candidate, Clay Chastain

You decide . . .


Anonymous said...

In a vote between the star versus Clay Chastain.

I think people would be surprised how many votes Clay would get.

Real KC Voter said...

Only agree that the field is far too crowded and the star doesn't have the same kind of influence they once did. Dave Helling wrote a great column a week ago about the mayor's race and it was virtually ignored. He's now taken to writing about St. Louis in order to get a bigger audience. KC just doesn't really care about what the newspaper thinks anymore. So Clay picking this fight is a good move. If he can actually offer a few genuine conservative points for the future of KC beyond his usual transit dreams, he stands a better chance of standing out this year. Remember that Trump placed horribly when running before he took it all. It has as much to do with the opposition as with the candidate.

Anonymous said...

^^^^ that is a somewhat interesting point.

Somebody wake The General! KC needs him.

Anonymous said...

All the way with Clay

Anonymous said...


Anonymous said...

Chastain versus the K C Star.
A battle of wits between two unarmed men!
There are little municipalities of fewer than 3000 residents in the metro that are far better led and managed than KCMO.
It's a joke and a sucking chest wound on the entire region.
Look at the roster of mayoral candidates.
That's the best you can find out of 470,000 people?
Amateur night on the plains.

Anonymous said...

There are hundreds of men and women in KCMO who could be a good mayor. But who would fund them? Being a good mayor would entail cutting off the pigs from the trough. And these pigs are the only ones contributing to campaigns.

Anonymous said...

Clay is a super qualified person who should be Mayor and I will be 100% behind him.

Anonymous said...

If Clay makes fixing streets and sidewalks a priority over subsidized housing for the wealthy and the fixed rail fair weather toot toot, he'll do well.

Anonymous said...

This City Council is obviously broken. I do not think any of the current council members are fit to lead this City for the City.
Clay on the other hand, would bring a fresh start to the City Government.
The Council has been hijacked by a majority of member voters who have the hidden agenda of spending in their districts and spending on their cronies. This does not work for the whole City as vast parts of the City population are not being represented, ie the north and west parts of the city.

Anonymous said...

Opposition from the Star has solidly confirmed my support for Chastain.

Anonymous said...

If the Star is for it, we are against it.

Give em hell Clay.

Anonymous said...

Obviously all the local media, the star and teevee station newz isn't giving Clay the time of day much less any pr.

Anonymous said...

Clay needs to run within a suite of radical change candidates for other council seats. A “take back our council” reform slate, say — of five or six candidates who are also outsiders and run as a team to share publicity and campaign burdens, economy-of-scale type idea. Going-it-alone will dead-end and frustrate chastain and his like-minded supporters. The mayor is just 1 vote on council + figure-head “bully pulpit” type of softer influence. I’m afraid his is just going to be a needed-but-unheeded voice in the wilderness. Thanks for the coverage though.

Anonymous said...

Clay has been on the ballot for mayor last time around. They can't keep him off, there is a precedent!

Anonymous said...

Clay for the win! He truly is the only one who cares for this city, all the others are just greedy bastards out for themselves.

Hyperblogal said...

Why are the gadflies with no chance always the most accurate about the city?

Anonymous said...

Who reads or subscribes to the kc star?

Anonymous said...

It's a strange world where Clay Chastain is honest to god the best option for KC

Anonymous said...

Wake up, KCMO! You finally have a candidate in Chastain that is actually focused on many of the things the city desperately needs (safer neighborhoods, improved infrastructure and city services, better schools). Don’t miss this chance by voting for another city council grifter who’s out to curry favor with rich developers.

Anonymous said...

@10:09 Geezers

Oswald said...

CLay for Mayor! Imagine how upset the Red Star would be! Imagine the fun we can have here for the next for years.

I'm going to contribute to his campaign!!!

Anonymous said...

Dave Helling wrote a great column? And I suppose you think Sly James is a great Mayor? Come back and share with us after you have pulled your head out of your ass.

Anonymous said...

By continuing to give this psychotically challenged person support, you lose whatever credibility you have left

Anonymous said...

Since sLIE is wasting our tax money to keep the red star afloat isn’t he really the one that’s behind all the negative press against clay?

Anonymous said...

In case everybody's forgotten, The Star nailed Clay for being a pervert.

Here's the headline in case you've forgotten, which Tony apparently selectively has.

Chastain says he is sorry

Union Station activist sought dates with signers of his petitions.


Clay Chastain apologized Monday for calling some women who signed his petitions and asking them for dates.

Holding a balloon that pictured a teddy bear and the words "I'm sorry," Chastain also acknowledged that he now understood that the descriptions of the women, which he wrote in the margins of his petitions, were offensive.

"I apologize to all the ladies of Kansas City, " Chastain said. "I'm not making excuses. I'm apologizing for inappropriate behavior."

A Kansas City political scientist said Chastain's apology didn't go far enough. He said Chastain had broken the public trust involving a civic institution - the initiative petition process, which citizens use to bypass government officials.

"As a citizen, I felt violated, and I'm outraged by his conduct," said Frank J. Smist Jr., chairman of the political science department at Rockhurst College. "He owes an apology to everyone, not just women. He's done a lot of damage."

Anne Nattinger, who signed one of the petitions, said she felt betrayed that Chastain was using the process to further his social life.

"I'm really disappointed. I signed the petition, and I felt proud I was part of the cause," Nattinger said. "I don't think any woman who has seen this will ever sign another one."

