KC Buzz Blog

Talent Joins Romney

   Former Missouri Republican Sen. Jim Talent has signed onto Mitt Romney's presidential campaign as Domestic Policy Task Force Chairman.

    In the advisory role, Talent will oversee development of the former Massachusetts governor's domestic policy initiatives. In a press release put out by Romney's exploratory committee, Talent said he would help "craft innovative policy solutions."

   Talent also cited Romney's "strong conservative vision," which has been questioned by several rivals, mainly Kansas Sen. Sam Brownback (Talent's onetime Capitol Hill roommate).

Talent served in the Senate from 2002 to 2006 before losing his seat in last year's election to Democrat Claire McCaskill. He also served four terms in the House.

Posted by Matt Stearns

Having a hard time letting go or waiting for the rematch?

    A drive yesterday on U.S. 65 up from Branson revealed an interesting phenomenon. Between Springfield and Preston, there were almost a dozen Jim Talent for Senate and Sandra Thomas for state auditor signs still dotting the highway. The election was almost two months ago. Were they forgotten about or are the landowners already looking forward to 2008?

Posted by DeAnn Smith

Talent: More $$$ needed for military

   Defeated GOP Sen. Jim Talent gave his farewell speech on the Senate floor today. It focused on the spiraling needs of the American military, both in modern equipment and a larger force.
    “Nothing is more important to America than her security,” said Talent, who served on the Armed Services Committee. “Because of decisions over the last 15 years driven obviously by budgetary rather than military considerations, our Army and Navy may be too small and much of the equipment is too old and increasingly unreliable.”
   Talent called for increasing military procurement spending by tens of billions of dollars over the next five years to adequately prepare for the future.
   “I ask the Senate to honestly face the true costs of defending this nation,” Talent concluded. “If we do, if we carry that burden with confidence, we will find the weight of it to have been a small thing compared to the blessings of peace and liberty we will secure for ourselves, and the hope we will give to freedom-loving people all over the world.”

Posted by Matt Stearns

Libertarian spoiler in Senate race?

   CATO Institute’s David Kirby and David Boaz think the Libertarian Party candidates played a big hand in stripping Sen. Jim Talent and others of their seats.

   Sen.-elect Claire McCaskill won by 41,000 votes. Frank Gilmour, the Libertarian, won 47,792.

   It also happened to Conrad Burns in Montana. There Stan Jones (L) pulled 10,000 votes, while Sen.-elect Jon Tester (D) won the seat by just 3,000.

   GOPers have lost seats thanks to Libertarians, as Sens. Maria Cantwell (D-WA), Harry Reid (D-NV) and Tim Johnson (D-SD) all won by smaller margins than the Libertarian earned. Most libertarians "don’t vote" for the party, though when they did this year, it cost the GOP House seats in AZ, CO, IA, NV, NH, OH, PA and FL. Thanks to libertarians, NH and the Mountain West "turned purple if not blue."

   Libertarians constitute 13 percent of the electorate and 15 percent of actual voters, and while the group previously voted heavily GOP, their margin for the GOP shrunk in ’04 to just over 20 percent in the presidential race. In ’06, Dems picked up 36 percent of the libertarian vote for Congress, 24 points higher than in ’02 midterms.

Posted by Darryl Levings

Jim Talent: No Regrets

   In his first comments to the media since losing his re-election bid to Democrat Claire McCaskill, Republican Sen. Jim Talent said he had no regrets about his time in office or the race he ran.

   Given the national environment: "I just don't think it was doable."

   About those negative ads that McCaskill criticized: "I think they kept the race close...To the extent I focused on my record versus my opponent's record, it helped me. Everything that was national hurt me."

   Talent isn't sure what's next and didn't rule out a comeback bid in the future.

   More in tomorrow's Kansas City Star.

Posted by Matt Stearns

Next move for Jim Talent?

    No word from the Talent camp yet on whether or when the defeated Republican senator will meet the press today.

   Asked earlier this week what his plans would be should he lose his seat to Claire McCaskill, Talent mentioned that he enjoyed his brief stint teaching a course on Congress at Washington University a few years ago, and said he might like to try teaching again.

Posted by Matt Stearns

Joe: GOPers favorite Democrat

    Interesting note from the Talent election night party in St. Louis: When the big screen TVs tuned to (what else?) Fox News predicted Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman would defeat Democratic nominee Ned Lamont, here was the reaction from the Talent crowd: loud cheers and whoops.

Posted by Matt Stearns

GOP GOTV numbers

    Win or lose, you can't say Republicans didn't work at it.

   In the Missouri U.S. Senate race, Sen. Jim Talent's campaign staff reports 2.7 million person-to-person voter contacts over the course of the campaign: 1.6 million personal phone calls, and 1.1 million door knockings.

   In the final 12 days of the campaign, Talent's team reports 8,000 three-hour volunteer shifts.

Posted by Matt Stearns

Talent's election day routine

    No press, no coterie of staff: Just a politican in a minivan cruising polling places, chatting up voters, trying to glean something, anything at all.

