KC Buzz Blog

Big bucks headed Claire's way

   The Senate Democratic campaign organization has set aside $25 million for TV advertising this fall.

   And guess where a whole mess of it is coming?

   Claire McCaskill's campaign in Missouri is slotted to receive $6 million of it, according to an Associated Press story this afternoon. That's the second-highest total for any Senate race.

   The biggest chunk -- $7 million -- is to be shipped to Ohio where GOP Sen. Mike DeWine is in a tough race against Congressman Sherrod Brown.

   The Repubs, by the way, have yet to reserve any TV time, so their totals are not yet known.

Posted by Steve Kraske

Tangled up in green

  Plots, in politics, often thicken.

  As promised, Bob Johnson filed an amended financial disclosure in Missouri's 8th Senate district race.

  He also filed an eight-day-before election report, claiming $157,760 raised to go with his $58,776 carryover.  Total: $216,536, still short of Matt Bartle's effort.

    Where did Bob get his money?  From labor, big time, including Taxpayers Unlimited, the Kansas City firefighters' union political arm.  Local 42 is in big for county exec candidate Mike Sanders, too.

   Here's the thickener: Voters in the 8th can't support Sanders and Johnson.  Johnson is in the Republican primary; Sanders, the Democratic.  So if labor turns out big in that district, its members will have to choose:  take a Dem ballot to vote Sanders, or a Repub ballot to vote Johnson.

   Where, by the way, did Johnson spend his money?  At least $50,000 went to O'Neill Communications, the media buyer for -- yep, Mike Sanders.

Posted by Dave Helling

New poll: McCaskill up, but barely

   The latest poll out today by Rasmussen Reports has Democrat Claire McCaskill leading Republican incumbent Jim Talent in Missouri's U.S. Senate race by 45-42 percent.

   Last month, the two were deadlocked at 42 percent each.

   The poll of 500 voters was taken on July 20, the same day Talent launched his first TV ad of the campaign.

   For more on the poll, go here.

Posted by Steve Kraske

McCaskill staffer killed in skydiving crash

   One of the six passengers killed in Saturday's plane crash in Sullivan, Mo., was a staffer on Democrat Claire McCaskill's U.S. Senate campaign.

   Melissa Berridge, 38, of St. Louis was McCaskill's compliance director, meaning that she worked to ensure that the campaign met all fund-raising reporting rules of the Federal Election Commission.

   The six passengers were on a skydiving expedition when their plane crashed shortly after takeoff.

Posted by Steve Kraske

Vandals strike down Talent signs

   Ten of U.S. Senate candidate Jim Talent's big yard signs lining the Ward Parkway corridor were torn down or heavily vandalized Saturday night.

   The campaign said today that the signs are known as "4 by 8s" and are the largest yard signs that campaigns distribute. Here are before and after photos of a sign destroyed at 8301 State Line Road.

   The perpetrators haven't been caught.

   "It's a despicable act," said Talent spokesman Rich Chrismer. "It's not just the vandalism and destruction of private property, but it's an affront to the political process."

  He called on the campaign of Democrat Claire McCaskill to denounce the vandalism.

   "That's horrible," said McCaskill spokeswoman Adrianne Marsh. "We absolutely condemn that kind of behavior."

   Chrismer said Talent signs also have been defaced along heavily traveled Southwest Trafficway. Altogether the campaign has lost about 25 of the big signs over the last month. The cost of the sign and labor involved in putting it up is about $40, he said.

Posted by Steve Kraske

A tale of two strategies

    How do you campaign for Congress when potential contributors are pinching pennies and there aren't a lot of differences on issues between the candidates?

    Scott Schwab and Chuck Ahner, running for the GOP nomination in the 3rd District of Kansas, are answering that question using two different strategies -- a ground and an air assault.

   Ahner, a West Point graduate, is on the ground with a large direct mail campaign in which he takes a few negative jabs at Schwab, a state representative.

   Schwab has taken to the airwaves, spending much of his advertising budget on radio ads that highlight a tough stance on immigration policies. He doesn't say anything about his opponent in those ads or in his direct mail literature.

   So, which strategy wins? We'll know tomorrow night when all the votes are counted.

Posted by Jim Sullinger

Talk talk

    Federal law clearly prohibits candidates from coordinating campaigns or messages with third-party committees and lobbying groups.  The NRA can run an ad about George Bush, for example, but Bush and his campaign can't know anything about it. 

    That coordination problem is the focus of the dispute in the Charles Wheeler-Mike Sanders dustup over the weekend -- Wheeler's folks think consultant Pat O'Neill improperly bought time for Sanders and for Citizens for Responsible Spending, which is running an anti-Wheeler spot.

    But Bob Connor, director of the Missouri's Ethics Commission, admits state law doesn't address the third-party coordination issue -- for local and state offices, like county executive.

    Instead, he says, an Ethics Commission opinion in 2002 makes coordinating campaign commercials illegal.

    The opinion isn't available online. 

     Since the statutes are apparently silent, though, a court challenge is always possible.