Nattinger said the notation "short cute yes" next to her name made her feel "creepy." She said Chastain should be stopped from doing petitions in the future "if he's going to be using it for a dating service."

Nattinger said she was not called, as some petitioners were.

For much of the 1990s, Chastain has circulated petitions in Westport and Brookside calling for public votes on various plans to renovate Union Station and the Liberty Memorial. His most recent drive concluded last week. In addition to his civic activism, Chastain has worked as an electrical engineer and a home remodeler.

On Sunday, The Kansas City Star reported that Chastain used the personal information to look up phone numbers and ask women out.

The Star also found 54 notations written on Chastain's petitions. They ranged from a star next to a woman's name to physical attributes, such as "tall blond," "pretty chunky blond," "blond bomb," "short cute," "beautiful hair," "small body," and "shook my hand, freckles."

Chastain explained one notation, "blond watermelon," as a reminder of what the woman was carrying from a grocery.

"That was not meant to be (sexually) suggestive," he said.

No such descriptions appeared beside the names of men who signed.

Chastain said Monday that the descriptions were spontaneous notes jotted down in the stress and weariness of grueling petition drives. "Maybe I was out in the sun too long, " he said. Chastain appeared to blame his predicament on city officials, who stalled three previous petition efforts with legal wrangling and appeals.

"The corrupt city of Kansas City has forced me for the last five years to do petition drive after petition drive after petition drive to get the right to vote, and, yes, this has hurt my social life," he said. "And when I've been on the petition trail I have asked a few women outand a few women have asked me out. I'm not going to apologize for liking women."

Anonymous said...

7:25 for the win. Nothing will keep the hogs from the trough, and the special interests from getting their front men and women installed.

Here is how the newspaper reads for the next three years forward, an exclusive for KCPL, an exclusive for Burns and Mac, tif projects for a dozen rich developers, and an award for everybody on the council for good governance and back scratch arrangements. The law firms coincidentally got big legal matters to handle, surprise, surprise, they were the same ones who got their front people on the council.

Just like ground hog day

Anonymous said...

I am going to run on investing more money on the 3rd district and in the Jazz museum, a new City owned grocery store in the 5th district and 18th and Vine.

Clay would be a home run for the City. He would be able to get a majority within the Council based upon the priorities he has set out.

Anonymous said...

12:12 that was more a smear campaign against Clay by the Star than the story being newsworthy. At least Clay had the balls to admit what he had done wasn't the best way to behave and apologized for doing so but in the end he also didn't break any laws. Hell men have been make physical and mental notes on men since paper was fucking invented and guess what braindead, women do the same damn thing. I also like how you didn't bother to refer to the story where Anne Hodgdon got sued for her false claims against Clay. The Star sure didn't give that story the coverage it sure deserved and the cover up that was done by the Hodgdon family. Look simpleton the Star hates Clay because Clay is a threat to the Star. You're probably a Star employee working at doing as your boss told you to do and that's slander and lie about Clay as much as you can get away with.

Anonymous said...

12:12: Very nice ad hominem hit piece. We can expect to see a lot more of the same the next few months, I'm sure.

Perhaps those of us who are tired of the same old grifters picking our pockets to subsidize the wealthy and build useless "transit" projects don't care about Clay's appreciation of the fairer sex if that will get our streets fixed (drive Ward Parkway much?) and our priorities back to doing what a city is supposed to do.

Anonymous said...

12:12 you aren’t dealing with butthurt Hillary and cnn supporters here, TKC commenters are smarter than that, try harder to get the actual truth next time, k?

Anonymous said...

Where do I get my Chastain yard sign?

Anonymous said...

Bezos to drop to 5th richest man instead of first.


Anonymous said...

I bet if clay was mayor the snow removal would be the number one priority instead of the last, he should be very careful though, we’re going to be bankrupt by this time next year.

Anonymous said...

I bet if clay were mayor he’d fix everything wrong with this city including education, which is the main reason nobody wants to move here in the first place.

Anonymous said...

Go Clay Go. The bullies who dominate this council are shaking in their boots.

The Truth And Nothing But The Truth So Help Me God said...

Kansas City needs Clay Chastain!

Anonymous said...

"TKC commenters are smarter than that"

Rocks are smarter.

Anonymous said...

^^Stop trying to make yourself appear like you have a clue.

Anonymous said...

Top 5 Things you might not know about The KC Star:

1. Oxymoron name. (Star? Seriously? Should be KC Clowns).
2. Will be online only by 2020. The 5 Editorial Board people left will make up 50% of the employees left. They will neither think nor appeal to anyone except some buttoned down philosophy that makes about as much sense as pulling off a lead of a 4-leaf clover and expecting good luck.
3. Less than 10% of anyone cares what their editorial folks think. Those retired can’t get many to read their crap for free. Tony beats them day in and day out.
4. Several people I know quit their subscription when their renewal was $1,000. True.
5. Donald Duck could run for Congress and get more votes.
Bonus: Teens can’t imagine reading a real newspaper.

Anonymous said...

Is the Star a real newspaper?

Anonymous said...

No. The Star is a one-sided publication filled with the opinions of a handful of local yokels who like to pretend they’re hard-hitting journalists. It’s an embarrassment to KC and has the credibility of the Enquirer. It’s not even good to wrap things in because of the ink bleed. When shredded it might be ok for hampster cages, but is too expensive.

Retro ROCKER said...