    That was Sen. Jim Talent's election day after casting his vote in Chesterfield. He drove to polling places around St. Louis County, stopping in for a cup of coffee at brother Chuck Talent's Des Peres restaurant, called "Chuck's."

   Then it was home to spend time with the family before heading to the election night party at the Frontenac Hilton in suburban St. Louis.

Posted by Matt Stearns

File under: No rest for weary

    Waiting to cast his vote in Chesterfield this morning, Sen. Jim Talent fell into conversation with a couple of constituents also in line. One, Arlene Taich, figured that she may as well take advantage of a lengthy chat with a member of Congress: She asked Talent to do something about the federal government dragging its feet on a program she liked.

  Talent nodded and jotted some notes on his BlackBerry, telling Taich: "You should get a call today or tomorrow."

Posted by Matt Stearns

Talent has to wait 45 minutes to vote, uses electronic ballot

    Missouri Sen. Jim Talent rolled up to Wild Horse Elementary School in affluent Chesterfield, driving his blue minivan, shortly after 7 a.m. with his wife, mother-in-law and three kids.

    Asked if he was nervous, Talent said: "Not until you just brought it up. Thanks."

    After 45 minutes of standing in line, talking with family, reporters and other voters, Talent cast his vote. He wouldn't say how he had voted on the minimum wage or tobacco tax initiatives. Asked whom he voted for in the Senate race, Talent said: "I usually wait and stare at the screen and let the karma come up."

   Standing at the voting booth next to Talent, Randy Kellis of Chesterfield piped up: "If you need help with the Senate race, I can help you out." Kellis later said he voted for Talent.

    Also: Talent chose the electronic ballot over paper: "I'm an up-to-date guy. Absolutely."

Posted by Matt Stearns

Kit Bond: Smells like 1986

    Nobody seems to be having more fun on the GOP side than Missouri's irascible senior senator, Kit Bond. The close Senate race between Jim Talent and Claire McCaskill has brought out Bond's podium-pounding inner political animal.

   Traveling with Talent Monday on the race's last campaign day, Bond reminded supports that back in 1986, the polls showed him down three points to his Democratic opponent. Like this year, it was a Democratic year. Like this year, it was the sixth year of a Republican president's term.

   "Man, I felt like a salmon swimming upstream, all these bodies coming at me," Bond said at a rally in Columbia.

   Seven Republican senators lost that year. Bond won.

   "Not because I was so good-looking and so smart, but because you worked so hard," Bond told party volunteers.

Posted by Matt Stearns

Election Jeopardy

  The answer: $40 million

  The question: How much have the campaigns of Sen. Jim Talent, Claire McCaskill and independent groups spent on the Missouri Senate race?

   Talent and McCaskill are the election's biggest beneficiaries of independent expenditures. For more details, check Rick Montgomery's and Scott Canon's story tomorrow in The Star and on kansascity.com.

Posted by Keith Chrostowski

Talent: 'Every place we’ve been today, you can feel the surge'

    Jim Talent began the last campaign day of the nation’s closest Senate race in his suburban St. Louis kitchen making pancakes for his kids.
  The Republican senator ended it 12 hours and 600-plus miles later back home again, having crisscrossed the state one last time rallying party volunteers.

   Nerves? Those are for Election Day. Ever disciplined, Talent was more concerned with focusing on his message for the day; nursing a sore shoulder and neck resulting from a spill while jogging with Dudley, the family Great Dane, a few days earlier; and projecting a fatalistic unflappability.
    “It’s an election,” Talent said. “I know it’s the day before and I should be acting like it’s the biggest thing in the world. It’s not like a cancer biopsy and worrying how that’s going to come out. That‘s something to worry about. I try to keep it in perspective…I run into people who have real problems.”
    His chartered eight-seat Beechcraft stocked with sandwiches and cookies, Talent barnstormed across Missouri with wife Brenda, daughter Katie, 14 (“Most people in my class are for my dad”), Sen. Kit Bond and Republican state auditor candidate Sandra Thomas.
    In four stops -- St. Louis, Columbia, Independence and Springfield -- Talent stayed relentlessly on-message, to enthusiastic supporters, exhausted aides and inquiring reporters.
   Reiterating his favored issues: Expanding the market for ethanol (“It’ll do for us what oil did for Texas).” Fighting meth. Lowering taxes. “Standing up for common sense, conservative Missouri values.”
   Exhorting the volunteers for that final get out the vote push: “Every place we’ve been today, you can feel the surge…I like where we’re positioned…You’re gonna re-elect yourself a United States senator.”
    He got help from his wife, who gently prodded at an airport in Lee’s Summit: “Jim, did you go talk to those people over there?” and discreetly plucked stray dog hair from his blazer during a TV interview in Columbia.
    Leaving the Columbia rally, a supporter leaned in and said, “May the Lord bless you with peace.” Responded Talent, heading briskly out the door for yet another flight: “He’s already doing that.”
   The crowds grew bigger and more boisterous. In Springfield, to the extreme mortification of Brenda and Kate, someone handed Talent a black T-shirt that said “My wife is hot.”
   As Talent addressed more than 200 volunteers in an overheated hotel ballroom on that last stop of the long campaign, his voice took on an almost plaintive tone.
“I’ve been in this a long time,” Talent said. “I know how to make legislative bodies accountable for my people…and I want to go back and do that.”

