Pick up the votes in Kansas City and St. Louis and forget about the rest of the state.
At one time, that was the Democratic party's recipe for victory in Missouri. In 1992, the last time I can remember Mel Carnahan campaigning in this corner of the state was March 30 when he spoke at a Democratic meeting at a Carthage restaurant. He was still able to parlay the Kansas City/St. Louis strategy, and the scandal surrounding Republican nominee Bill Webster to a win in the general election.
When Claire McCaskill ran against Matt Blunt in 2004 for governor, she employed the same strategy and it almost worked again. Two things hurt her- the shortsighted decision of Sen. John Kerry to pull his people out of Missouri, and a large outpouring of money from Matt Blunt's father's lobbyist friends on K Street.
The St. Louis/Kansas City strategy may have won a few elections, but it has contributed to the almost complete disappearance of the Democratic party in some southwest Missouri communities. And you can energize your base and build on it if you only make appearances here well before the election is underway.
That's why Claire McCaskill's decision to hold her victory party in Springfield Tuesday night was an important, symbolic one. It would have been easy for Ms. McCaskill to have spent the day in St. Louis, Jefferson City, or Kansas City, but after voting Tuesday morning in Kirkwood, she spent the rest of the day in southwest Missouri.
She helped open the Democratic party headquarters in Joplin by attending a luncheon there, visited polling places at schools in Joplin and Springfield, then held her victory party in Springfield last night.
It remains to be seen whether this new strategy will be successful, but Democrats do have some solid issues to run on that should resonate with many southwest Missourians, including stem cell research and the minimum wage.
Ms. McCaskill is not likely to garner a majority of the votes in southwest Missouri, but then again, she doesn't have to. If she can increase her vote total by five or 10 percent in this region, something which is within the realm of possibility, then the Kansas City/St. Louis strategy should take her the rest of the way.
8 comments:
Do you delude yourself all day with this kind of nonsense? Claire McCaskill will lose to Talent just like she lost to Blunt because she is a, pro-abortion, pro-gay marriage, anti-second amendment left wing extremist. You surely don't think people in southwest Missouri share you and Claire's views on the issues do you? The polls paint a different story my friend. As do the 2004 election results. You should look at them sometime since you obviously have a lot of free time on your hands.
Well....I don't know about that landslid victory for Talent your predicting.
....Stranger things HAVE happened.
I was reading a conservative blog the other day that said Claire had to turn around 20% of the outstate vote - not an easy task but one she could pull off. In 2004, I saw her a lot in KC but not much so far - she is sticking to the rural areas & I hope it is a winning strategy for her.
Talent is Bush's butt boy & the people are sick of it.
Randy, FYI: Clair is from Springfield and has family there. She also owns a home in Chesterfield and in Kansas City.
She isn't from Springfield.
She does have some ties to Lebanon, I'm surprised that she didn't have her party there, wouldn't that have been more of a statement?
But, youu can get a microwave signal from Lebanon, only satellite...
Clearly Ms McCaskill isn't going to garner the vote of the black helicopter crowd, such as anonymous #1 (do you think they can't figure out the "choose an identity button", or are they just too cowardly). Regardless, she has the huevos to meet openly with the public rather cower in "invitation only" Hammons Center events, like the GOP candidates. On Talent's side, however, we could save a lot of money on travel expenses if we reelect him and just send a rubber stamp to the White House.
Whoops, above anonymous here. I guess I can't figure out the button either. Ha.
All you need is a moderately superior St. Louis and Kansas City vote to win the state. Southwest Missouri has about 1/100th the political clout of the Lou and KC.
Blunt was elected in a red state blitz by GOP bigwigs and a major oversight by the Democratic party. He can't ride the coattails of Bush anymore. He's as lame a duck as the president himself.
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