Capitol Calling

3. MO-9

 

BACKGROUND: You could argue that I was covering the battle over Missouri's Ninth District congressional seat before it was cool.

That's because I was assigned to the race in 2006, which featured a match up between Kenny Hulshof and Duane Burghard that was effectively over before it began. Even though Burghard was arguably a better candidate than previous Democratic challengers, he was underfunded and didn't come close to breaking through in the GOP-leaning congressional district. But you could say that I got hooked on the annual race, as it allowed me to examine a big area with an extensive and fascinating political history.

Things became more interesting when state Rep. Judy Baker waded into the Ninth District race in late 2007. But it wasn't until Hulshof decided not to run again that all electoral hell broke loose.

The Ninth District is unusual, because it has a fairly large bench of potential candidates from both major parties. Two former Democratic statewide officials - Joe Maxwell and Roger Wilson - are from the Ninth. And there are a whole bunch of Republicans who could hypothetically run for the seat. When filing ended, there were five Republicans and four Democrats running.

In essence, the Republican race was between Bob Onder and Blaine Luetkemeyer. And the Democratic contest was between Baker and Steve Gaw. But the other candidates had intriguing roles throughout the primary. Danie Moore, for instance, actually raised enough money to run television and radio advertisements. Lyndon Bode tried to appeal to conservative Democrats who were against abortion rights. Ken Jacob challenged Baker from the left. And there was also a random Republican candidate - Dan Bishir - who didn't really play any role in the campaign.

Despite the drama during the primary, Baker and Luetkemeyer won their primaries fairly easily. Afterward, both national parties promised to invest big money into the Ninth District race. That meant the district was subjected to a deluge of negative ads from both parties, a sure-fire sign of a competitive race. And while the race was indeed close, the Ninth stayed Republican with a Luetkemeyer victory.

WHY IT MADE THE LIST: Out of all the races I've covered, the Ninth District featured more interesting candidates, exchanges, controversies, weird events and drama than any other campaign. It brought national attention to a congressional district that few thought about in the realm of competitiveness. And it signaled Blaine Luetkemeyer's comeback from the political abyss.

 

Alas, redistricting means that it'll be a rare event for U.S. House seats to be regularly contested. Although this year may break that trend, it may become a pretty predictable affair after 2012. So, I'm thankful I got to cover such a wild affair before it becomes boring again.

  

FUN FACT: Jeff Schaeperkoetter - a Democrat from Gasconade County - nearly ran for the seat. He dropped out, making a Luetkemeyer-Schaeperkoetter match impossible.

 

#2...

14. Hulshof seeks Jesse Hall

BACKGROUND: After the 2006 election cycle, U.S. Rep. Kenny Hulshof was in the minority in the U.S. House of Representatives. For most students of politics who understand how the U.S. House operates, that status is akin to being world's smartest platypus. They're interesting in theory, but they're probably going to get eaten by the giant kangaroos that are the majority party.

Therefore, I suppose it wasn't surprising that Hulshof tried to depart before his term was over in 2007. The presidency of the University of Missouri system had come open, which seemed like a perfectly good way for the Republican pol to serve the public and stay close to his family.

As the rumor mill started to boil and Hulshof stopped returning calls, it became clear that the congressman was serious about pursuing the position. He even took the unusual step to announce publicly that he was seeking the job, which may not of helped his overall chances. 

In the end, Hulshof didn't get the position. But his flirtation with university leadership turned out to foreshadow future events. Spooky!

 

WHY IT MADE THE LIST: This was the first realistic opportunity in some time that the U.S. Nin th District would have an open congressional race. The national Democrats gave up on challenging Hulshof soon after he was elected, which meant that his challengers were either under qualified or underfunded.

 
But I certainly enjoyed making up a list of potential Hulshof replacements. Although it should be noted that only one person on the original list - state Rep. Judy Baker - actually ran for the seat. Steinhoff and Shoemyer considered running, but decided to stay put.

 

FUN FACT: The battle between Hulshof and Jay Nixon last year was interesting for a lot of reasons. Not only did Nixon serve as Hulshof's former boss, but they often played basketball together. According to a Georgetown student newspaper, Hulshof apparently takes even charity basketball games quite seriously.

#13...

16. Kirksville Rock City

BACKGROUND: One of my favorite rituals during an election season was traveling up U.S. Highway 63 to cover U.S. Ninth District debates at Truman State University.

I went to three. The first one featured a three-way clash between U.S. Rep. Kenny Hulshof, Democrat Duane Burghard and a Progressive Party candidate. While the 2006 race was an interesting match-up in theory, it was never really in doubt because the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee decided not to invest any funds. It also didn't help that Hulshof seemed to be adept at running a campaign across the congressional district.