   While determined to focus on work, Talent did allow that he had plans for Nov. 8, win or lose. That’s his son Mike’s first post-season football game, his high school team having won the conference championship Saturday.
      “I will be there,” Talent said. So I’ll win Tuesday and he’ll win Wednesday and everything’ll be great in the Talent family.”

Posted by Matt Stearns

Last-day roundups

   The latest AP reports on:

    Talent, McCaskill

    Ryun, Boyda

Posted by Keith Chrostowski

All hands on deck for Talent

  AP reports that in final hours before Election Day, several Republican campaign staffers are going to quit working for their candidates. Instead, they'll undertake an effort to get any and every Republican they can find out to the polls, said Lloyd Smith, a senior adviser to Sen. Jim Talent.

Posted by Keith Chrostowski

Going to extremes in southwest Mo.

   Howard Mortman, former editor and columnist for The Hotline political newsletter, writes on his blog Extreme Mortman about the 7th Congressional District in southwest Missouri and the GOP's extensive get-out-the-vote efforts there. He's got some numbers from GOP operatives.

Posted by Keith Chrostowski 

Talent goes rural, talks ethanol and biodiesel

   Republican Sen. Jim Talent spent the final Sunday before the election barnstorming through rural Missouri, holding rallies in small towns for support he said will be critical on Election Day. "A big turnout in the rural areas makes it much easier for me," Talent said after a campaign stop in Cape Girardeau.

   Even Talent's opponent admits he has an edge in small towns.

   Speaking Sunday to more than 50 people at the rally here, Talent won strong ovations by speaking against abortion and gay marriage.

   But Talent spent most of his time on economic issues, especially focusing on the   emergence of crop-based fuels like ethanol and biodiesel. He said the new fuels would be a boon for small town economies.

   "In Missouri, we grow the corn and we grow the beans," Talent said.

   He highlighted his support of mandates in the Federal Energy Act of 2005 that will require more use of alternative fuels.

   "This new initiative is going to mean for Missouri what oil has meant for states like Texas," Talent said.

    Here's the AP's Missouri campaign round-up as of 6 p.m. Sunday.

Posted by Keith Chrostowski

McCaskill tells Fox: 'Iraq has not turned out to be the ally we need...'

      Claire Caskill appeared Sunday on “Fox News Sunday” and said the United States must tell Iraq its troops “will not stay forever.”
     “The government of Iraq has not turned out to be the ally we need it to be against terror,” she told host Chris Wallace. “They’ve supported Hezbollah. They’ve refused to disarm some of the militia that are killing our men and women.”
    “This is a failed policy,” she added, “and the president and Sen. (Jim) Talent are becoming more and more isolated from the American people for their failure to recognize that.”
    McCaskill also hailed the death sentence handed down to Saddam Hussein on Sunday.

   McCaskill said Democrats were better prepared this year to compete with the GOP’s vaunted get-out-the-vote operation. “We have the infrastructure in place to make sure people know about this election, but ultimately which people vote on Tuesday is all about who wants change or do you want the status quo.
   Talent was invited to appear on the show but declined.

    Here's a transcript of McCaskill's appearance.

Posted by Keith Chrostowski

Peeking inside some GOP polls

    On The Corner, the National Review's Rich Lowry discusses internal Republican polls showing Sen. Jim Talent is up. He also looks at GOP polls in other Senate races.

Posted by DeAnn Smith

Talent announces final campaign swing

   Republican Jim Talent isn't doing any 24-hour campaign marathons. (See the Claire McCaskill post below).

   But he has scheduled an 11-city, three-day swing beginning Saturday.

   He comes to the Kansas City area at 1:30 p.m. Monday. He'll be at the       Victory 2006 Office, 13912 East Noland Court, in Independence.

Posted by Steve Kraske

Bush goes all out for Talent

    Missouri’s Republican faithful got revved up by the biggest dog in the pound this morning: President Bush.
  Appearing for Sen. Jim Talent in Springfield – a second rally later was set for Joplin – Bush bounded onstage to the strains of “Eye of the Tiger,” the theme to "Rocky III" (Umm, wait. Doesn’t Rocky lose in that one? Not saying. Just asking.)
  The dress: Campaign casual. Bush wore a blue open-collar shirt with the sleeves rolled up. Talent, ever the law-school gunner, kept his sleeves buttoned.
  The message: Raw red meat, from taxes to terror to Iraq.
  “We will stay in Iraq…We will fight in Iraq…We will win in Iraq,” Bush told the crowd.
   More in tomorrow’s Star.