    In any advent, O'Neill claims there's no impropriety because he isn't part of the Sanders campaign, only its paid media consultant and buyer, which he says doesn't fall under the state's coordination rules.

Posted by Dave Helling

Caveat emptor, Northland division

   Consultant Pat ONeill says it's true, the Mike Sanders campaign did buy some cable TV time north of the river.

   In Platte and Clay counties, where, of course, there are few votes to be had (just a few, if you take into account a possible Jackson Countian or two who might be watching TV in a northland home or, um, tavern.)

   The Wheeler folks are chuckling -- they guess Sanders spent about $3,000 there.

   O'Neill blames the snafu on a cable company scheduler and a media buyer, and says the mistake was "inadvertent."

Posted by Dave Helling

War of ad words heats up

    The battle over whether an anti-Charles Wheeler attack ad is out of bounds resulted in dueling statements today from Wheeler and media consultant Pat O'Neill.

    The ad slams Wheeler's voting record (or rather the lack of it) in the state Senate and uses this not-so-flattering photo of Wheeler.    

    In his statement, O'Neill says the ad by Citizens for Responsible Spending ad fairly depicts Wheeler's service in the Senate. O'Neill placed the ad and is a paid consultant to Wheeler's Jaco exec opponent, Prosecutor Mike Sanders.

   This afternoon Wheeler himself demanded that Sanders denounce the ad and order it pulled from the airwaves.

   But O'Neill, who receives a commission for placing the ads, says Wheeler has "proved to be an ineffectual state senator." He bases this in part because Wheeler compiled the worst attendance record in 2006 among all senators, which included missing 133 roll calls votes and another 129 votes on final passage of bills, including the controversial voter ID one. His claim that Responsible Spending's treasurer, Michelle Rebman, sought him out to make the ad has been greeted by derision from the Wheeler camp.

  Wheeler's campaign manager, Maureen Galey, accused O'Neill Saturday of altering or fabricating the picture of Wheeler in the ad.

   O'Neill denies this. He said he personally took the photo of Wheeler four years ago when he was running Wheeler's campaign for state Senate. O'Neill says he took the photo then because he wanted an outline of Wheeler's profile for the silhouette on his campaign materials.

   "A lot of us felt we just had to pull the curtain back. Voters needed to see that behind the nostalgic image on the yard signs is an 80-year-old politician who, in effect, fell asleep at the switch (in) Jefferson City," he said. "...If the commercial is harsh, it is only because it is real."

   Wheeler does not dispute the figures used in the ad but claims it wrongly portrays him as an ineffective senator and does not provide the reasons that he missed votes.

   Wheeler -- who has called Sanders "inexperienced," "insecure," unprepared to serve as county executive and insinuated that Sanders would allow patronage contracts to run rampant in the stadium construction -- chided Sanders for breaking his pledge to run a clean campaign. Wheeler said he has honored his pledge not to engage in negative campaigning and that Sanders has proven he is incapable of running a good government and surrounds himself with questionable people that stoop to dirty politics.

   "Mr. Sanders has sat silent while his puppet group has run these ads," Wheeler said. "He should demonstrate some leadership by example and publicly state his opposition to the smear attack, fire and disassociate himself from the people on his campaign who supported this action and return any money he has received from any members of this group."

   In his statement, Wheeler says he missed the votes because he commuted daily between Jefferson City and Kansas City to be home with his family. But in an interview with The Star earlier this month, Wheeler said his wife's heart condition had nothing to do with the missed votes in 2006. However, he said his wife's medical condition was a large part of the reason he compiled the fifth-worst attendance record in 2005 and the seventh-worst attendance record in 2004.

  Wheeler says he did not  and does not do the driving between Jeff City and KC because of I-70 poor condition. Instead, he hitched rides from other legislators, including Victor Callahan, had his legislative aides or campaign staffer, Chris Werner, drive him back and forth, or took the train. In addition, he said on at least half a dozen occasions when his wife was ill that a State Police trooper made the round trip to get him home to KC or to bring him from his home to Jeff City. Wheeler says his wife's illness would not affect his service as county executive because he could spend each night at home with her and the commute would be less than 20 minutes one way.

   Because O'Neill is a paid consultant to Sanders and Responsible Spending's treasurer is listed as an employee of O'Neill's company, Wheeler claims that Sanders has broken state law because "the law forbids the control of a third-party committee by his campaign consultant."

  State law says a candidate cannot directly control a third-party committee but makes no mention of campaign consultants or staff. O'Neill said he broke no laws. He said neither Sanders nor his campaign manager, Calvin Williford, saw or approved the ad beforehand. Sanders said the same Friday night.

   Reached by KC Buzz Blog this afternoon, Williford said the campaign had no immediate comment on Wheeler's demand and news release.

Posted by DeAnn Smith

Tuesday in The Star's Ed Pages

Editorials

• An analysis of the crisis in Lebanon.
• A recap of The Star's recommendations for elections Tuesday in Kansas.

Local columnist

• Mary Sanchez says minority voters should thank U.S. Rep. John Lewis, a veteran of the civil rights movement, for pushing Congress to renew the Voting Rights Act.