“Missouri, Come to Your Census!”

Uncategorized | March 31, 2009

By David Stokes | Read Time 1 minute

This post in Political Fix immediately reminded me of this classic Onion article. Sometimes government officials have no idea how funny they are. Try to guess which lines are from the news article and which are from the joke article:

Some suspect that the rise is the result of a citywide “Hey, Elkhart, Come To Your Census!” campaign.

Assistant Regional Census Manager Craig Best brought out census-themed gear, including coffee mugs, pens and a bag.

No one lives in St. Louis.

Members of the committee — mostly government officials and community organization members — threw out ideas such as tapping into Facebook.com to reach college students, and Simmons brought up the possibility of Tweeting.

Just hysterical. I don’t think I would want to go on living without my home subscription to the Onion. Thanks for Combest for the catch — you know he loves the Onion, too.

About the Author

David Stokes

David Stokes is a St. Louis native and a graduate of Saint Louis University High School and Fairfield (Conn.) University. He spent six years as a political aide at the St. Louis County Council before joining the Show-Me Institute in 2007. Stokes was a policy analyst at the Show-Me Institute from 2007 to 2016. From 2016 through 2020 he was Executive Director of Great Rivers Habitat Alliance, where he led efforts to oppose harmful floodplain developments done with abusive tax subsidies. Stokes rejoined the Institute in early 2021 as the Director of Municipal Policy. He is a past president of the University City Library Board. He served on the St. Louis County 2010 Council Redistricting Commission and was the 2012 representative to the Electoral College from Missouri’s First Congressional District. He lives in University City with his wife and their three children.

[email protected]

Learn more about this author >