  UPDATE: Here's a transcript of the event.

Posted by Matt Stearns

Another poll with McCaskill ahead

   From a new Reuters/Zogby poll: "Democratic state Auditor Claire McCaskill took a 46 percent to 43 percent lead over Republican Sen. Jim Talent, who had a 4-point lead in early October. The see-sawing contest has been close all year, with neither candidate opening a significant advantage."

UPDATE:  Rasmussen has it Claire +1.

    Other Reuters/Zogby poll results (go to the link above):

    The Montana race has tightened, with Democrat Jon Tester's lead over GOP Sen. Conrad Burns down to one point.

    In Tennessee, GOPer Bob Corker has opened up a 10-point lead on Rep. Harold Ford Jr.

    In Virginia, Democrat James Webb now has a 1-point lead over GOP Sen. George Allen.

Posted by Keith Chrostowski

New ads coming from McCaskill

  Claire McCaskill says she's releasing a new series of TV ads "to personally rebut" accusations made by Sen. Jim Talent. She did not specify what the ads would address, but "said she was particularly bothered by accusations made about her husband," millionaire developer Joseph Shepard, and the couple's finances. There's more lower in this AP story.

Posted by Keith Chrostowski

Prez coming toTopeka for Ryun, Springfield for Talent

   Guess who's coming to Topeka Sunday, two days before election day, to stump for Congressman Jim Ryun?

   None other than the First-Stumper-In-Chief, George W. Bush.

   No details yet. But all that talk that Ryun may be in trouble? Guess we now know there may be something to it.

   UPDATE: President Bush will travel to Missouri on Friday to campaign for Republican Sen. Jim Talent, the first time the two will appear together at a public campaign event in the state this year.

   UPDATE:  Charlie Cook -- well respected political analyst -- has added KS-02 to the list of "toss up" races.  This, as Nancy Boyda gets commercial help on KC television from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

Posted by Steve Kraske

Tony Snow weighs in for Talent

   White House Press Secretary Tony Snow comes to St. Louis tonight to stump for Jim Talent.

   Snow, a former FOX News personality, is blazing a new path for presidential spokesmen -- one that combines speaking and campaigning.

Posted by Steve Kraske

Rasmussen: Talent up 2

    A Rasmussen poll out today has it Talent, 48 percent; McCaskill, 46 percent. Rasmussen notes: When leaners are added into the equation, Talent still leads McCaskill by two (50 percent to 48 percent). This is the first time (in the Rasmussen poll) that either candidate has reached the magic 50 percent level of voter support. Still, Rasmussen labels the race too close to call.

Posted by Keith Chrostowski

McCaskill narrows cash gap, but lends campaign $500,000

     Claire McCaskill continued outpacing Republican Sen. Jim Talent in the final, furious days of fundraising, but disclosed Thursday that she took out a $500,000 loan to help her campaign buy TV ads.

    Spokeswoman Adrianne Marsh said McCaskill took out a "cash flow" loan from Enterprise Bank in St. Louis against the equity in her Kirkwood, Mo., home and lent the money to her campaign. The campaign already has repaid $200,000 of the loan, Marsh said, and expects to repay the rest by Election Day.

   Talent campaign adviser Lloyd Smith said McCaskill "has broken yet another campaign promise by using her family's wealth to further her political career." But Marsh stressed McCaskill did not make the loan from her personal funds or those of her husband, millionaire housing developer Joseph Shepard.

   With the loan, McCaskill's campaign raised about $1.8 million from Oct. 1-18, according to her Federal Election Commission report filed late Thursday. Talent raised about $593,000 over the same period, but still maintains a wide lead over McCaskill in the election cycle. Talent has raised about $13.2 million for the race so far, while McCaskill has pulled in about $9.1 million.

   The complete AP story is here. Look for a story from David Goldstein in The Star.

Posted by Keith Chrostowski

Jeff City paper endorses Talent, Skelton

  GOP Sen. Jim Talent wins the endorsement of the Jefferson City News Tribune, as does Democratic Rep. Ike Skelton. The editorial's subhead: "The world is an increasingly dangerous place."

Posted by Keith Chrostowski

Fighting for the urban core

    Some serious African American congressional firepower will swoop into Kansas City on Saturday, hoping to rev up fervor for Democratic Senate candidate Claire McCaskill.

   Reps. Jesse Jackson Jr. of Illinois, Stephanie Tubbs Jones of Ohio and Bobby Scott of Virginia will join Reps. Emanuel Cleaver and Lacy Clay of Missouri at a Bartle Hall rally.

   Also appearing: Grammy-winning R&B singer Regina Belle and members of the classic soul group The Moments.

   The flyer for the event promotes "our friend and next senator Claire McCaskill."

   The rally is from 4-6:30 p.m. Tickets are free; call (816) 561-2575 for more information.

   The rally comes just days after Republican Sen. Jim Talent held a rally of his own for African American supporters.

