On the Issues

As County Assessor, Jake will bring a fair, honest, and on-time approach to the office on a daily basis.

Jake's Priorities:

• Jake will be on the side of St. Louis families.  Families and small businesses deserve assessments with no special favors for anyone, and when Jake is elected, that is exactly what they will get.

• Jake will do whatever it takes to answer your questions, and will bring fundamental changes to the Assessor's office to ensure that the office is always there for you.

• If elected Assessor, Jake will do a full evaluation of the office from top to bottom to make sure it is run efficiently, cutting costs wherever possible to save taxpayers money.

• There will be no "drive-by assessments" on Jake's watch. Houses are a family's largest investment and they deserve more attention than just a glance out of a car window.

 

Jake's Record

Jake is a leader on a variety of issues in St. Louis County and in Jefferson City. Here’s a sample of some of the work Jake is most proud of:

Consumer Protection: Protecting Our Families

Jake has been a loud voice for consumers since his days as an Assistant Attorney General prosecuting scammers. As a legislator, Jake worked hard to protect consumer interests when the legislature passed massive telecommunications deregulation legislation. Jake wrote new language containing important protections for billpayers and made sure that language became law. He has played a similar role in other contexts. For example, Jake wrote new and stronger consumer protections for rental car customers that became law in 2007.

Jake is most proud of his signature legislative achievement: the Textbook Transparency Act of 2008 which promotes better accountability and price disclosure for students who are too often taken advantage of by publishers gaming the system. For his work on this bipartisan bill, Jake was named “Legislator of the Year” by the Associated Students of the University of Missouri.

Jake is also a leader in the fight to strengthen the Missouri No-Call list, which he helped enforce when he was a fraud prosecutor. Jake believes it is long past time to crack down on obnoxious robo-calls and other sleazy telemarketing tactics.

Honest and Open Government: Ending Politics as Usual

Jake is passionate about making Missouri government more fair and less wasteful. Since before it was a “hot-button” topic, Jake has sponsored legislation to ban the “revolving door” that currently allows ex-politicians to leave their government jobs and become special interest lobbyists the very next day. In fact, when new ethics standards for elected officials became a top priority for state government during the 2010 legislative session, Governor Jay Nixon personally asked Jake to carry the torch and light the way to a better, more transparent Missouri by sponsoring a tough new ethics bill.

Jake is also a leading advocate for election reform. His bill to require access to paper ballots for all voters passed the Missouri House with a broad bipartisan majority in 2008, and he has high hopes to get it over the finish line the next time around. Jake has also worked on other reforms to increase voter participation such as instant run-off voting, no-fault absentee balloting, and mailed ballots.

Fighting for Our Region: Creating Jobs

Jake knows from his background in the private sector that Missouri will not move forward without good jobs. Jake’s top priority is putting Missourians back to work and growing our economy with high-paying research-based jobs, green jobs, and constructions jobs that will build the infrastructure of our future – none of which can be outsourced. Jake fights for our region to make sure St. Louis County has the resources necessary to promote jobs in our community. For example, Jake was on the front lines of the fight to get our fair share of transit dollars to help restore MetroLink and MetroBus service.

 

In addition, Jake believes in local control, and has defended St. Louis county and municipal leaders from unfair state mandates and politically-motivated meddling by outside interests. Similarly, Jake has been honored by the Missouri Bar for his work protecting our judiciary from unfair and partisan attacks.

Working Together

Jake is a leader in the Democratic Party and is actively involved in local and statewide Democratic campaign efforts. But to get things done in Jefferson City, Jake knows the importance of putting politics aside and promoting a bipartisan agenda. So, when fraudulent operators of for-profit clothing “donation” boxes were pretending to be a charity, Jake assembled a broad bipartisan coalition to pass legislation cracking down on them.

When local advocates for foster children needed bipartisan support for an important health care bill, they turned to Jake and asked for his help assembling legislators on both sides of the aisle. 48 hours later, Jake had rounded up support from more than half of his colleagues, including prominent Republican and Democratic leaders. For this bipartisan work, Jake was honored locally by Epworth Children and Family Services, where he now sits on the Board of Directors.

And a Whole Lot More

Believe it or not, all this is just the tip of the iceberg. To see a list of all the bills Jake has sponsored and cosponsored each year, click on 2007, 2008, 2009, or 2010.

To read some of Jake’s press coverage, click here.