But the following election cycle was much different. Hulshof decided to run for governor, opening up the floodgates to new challengers from both parties. I actually ended up traveling twice in a week to the Adair County metropolis. Both debates were relatively tranquil, although the answers to one question garnered quite a bit of attention. For whatever reason, the moderator decided to ask each Republican candidate about their favorite founding father. First of all, that is a waste of a perfectly good question. But both Brock Olivo and Danie Moore stumbled when they answered Abraham Lincoln and Ronald Reagan, respectively.

WHY IT MADE THE LIST: I didn't include my trips to Kirksville because of the aforementioned gaffe. Rather, the excursions were a chance to roam away from Columbia and experience another slice of the Missouri state. And it certainly helped that the debates showcased the intricacies of participants in a highly-competitive congressional election.

 

FUN FACT: There's a more personal reason why I included the Kirksville debate on my list. Before going to Kirksville, some cleaning supplies wrapped in a plastic bag spilled in my trunk. While driving back from a debate, I began to smell a very pungent odor. Apparently, residue from the cleaning materials managed to leak through the bag and stay inside the trunk. Before long, the fumes from the cleaning supplies melted plastic components, making the trunk impossible to open.

It's worth noting that the mechanic at a local Honda dealership questioned how I was still alive after spending a considerable amount of time in a thick chemical haze. I shrugged at the time, but know the real answer is magic.

#15...

20. Brock the Vote

BACKGROUND: Right around the time U.S. Rep. Kenny Hulshof announced he was considering resigning to become the president of the University of Missouri system, I began making lists of his potential replacements. I will admit that former MU running back Brock Olivo was not included.

When Missouri.Net broke the news that Olivo was taking the congressional plunge, I received permission to go down to Gasconade County Lincoln Days in Hermann to interview the Republican aspirant. I didn't know much about him, besides the fact that I was present at a MU football game where his number was retired. And unlike Bob Onder, Danie Moore or Blaine Luetkemeyer, Olivo didn't possess a political record.

So needless to say, my questions for Olivo in Hermann were pretty basic. Why are you running? How would you describe your political philosophy? What do you think will be the biggest issue during the campaign? These are all pretty standard questions you ask a candidate running for office. I didn't really comprehend what Olivo was saying in response, as I wasin "question asking mode" trance.

I posted video of the interview to the CDT Politics Blog shortly after midnight. When I woke up, I noticed there were already some negative comments about Olivo's performance.

Then I actually watched the video.

 

WHY IT MADE THE LIST: Of the nearly 700 videos that I've created for the Web since 2007, I would argue that my interview with Olivo had the most impact. Over the course of the next few months, the video would be posted on the Daily Kos, alluded to on Countdown With Keith Olbermann and re-broadcasted on Special Report With Brit Hume. To date, it's been watched over 28,000 times on Youtube.

The video probably didn't help Olivo's chances of succeeding Hulshof. People could not believe that a congressional candidate would say "most people know me as a football player, but I also was in social studies class." It also didn't help that Olivo couldn't name a specific issue that would define his campaign or describe his political philosophy in general terms.

Soon afterward, Jake Wagman of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported that Olivo had never voted before. I would argue that Wagman's article and the video effectively took Olivo out of contention before the primary really took shape.

Still, I credit Olivo immensely for not running away or ducking responsibility. He immediately owned up to not voting and took a chance to promote the practice. I also noticed that his campaign was actually reasonably substantive on issues as time went on, even though he stumbled rather humorously at a Kirksville debate.

Moreover, I found Olivo to be a genuinely friendly guy during and after the campaign. And while Olivo might have stumbled in his attempt, another candidate without elected experience - auctioneer Billy Long - has an excellent chance of succeeding this year.

FUN FACT: In my long-running fantasy football league, I named my squad "Brock the Vote" in honor of Olivo and the 2008 election. The team - which was hobbled by St. Louis Rams running back Stephen Jackson's awfulness - did not make the playoffs.

#19...

Hannibal Highlights

I did not make it up to Hannibal this year for the annual extravaganza known as Democrat Days. With the help of Combest, here are some highlights:

- Arguably the most substantive news from the event is a potential deal to have hospitals pick up the tab for a proposed Medicaid expansion. Gov. Jay Nixon is going around the state this week to announce the plan. According to the AP, Republicans seem rather cool to the idea.

- Secretary of State Robin Carnahan took some questions from reporters on social issues and the federal stimulus plan. David Catanese wrote about how the Democrat U.S. Senate candidate is not saying how she would have voted on certain issues.

- Lyndon Bode won't pursue another congressional run, but Judy Baker might. And Sara Lampe and Rachel Storch might have statewide ambitions.