   More in Friday’s Star on what it all means.

Posted by Matt Stearns

Say what, Saint Jack?

   Former Missouri Sen. Jack Danforth's statement that he hasn't made up his mind on whether to vote for fellow Republican Jim Talent in the Missouri Senate race because of differences over stem cell research comes as a bit of a surprise to KC Buzz Blog.

   He's already voted with his wallet.

   Danforth has contributed $4,000 to Talent's campaign warchest this cycle. His brother William Danforth, a former Washington University bigwig, has directed $15,400 to Talent, including the maximum $4,200 personal contribution to the campaign plus thousands more to something called the Talent Majority Committee, which has different contribution rules.

   Danforth, the patron of conservative Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and the man who cut a controversial ad for John Ashcroft in the aftermath of Mel Carnahan's death in 2000 ("It's not right what is happening to John Ashcroft"), has lately become critical of the GOP's ties to religious conservatives.

   KC Buzz Blog asked Danforth at a breakfast a few weeks ago if he thinks the party is too close to religious conservatives, why he supports candidates like Jim Talent.

   Danforth didn't deny supporting Talent. In fact, he said he supports Talent and others because "I am a well-established Republican. I'm not going to give up on my party."

Posted by Matt Stearns

Has McCaskill developed some Teflon?

   The latest tip sheet from Chuck Todd, editor of "The Hotline," a daily digest of political news, continues to rank the Missouri Senate race as the fifth likeliest seat to switch parties.

    Todd writes that Democrat Claire McCaskill "has survived a heck of an onslaught. There's more to come, but one wonders if she's developed some Teflon."

    He says the good news for Sen. Jim Talent is that he's run the most mistake-free campaign of any Senate Republican. The bad news is that it's still a dead heat: "That...has to worry the GOP."

   In his separate "On the Trail" column in The National Journal, Todd lists his "Elite Eight" - three Senate contests and five House races whose outcomes he believes will define the trends at work in the campaign.

   Missouri, naturally, is on his list, along with Senate races in Virginia and Tennessee. And he continues to be surprised by McCaskill, noting that no Democratic challenger has had to deal with a bigger gap in funding with the GOP incumbent than her.

    "That could mean that if she's not dead yet, she can't be killed," he writes.

    He warns that when Talent challenged - and narrowly defeated - Democratic Sen. Jean Carnahan in 2002, most of the political press had written her off by now because she was five points down. But election night turned out to be a "nailbiter."

    So Todd raises this question: "Was that Democratic surge about love for the Carnahans, or do Republicans have to have a five-point lead on Election Day to hold off the surge?"

Posted by David Goldstein    

Danforth undecided on Senate race

   A Chicago Tribune story on stem cell ballot initiatives quotes heavily from former Missouri GOP Sen. John Danforth, who admits that because of the issue he doesn't know whether he'll vote for Republican Sen. Jim Talent:

  "'There are a lot of Republicans who feel strongly that these cells in a petri dish are the equivalent of a person, and there are other Republicans who feel that these cells in a dish not implanted in a mother are not the equivalent of a person,' said former Sen. John Danforth (R-Mo.), the influential senior statesman of Missouri politics and a leader in the fight for stem cell research.

  "Danforth's brother, Donald, died of ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease, in 2001.

   "'When you see somebody you love suffer and die from one of these diseases, and medical researchers say this could be the key to finding the cure, then you want the researchers to go forward so other people won't go through the same experience,' Danforth said.

   Danforth said he has met many Republicans who refuse to vote for Talent because of his opposition to the research as well as his opposition to the ballot initiative.

  Danforth would not say how he will vote in the Senate race. 'On the one hand, this is an exceptionally important issue for me. I cannot overemphasize how important this issue is,' he said after a long pause. 'On the other hand, I try to be loyal to my party to maintain my credentials within the party to hopefully change it from within.'"

Posted by Keith Chrostowski

Talent defends campaign ads

   Jim Talent this morning defended his recent anti-Claire McCaskill campaign ads and rhetoric as accurate and fair given McCaskill's insistence that she wants to change Washington.

   In a meeting with The Star's editorial board, Talent insisted that his tough talk has been based on the public record. One example: McCaskill's promise in her re-election campaign for state auditor that she would stop Medicaid payments to abusive nursing homes.

   That didn't happen, Talent said, adding that an auditor by herself can't cut off payments to homes. Perhaps, the Republican added, "She said something she couldn't do."

   Talent also stood by recent TV ads that contain quotes out of Star articles that suggest, the newspaper says, that the paper's editorial stands or reporters are reaching certain conclusions as opposed to sources in those articles that are making the comments.

   The Star has objected to the ads and asked Talent to pull them off the air.

   But Talent said, "It's fair to quote newspaper articles."

   Talent also insisted that he's been fighting for a larger Army for years and defended progress that he said is being made in Iraq.

