4th District Congressional Race

During the 7th inning of today's Cardinals game, broadcaster John Rooney spoke with Sen. Kit Bond about his public service and colleagues in Congress. In their conversation, Bond and Rooney both had high praise for Congressman Ike Skelton.

"I tell you, it's very, very important for us to have a man like Ike Skelton, who's Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee," Bond said.

There's something wrong with this article posted by the Waynesville Daily Guide yesterday... 

Missouri’s Fourth Congressional District seat will have a new challenger come next year’s election. Former state representative Vicky Hartlzer [sic] has announced that she will run against incumbent Ike Skelton, D-Mo., in the 2010 election cycle. She is the only Republican to put her name in for the seat so far.

Oh right: Bill Stouffer is running in the 4th District GOP primary too.  Though it certainly doesn't excuse this kind of error, Stouffer probably didn't help his case by launching his campaign in the DC media.

Also, credit where credit is due: Hartzler inaccurately told an audience this week that "taxpayer-funded abortions... will happen" in the health care reform bill.  In his coverage of her event, KY3's Dave Catanese correctly points out this is not true. 

Bill Stouffer has officially thrown is hat into the ring to challenge Ike Skelton next fall. Stouffer gave CQ Politics the scoop:

Stouffer recently filed a statement of candidacy and a statement of organization to organize a campaign in Missouri's 4th, a Republican-leaning district that includes all or part of 25 counties in central and western Missouri.

"Enough is enough," Stouffer told CQ Politics Friday. "We've lost sight of what the role of the federal government is. We forget that the federal government was created by the states to serve the states, not to dictate to the states, and I'm concerned with the deficits that we're running up."

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Former State Representative Vicky Hartzler has officially filed to run against Ike Skelton next year, and may have a primary challenger soon. Multiple sources report that State Senator Bill Stouffer (R-Napton) has recruited the services of Jeff Roe to challenge Hartzler for the right to take on Skelton.