In 2010, Missouri replaced moderate Congressman Ike Skelton with a far-right candidate named Vicky Hartzler. In her two years in office she's veered even farther to the extreme right and proved herself incapable of getting things done. Now we have a chance to replace her with a moderate, law-and-order Democrat who will better represent the 4th District: Teresa Hensley.

Teresa Hensley is the person we need in Congress to get things done. Hensley has an impressive record as the Cass County Prosecuting Attorney. She has sent murderers, child abusers and wife beaters to prison. She knows how to bring different agencies together to accomplish goals and she knows that the most vulnerable among us need understanding and support, not vilification.

Teresa Hensley comes from a working-class family and will fight for a stronger middle class. She will get things done where Hartzler has only produced more partisan gridlock and petty attacks. Teresa has been endorsed by the Kansas City Star and the Columbia Tribune. Let's send a common-sense moderate to Congress, someone who will really represent the values of hard-working Missourians.

One of the strongest signs that Vicky Hartzler has taken leave of her senses came in a town hall in April of this year. Responding to a constituent's question about the President's place of birth, she said, "I have doubts that it really is his real birth certificate." Did I mention that this was almost a year after President Obama released his long-form birth certificate? This conspiracy theory is embarrassing to her constituents and an unmistakable sign of bad judgement.

Hartzler also voted for the Paul Ryan budget that would replace the guaranteed coverage of Medicare with a voucher system. Under the plan that Hartzler supported, the next generation of seniors would be given a coupon and left to the whims of the private insurance market. Seniors would be responsible for around $6,000 in extra costs under this plan.

Though Hartzler claims to be very concerned about federal budget deficits, she has refused to consider many options that would actually help the budget gap. Rather than putting top tax rates back to where they were in the surplus days of the Clinton administration, she wants to cut them. This trickle-down approach would make the deficit worse, not better. The spending cuts she supports are almost exclusively aimed at the less fortunate among us. Hartzler voted to cut food stamps while preserving the farm subsidies that have put over $820,000 of government checks into her pocket.

At every step, Hartzler has shown herself to be a comforter of the comfortable and an afflicter of the afflicted. She reliably sides with the polluter, the corporation, the investment banker, the defense contractor and the 1%. At a time when we need government to come together and move the country forward, Hartzler has been extremely partisan and ineffective.

Hartzler has trumpeted awards from groups like the NFIB and RetireSafe, who gave her an award called "Standing Up for America's Seniors." On the surface that sounds nice, but people familiar with Hartzler's record knew something smelled fishy. A closer examination of this organization shows that RetireSafe is a corporate-backed group founded with the stated purpose of privatizing Social Security, a move that would be devastating to the financial security of seniors. An award from that group is nothing to be proud of.

Let's choose a Representative who will work to strengthen the middle class and protect our seniors. Vote for Teresa Hensley on November 6.