Posted by Steve Kraske

Talent rallies the troops

   Republican Jim Talent rallied phone bank volunteers at a Lee's Summit rally this afternoon and was joined by a guy named Kit Bond.

   In a rarity in politics, the event actually began prior to the advertised 3:45 p.m. start, causing reporters and Bond himself to arrive a few minutes late.

   In a refrain we'll be hearing a lot in the campaign's final days, Talent urged the crowd "to go out and talk about the campaign with friends and volunteers.

   "If people go out and vote, we'll win this election," Talent said.

   Bond, too, talked about the importance of get-out-the-vote efforts, recalling his 1986 race against Democrat Harriett Woods. Bond recalled going into the final weekend trailing in the polls by 3 points in an election that came midway through Ronald Reagan's second term.

   But thanks to a powerful GOTV effort, Bond prevailed by 6 points.

   Talent, Bond said, "is a man of cool demeanor. Nobody ever accused me of having a cool demeanor."

   Later Monday, Talent was to meet with African American leaders in Kansas City. Included in the group: HUD Secretary Alphonso Jackson.

Posted by Steve Kraske 

...and that's a fact!(check)

   FactCheck.org, which truthwatches political advertising around the country, says four recent anti-Claire McCaskill ads by Republican Sen. Jim Talent were "misleading."  The website said Talent "falsely attributes several unflattering quotes" about McCaskill to The Star.

   Factcheck, a project of the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania, said the Talent ads used descriptions of McCaskill - "false," "exaggerating," "embellished" and "clearly violated ethical standards" - that appeared in stories about her and made it look as as they were the newspaper's words. In fact, The Star was reporting descriptions of her by others.

     The Talent campaign said it was studying the ads.

Posted by David Goldstein      

New poll: Talent holds slight lead

   Jim Talent holds a small edge, and is virtually touching the magical 50 percent mark, in a new online poll by The Wall Street Journal and Zogby.

   The count: 49.8 for Talent, 47.2 percent for Claire McCaskill.

   The survey was conducted Oct. 10-Monday. You can view the entire survey here.

Posted by Steve Kraske

We were blind but now we see...

   Should Missouri Democratic Senate candidate Claire McCaskill have her husband put his assets in a blind trust if she's elected? Before you answer, you might want to read Matt Stearns' story in The Star today.

Posted by Keith Chrostowski

Blog watch on Talent-McCaskill

     TPM Cafe's Greg Sargent reports that according to recent FEC filings, the Republican National Committee sank "$731,968.29 into negative ads and 'research' (read: dirt-digging) against Dem challenger Claire McCaskill." Sargent sees this as another sign "of talk in political circles to the effect that the Republican National Committee is stepping into key Senate races because it doesn't think the NRSC is up to the job of winning them."

Posted by Keith Chrostowski

Newsweek tries to pin down Talent, McCaskill

   Newsweek has an online Q&A with Missouri GOP Sen. Jim Talent and Democratic challenger Claire McCaskill. Headline: "Missouri melee."

Posted by Keith Chrostowski

Talent sits in crowd, not seen at Bush's side

   ST. LOUIS -- The big political question before President Bush's visit here today: Would U.S. Sen. Jim Talent stand alongside the commander-in-chief?

    Would (GASP!) the senator be caught in the same camera frame with the man who has raised millions for Talent's two Senate campaigns, but who lags in the polls?

   The answer: nope.

   Talent attended the speech all right. Also in the crowd was fellow Missouri Sen. Kit Bond.

   But the president appeared alone on stage. Early on, he recognized the two senators by name.

   And that was it.

Posted by Steve Kraske

Blog watch on Talent-McCaskill

Bits from the blog today on the Talent-McCaskill race:

    From the right:  Townhall's Hugh Hewitt suggests "in Missouri ... Democratic nominee McCaskill's remarkable ability to churn out gaffes might make it a breakaway."

   On the left, TAPPED's Scott Lemieux looks at Talent's "Meet the Press" answers on abortion and writes: "Which serves to remind us, again, that the policies generally favored by the American pro-life movement display considerably more commitment to regulating female sexuality than to protecting fetal life."

Posted by Keith Chrostowski

'True toss-up'

    Here's what "Hotline," the daily digest of political news, has to say about the Missouri Senate race in its latest tip sheet:

   "The outcome of this contest probably determines whether '06 is merely a bad year for Republicans or a disastrous one. A McCaskill victory would clearly signal a major Democratic wind blowing across the country in November."

   "Hotline" continues to rank the McCaskill-Talent raca as the fifth likeliest Senate seat to switch parties, behind Pennsylvania, Montana, Ohio and Rhode Island.

    "A true toss-up race," it said.

Posted by David Goldstein 

Ad wars

    Democrat Claire McCaskill's Senate campaign will take on critics today of her ad featuring an Iraq war veteran who says he waited six months to see a doctor after returning from combat with an injured ankle and post-traumatic stress syndrome.

    Josh Lansdale, a medic in Iraq, will appear alongside several other veterans  and McCaskill campaign chief Richard Martin to defend the ad today at a 4:30 p.m. press conference at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, 42nd and Broadway.

