When Kansas City mayoral candidate Mike Burke announced that Jason Parson would be taking over as his campaign manager earlier this month, it raised a few eyebrows among the city's political junkies. Parson has already tried his hand at running for state legislature, and based on how that turned out, it'd be easy to assume he doesn't have the sharpest campaign sense.
In 2008, Parson ran in the 49th District for Missouri House of Representatives against Tom McDonald. On July 31, KMBC reported that Parson had a history of domestic problems. Parson's then-girlfriend and mother of his son had asked for a protection order against Parson, writing "I'm in immediate and present danger." Parson was later found guilty of violating the order.
At the time, Parson told KMBC that he'd been honest about his problems with local groups while seeking endorsements, and he was no longer seeing the woman. Both the Kansas City Women's Political Caucus and NARAL Pro-Choice Missouri endorsed Parson after the incidents took place, both rescinded those endorsements after the story broke and claimed they were unaware of Parson's problems.
Election day came less than a week after the report, and Parson was blown out, receiving only 30 percent of the vote.
Hopefully Parson learned something about managing expectations from this -- for Burke's sake.You have to wonder how the groups that claimed they were burned by Parson will feel about putting weight behind Burke now.
Parson did not return interview requests for this story.
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