MOTHER'S BOY: Candidate's mom chides journalist's wife over campaign coverage
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04 Sep 2012
- Published Date
If you elect John Wright, do you also get his mother?Taken aback at first -- John Who? -- it took her awhile to figure out the woman meant John Wright the Missouri statehouse candidate.
The same John Wright I took to task for blowing nearly $200,000 in primary campaign donations to defeat fellow Democrat Nancy Copenhaver, much of it donated by out-of-state financiers and hedge fund types after Wright publicly condemned big donations.
Wright has been throwing a lot of money around mid-Missouri these days, and a lot of promises too, like the one about how a preschool he got a no-bid contract to operate for Columbia Public Schools will include at least 50% low income kids.
Among other problems: in writing, that promise was nowhere to be found when I interviewed Wright this spring. And he couldn't say when -- or if -- it would ever be documented. The only thing assured was that the other 50% of families would pay roughly $7,000 annually for their kids to attend.
Torturing little John?
On the phone with my wife, Wright's mother said that -- lo and behold -- they were family in some way my wife didn't entirely understand (neither of us had ever heard of Mother Wright outside her son's campaign ads). A mutual friend had made the connection, and boy was Mom upset that the husband of a family member -- moi -- was "maligning" and "torturing little John."
"So and so at your church said you were a nice person," Mother Wright told my wife.
A Funny One
I told him my wife's family "has struggled with some difficult issues of late, most notably the deaths of patriarchs and matriarchs, and serious illness."
He wrote back quickly.
"Hi Mike: That's a funny one. I obviously don't know anything about this. Pls feel free to reach out to my mother if you wish to speak with her or have any concerns -- I believe she and my Dad are both in the phone book. Warm Regards, John."