    The ad raised questions after Mike Mahoney of KMBC-TV reported that he couldn't verify Lansdale's story and officials at the Kansas City VA hospital cast doubt on it.

    Sen. Jim Talent, the Republican McCaskill is trying to unseat, sent out a press release today suggesting the ad was a "fraud."

    "Claire McCaskill approved the ad, she spent at least about a quarter of a million dollars airing it around the state and now she can't prove the ad is true," Talent senior advisor Lloyd Smith said in a statement.

    "They're calling him (Lansdale) a fraud," countered McCaskill spokeswoman Adrianne Marsh. "They're calling a veteran a liar."

Posted by David Goldstein   

Is she grading on a curve?

    Kate O'Beirne of National Review Online, regarding the "Meet the Press" debate, wonders "if others agree that Jim Talent turned in the best performance of any of the GOP senators who have been worked over by Tim Russert."

Posted by Keith Chrostowski

Laura Bush to stump for Talent

    They're bringing in the big guns: First lady Laura Bush heads to St. Louis Thursday to campaign for Republican Sen. Jim Talent.

    There's a fundraiser at the proverbial "private residence" (read: really rich donor's house) at 5 p.m.  Laura and Jim will then participate together in a lighting of the Arch for breast cancer awareness at 6:30 p.m.

   Laura -- whose popularity is higher than her husband you-know-who, especially among key female voters -- has been making the rounds in swing states to help out GOP candidates.

   Besides helping Talent, FLOTUS will participate in a tree-planting ceremony in St. Louis' famed Forest Park earlier in the day.

Posted by Matt Stearns

The debate - a second look

     It was a moment that sort of got lost in all the talk about the Capitol Hill page scandal, stem cells, President Bush and other issues.

    On Sunday's "Meet the Press" debate, Sen. Jim Talent basically said that he  still would have voted to invade Iraq even knowing that the reasons used by the White House to justify the war were wrong.

    HOST TIM RUSSERT: "Knowing what you know today, that Saddam did not have the weapons of destruction that our intelligence agencies thought he had...would you still vote for the war?"

  TALENT: "Well, yeah..."

   RUSSERT: "You still would?"

   TALENT:  "...I think it was the only possible strategic choice. Look, Saddam had been an organic threat in the region for a long time. He represented a threat to us. That threat is now gone."

   RUSSERT: "But senator, isn't it an important question: if...the CIA said to you, 'Saddam does not have weapons of biological, chemical, or a nuclear program,' you would still vote for the war?"

   TALENT: "Well, he wanted them...if action had not been taken to remove Saddam, the same people who are being critical of what's going on in Iraq now would be screaming that we'd left him in power. We'd have another Iran there. That threat's been removed."

Posted by David Goldstein       

More talk on North Korea

  Sen. Pat Roberts: "It is clear the North Korean government continues to pursue its provocative and defiant policies. The international community must quickly and firmly respond to this action."

    Sen. Jim Talent:  "I fully support U.S. and Japanese diplomatic efforts through the United Nations Security Council to impose economic and commercial sanctions that would persuade North Korea to dismantle its nuclear weapons program."

Posted by David Goldstein

Talent, McCaskill in the news

   Some Talent-McCaskill stories in the media:

• Here's Matt Stearns' report today in The Star on the debate (or rather the interrogation by Tim Russert) between Sen. Jim Talent and Claire McCaskill yesterday on "Meet the Press."
• The Washington Post's Shailaigh Murray reports on Democrats chances in the upper South and focuses on the Talent-McCaskill race.  Writes Murray, "Missouri is an ideal laboratory to see if the experiment can work. For decades, the Democratic formula for winning the Show-Me State was simple: Win big in the urban hubs of St. Louis and Kansas City. But that approach only works by not losing big in the rest of the state."
• And from The Washington Times: "Talent stresses independence from Bush."

Posted by Keith Chrostowski

Talent-McCaskill debate transcript

   Here's the transcript.

Evaluate the debate

   All right, who won the debate?

   Talent? McCaskill?...Russert?

Posted by Keith Chrostowski

'The whole thing troubles me.'

     Before his election to the Senate in 2002, Jim Talent served in the House during the 1990s. His colleagues included Mark Foley, the nexus of the House page-cyber sex scandal, and the Republican leaders now under scrutiny for what they did - or didn't do when they learned about it. Talent talked about the scandal during an interview today.

   What do you think of the way the scandal has been handled?

    "Obviously somebody dropped the ball. The (FBI) investigation is fully warranted. I've got a 16-year-old about the age of these pages. Parents have to know these kids are safe."

   Should the page program be abolished, as some have suggested?

  "I'd hate to do that. These pages typically have a very good experience. We have to make certain people treat them with respect."

    The House leadership appears to be blaming each other. (Majority Leader) Boehner says he told Speaker Hastert. Hastert and Rep. Reynolds are pointing fingers at each other. Should Hastert have resigned today?

