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