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Missouri Senate Race as Seen from DC

[ Patrick Tuohey ]

David Catanese over at POLITICO writes a summary of Senate races across the country, listing Missouri as number six:

Businessman John Brunner burned through at least $2 million and lost 7 percentage points against first-term Sen. McCaskill according to Republican-favored pollster Rasmussen Reports.

Sarah Steelman’s financial freeze continued and her inability to recognize the Violence Against Women Act won’t likely do much to assuage donors. She raised just $178,000 and was nabbed on camera saying she was unfamiliar with the legislation.

Rep. Todd Akin’s comments likening government-funded student loans to “stage 3 cancer of socialism” earned a derisive shout-out from the president, though GOP primary voters may see it differently.

Still, McCaskill needs her rivals to pile up many more of these incidents to put the brakes on her polling slide.

Previously, Catanese wrote of the Missouri governors race,"In a year when the RGA is primarily on offense, Missouri continues to haunt the GOP as the one that got away."

5/2/2012 10:01:45 AM

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The Morality of Capitalism

[ Patrick Tuohey ]
Tom G. Palmer has pulled together a number of essays on capitalism called into a book titled, The Morality of Capitalism. The book appears to be pitched mainly toward college students who likely do not hear the positive aspect of capitalism from their professors. But if the Cato Institute podcast below is any indication, the contents of the book should be of interest to anyone interested in public policy.

The author will be speaking in the Kansas City area on on the evening of Tuesday, May 15 in an event cosponsored by The Show-Me Institute and the Kansas Policy Institute,

The event will take place at the Sheraton Overland Park (6100 College Blvd. Overland Park, KS 66221). There is a reception at 5:30 PM with the lecture to begin at 6:30 PM. Both are free of charge and open to the public.

4/25/2012 9:44:28 AM

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Democratic Governors Association Thinks Something is Wrong with Missouri

[ Patrick Tuohey ]

The Democratic Governors Association released a political ad that highlighted the fact that Missouri was 49th in job creation last year (hat tip: Missouri GOP).

While the ad was targeting Wisconsin's Republican governor, Scott Walker, the logic can apply equally to Missouri's jay Nixon. The ad ends by asserting, "If we're dead last in the country, something is wrong."

Hey, we're Missouri and we're second to last. Is something wrong here too?

4/23/2012 4:32:47 PM

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McCaskill Staffs Up

[ Patrick Tuohey ]

Sen. Claire McCaskill has hired a campaign press secretary, according to Eli Yokley at Politicmo.com. Erik Dorey previously worked for the Oregon Democratic Party, but readers will most remember him for his infamous boss, Democratic Representative David Wu, pictured to the right.

According to the Oregonian, 

Erik Dorey spent a lot of time on the defensive when he was the spokesman for Democrat David Wu during the latter's last five months in office.

We can imagine. The Oregonian goes on to say that Dorey was hired by the state party, "to raise voter doubts about Tualatin businessman Rob Cornilles, who Democrats expect to be the Republican nominee for the seat." Cornilles did not win the special election to replace Rep. Wu.

McCaskill certainly has her campaign liabilities, the least of which not being her position as Obama's chief Midwestern cheerleader and that whole kerfuffle over her airplane. Dorey has his work cut out for him, and we'd like to be one of the first to welcome him to the Show-Me State.

We've been unable to find any pictures of McCaskill in a Tigger costume. But she is an alumna of the University of Missouri, whose mascot is the tiger, so we can only hope.

4/19/2012 9:19:32 AM

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This Just In: Associated Press has 'Secretive Influence' Over Kansas City Star

[ Patrick Tuohey ]

The Kansas City Star's headline, Study: ALEC has 'secretive influence' in Missouri statehouse, made us laugh. Especially this,

A study released Monday by the liberal group Progress Missouri purported to detail how the American Legislative Exchange Council, or ALEC, has “exerted extraordinary and secretive influence in the Missouri legislature and other states.”

In other words, the Star--and especially the editor who chose the headline--is just operating as a communication arm of another liberal-left organization (could this be the result of secretive influence?!?!). But anyone who follows politics in any legislature anywhere probably greeted this with a 'no duh.' In fact, the Star pretty much admits this is a non-story.

Interest groups on nearly every issue try to shape legislation, and many of the most influential have a hand in writing bills. To its supporters, ALEC is simply a research tool that allows legislators to talk with colleagues from around the country and companies that do business in their state to brainstorm ideas they can bring back with them.

Also, the Star does not detail how any of this is 'secretive' as the headline salaciously suggests. In fact, it does the opposite:

One example of a successful bill was the 2010 ballot initiative aimed at keeping Missouri from enforcing the federal mandate to purchase health insurance. The bill’s legislative sponsor, Sen. Jane Cunningham, a Republican, made no secret that she got the idea directly from ALEC.

So this just boils down to a local organization getting information from a national organization. For example, imagine if a city newspaper drew it's content from, say, a national wire service, syndicated columnists or a parent company! Now there is a scandal!

4/17/2012 10:22:42 AM

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