    "That's why we need the investigation to know what people knew, what they should have known and when they should have known it."

   Does it trouble you that one of the first things they did when told about Foley was to contact Reynolds, who heads the Republican House campaign committee? Does it seem like politics was more important?

    "The whole thing troubles me. We don't know the extent to which it was going on. Somebody should have been in a position of responsibility with authority."

    The Republican Party has cultivated an image as being strong on moral and family values. Has this damaged that image?

   "I think we have to see how people react. The voters expect that whoever is involved to be held accountable. They look at individuals."

   The election is a month away. Are you worried this will hurt you and the party?

   "It's certainly distracting. I'd like to be talking about energy and how we complete the mission in Iraq, and health care. Instead we're talking about these events in the House. Beyond that, I don't know how the voters will react."

Posted by David Goldstein 

'Hot' tip

   The monthly tip sheet for September from "Hotline," a daily digest of political news, continues to rank the Missouri Senate race as the fifth most likely contest to switch sides. It ranks behind Pennsylvania, Montana Ohio and Rhode Island in that order. All are seats currently held by Republicans, like Missouri, where the Sen. Jim Talent-Claire McCaskill race remains a dead heat.   

   Hotline editor Chuck Todd writes, "While most of the major Senate battles feature candidates who are less and less liked by the voters every day, this is one race where both nominees are still well-liked."

   Rounding out "Hotline's" top 10 Senate races are New Jersey, Tennessee, Maryland, Virginia and Washington.

Posted by David Goldstein 

Dems' rock star brunching for Claire

    Democratic politicos say they're getting invites for eggs and pancakes with Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, who is headlining a Senate campaign fund raiser for Claire McCaskill.

   The event is at 8:30 a.m. Oct. 7 at the Muehlebach Hotel in downtown Kansas City. Tickets range from $250 to $2,100. Uh, at that top-end price ya gotta hope that the senator is breaking the eggs for your omelettes!

   Obama stumped for McCaskill earlier this year in the eastern part of the state.

Posted by DeAnn Smith

Talent takes on security, immigration, stem cells

   U.S. Sen. Jim Talent said today the newly declassified report that described the growing threat of global terrorism has to be read in context.

   In an interview with me on KCUR's Up to Date, the Republican also addressed how the U.S. should deal with Iran and the stem-cell and minimum-wage issues on the ballot this November.

   Talent disagreed with former Missouri Sen. Jack Danforth's conclusion in his new book Faith and Politics that the Christian Right has taken over the GOP. And Talent criticized opponent Claire McCaskill's stand on immigration.

   Go here to listen to the inteview online.

Posted by Steve Kraske

McCaskill lacking initiative?

   The Hill reports that Missouri Democrats think Clair McCaskill is failing to capitalize on ballot initiatives to increase the minimum wage and approve stem cell research in order to beat Sen. Jim Talent.

Posted by Keith Chrostowski

Chronicling the Missouri Senate race

   The San Francisco Chronicle was out this way to take a look at the Missouri Senate race: Excerpts:

   The contest is being "considered a barometer" of whether GOPers nationwide "can survive Iraq," providing "the purest test in the country" of whether negative sentiment toward the GOP will translate into lost seats. Missouri is "America's mood mirror," voting "as happily" for Dems or GOPers, "but nearly always for the winner." GOP Sen. Jim Talent and Claire McCaskill, who both hail from the "wealthy St. Louis suburbs," are both "tacking hard to the middle." Talent "trumpets the war on terror, but not the war in Iraq," avoiding President Bush even as he fundraises for Talent.

      McCaskill, who admits she lost her 2004 governor's race against Matt Blunt by ignoring rural Missouri, "is campaigning in rural towns denouncing amnesty for illegal immigrants, supporting fences on the Mexican border and calling herself a Harry Truman Democrat standing with the troops but against Bush's bungling in Iraq."

   St. Louis University political scientist Ken Warren said to win, McCaskill must hold her urban base and chip 2 percent from the GOP's 60 percent share in rural counties, which make up half Missouri's votes. Warren said Talent faces his own problems at the center, appearing to rural voters as a "city slicker" who "may say things they want to hear, but he doesn't look like them, he doesn't act like them, he doesn't talk like them."

  Here's the whole article.

Posted by Keith Chrostowski

Questions 67 and 68

    Hey -- we get to ask Claire McCaskill and Jim Talent questions all the time.

   We think it's your turn, too.

    Send me the questions you'd like to ask the candidates, with this in mind: we'll ask both candidates the same question.  If they're too partisan, we'll throw 'em out.

   We'll post their answers here and in video form in October... and put them in the paper, too.

    Send them to dhelling@kcstar.com.

Posted by Dave Helling

Talent, McCaskill: Questions about Iraq

  On Election Central, we posted David Goldstein's Q&A's on Iraq with GOP Sen. Jim Talent and Democratic challenger Claire McCaskill.