- On the Republican side, U.S. Rep. Roy Blunt, R-Strafford, provided the GOP response to President Barack Obama's radio address. Sarah Steelman criticized a Republican press release attacking Carnahan. And Sen. Claire McCaskill compared Steelman to Sarah Palin.

- By far the most entertaining nugget from the weekend comes from Catanese, who posted a video of McCaskill recording several reporters with a small video camera. The first-term senator asked reporters a raft of questions, including whether inserting videos into blogs was "cheating." Tony Messenger also plugged his Twitter stream.

Catanese pretty much hit the nail on the head. I tend to agree with him that Web videos provide an additional dimension to reporting. When done responsibly, giving readers a face and a voice behind printed verbiage ensures a degree of transparency and creditability. While Web videos are certainly not a replacement for a well-written analysis, they can provide an important – and entertaining – supplement.

Hopefully when McCaskill comes to Mid-Missouri, she can get video of me recording a tracker recording another tracker.

Master Exploder

If reporters thought spelling or saying Rod Blagojevich was tough...

 

... just wait until Sen. Roland Burris, D-Illinois, resigns and is replaced by Illinois state Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias.

It seems that Illinois is finally catching up with Missouri in the race of possessing elected officials with hard-to-spell last names. For every Blunt and Nixon, there's a Show Me State pol named Luetkemeyer, Schaeperkoetter or Gatschenberger.

And there's rumblings that Matt Antidisestablishmentarianism might run for mayor of Kickapoo, Missouri.

Luetkemeyer once again pans stimulus plan

As Congress continues to stew over stimulus plan compromise, U.S. Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer, R-St. Elizabeth, is again criticizing the proposal.

The U.S. Senate voted 61-37 earlier this month to pass the $838 billion stimulus, a move Luetkemeyer said in a statement was "a mistake."

“I am acutely aware that many families are hurting out there. I also understand that many families are worried about keeping their jobs or are dealing with the reality that they may have just lost a job. I know this because each day I hear families telling me about the struggles they face," Luetkemeyer said in the statement. “This Senate bill is not the right approach to help real people get back to work or help them make ends meet. This is nothing more than a partisan political package that promotes big government and sticks our families with the bill. I am hopeful that House and Senate negotiators will realize the folly of this bill and consider ideas that will get our nation back on track that include real plans for creating jobs, stimulating small businesses and cutting people’s taxes.”

Luetkemeyer recorded this Youtube video last week expressing his opposition to the package. In the past few weeks, the first-term lawmaker has been promoting a Republican plan that includes tax cuts, tax deductions for small business owners and bolstered unemployement assistance.

The Hotline is reporting that the left-leaning Americans United for Change and the labor union AFSCME are running radio ads asking a number of lawmakers - including Luetkemeyer - to change course. Given his previous statements on the plan, it's unlikely that this ad blitz will make Luetkemeyer change course.

Club for Growth: Too early to make pick for Bond's seat

The Politico detailed today how U.S. Rep. Roy Blunt is mulling over a bid for the U.S. Senate seat currently held by U.S. Sen. Kit Bond, R-Missouri.

Sources told Politico reporter Josh Kraushaar that the Strafford Republican is rounding up fundraising support for the contest. The moves could freeze out potentially serious competitors - such as former U.S. Sen. Jim Talent, R-Missouri, and former state Treasurer Sarah Steelman - from running.

Kraushaar also wrote that Steelman might have to look to "D.C.-based conservative organizations looking for an anti-establishment candidate in line with their agenda." One organization that seems to fit that mold is the Club for Growth, a group that Steelman cited during the GOP gubernatorial primary to criticize U.S. Rep. Kenny Hulshof's spending record. The group made waves by throwing money behind then-state Rep. Bob Onder's unsuccessful congressional bid.

The group hasn't been shy about shaking the cage of the Republican establishment. They have been fiercely critical, for instance, of Bond's record on spending over the last few years.

Club for Growth spokeswoman Nachama Soloveichik said her organization hasn't made a decision on who to support in the Missouri's 2010 Senate race.

"We're looking at it. We're looking at all of the open Senate seats," Soloveichik said. "It's pretty early. So, the extent to which we're looking is not so intense yet. We're nowhere near making an endorsement and I don't know if we will. That's going to come somewhere down the pipe."

Soloveichik might have a point. Blunt and Steelman haven't even officially announced they will run for the seat.

"It just depends," said Soloveichik when asked if the Missouri Senate contest would get a closer look because it's a vacant seat. "It depends on who's running, what the field looks like, what the other seats look like. There are too many variables. It's impossible to know right now."

Soloveichik added that none of the potential Republican candidates have personally reached out to Club for Growth. She said she would get back to me if she found out anything different.

Secretary of State Robin Carnahan is widely considered the Democratic choice to run for Bond's seat.