CD7

Billy Long, the Republican auctioneer trying to replace Roy Blunt in Congress, has signed the Citizens Against Government Waste's pledge to oppose "irresponsible, corrupt" earmark spending. 

Fellow CD7 candidate Sen. Jack Goodman signed the same pledge in October, and has described the earmarking practice celebrated by Blunt and Sen. Kit Bond as "awful." Candidates Darrell Moore and Jeff Wisdom have made similar promises.

I don't live or work in the 7th District to know if Billy Long is "clearly the most visible candidate" running for Congress there, but this line from the KY3 "7th District Power Rankings" does not make sense:

The auctioneer is also clearly the most visible candidate in the field, in part due to his prolific Tweeting of his whereabouts. (He's the @clairecmc of the GOP).

First: the Twitter world is not the real world.  It's certainly a useful tool, especially for political news -- but a subset of the already small population of reporters and political junkies is not representative of the larger voting public.

Second: Bill Long has exactly 236 followers, many of whom are not 7th District voters.  That's it. 

The Springfield Business Journal published an interview with Seventh Congressional District candidate Billy Long today in which Long continues to differentiate himself from Roy Blunt’s record (1) as a career politician and (2) prolific earmarker.From that interview:

[Q:] Why did you decide to enter politics as a Republican candidate for Roy Blunt's U.S. House seat?

[A:] ...The reason I wanted to run [for Congress in 1996] is the same reason I'm running now. The system was set up to send community leaders and businesspeople to D.C. to do the business of the country, stay a few years and come home. Right now, more than half of our congressmen have spent more than half of their adult lives in one political office or another, and it's just not working...

[Q:] As a political candidate, you signed the FreedomWorks Earmarks Pledge, which works to combat wasteful earmarks. Why?

[A:] Earmarks, to me have gotten totally out of hand....

Sen. Gary Nodler (R-Joplin) announced yesterday that he'll step down from his Chairmanship of the Senate Budget Committee before the 2010 legislation session to "avoid any appearance of conflicts of interest" while he raises money for his bid for Congress.

I am leaving the committee before the work for the next session begins so there can not be even the appearance of political considerations compromising the integrity of our budget process.

Read Nodler's full statement at The Turner Report.

Meanwhile, Allen Icet has refused to step down as Chair of the House Budget Committee, seemingly comfortable with the situation Nodler says should be avoided.

Speaking with the Post-Dispatch's Tony Messenger's for his new column, Sarah Steelman says she's still considering a campaign in 2010.

And Steelman, who went from mulling a run for Senate to considering one for Congress or even sitting out a cycle and running for governor again, still hasn't made up her mind. And as she mulls a possible run for something, she said she's incurred no federal expenses.

Offers Steelman, "I'm still thinking about stuff."

Read More »

Just posted:

Former state Treasurer Sarah Steelman appears increasingly less likely to run against Blunt, and she acknowledged Monday that she is looking at a possible campaign for Blunt’s open House seat as an alternative...

Though rarely afraid of ruffling feathers in the GOP establishment — including in a pitched gubernatorial primary with former Rep. Kenny Hulshof (R-Mo.) in 2008 — Steelman told The Hill on Monday that she is worried about hurting the GOP.

“I am always willing to fight for what I believe in, but I would certainly prefer to do it without further destruction to our party,” Steelman said, adding: “I want to find a positive avenue to move our party forward.”

Steelman insisted she is still thinking about the Senate race. But in defending the tone of the gubernatorial primary last year, she also suggested it might be time for someone else to take up the mantle against Blunt.

This is a little disappointing:

Doug Pitt is the owner of ServiceWorld Computer Center and is known for his charitable work in Springfield. He also happens to be the brother of Hollywood superstar Brad Pitt.

But Doug Pitt said Wednesday that a Congressional bid isn’t in the cards, at least not this cycle.

“Some friends called and said, ‘What do you think’” of running in 2010, Pitt said. “But it’s nothing I have on the radar right now.”

There's been a bit of chatter in recent days about Gary Nodler's creative and convenient understanding of the word, "earmark."  As Fired Up! first reported last Thursday, Nodler's definition of earmark is just wrong, on matter how confidently he seems in delivering his explanation. Nodler's belief is that a bit of spending is only an earmark when it's added on the floor of a legislative body.  But since he's running for Congress, Nodler's opinion about what what constitutes an earmark is simply irrelevant. What matters are the rules of the US House of Representatives, which are quite specific, but generally refer to any appropriation for a very specific project or purpose (you can read the full definition here).

Not exactly shocking news, but Gary Nodler is now officially in the race to replace Roy Blunt in Congress. At his announcement event today in Springfield, he had a lot of red meat for the right-wing base: abortion is bad, gay marriage is bad, stem cell research is bad. Paradoxically, he said that debt is "Public Enemy Number One," but the "very first order of business is securing our borders." Go figure.

Now in campaign mode, Nodler is railing against President Obama and the "ultra liberal Congress" for their spending practices. I guess we're supposed to forgot about the fact that the state budget he helped craft just a few weeks ago uses $1.2 billion in federal recovery money, considerably more than proposed by Governor Jay Nixon.

For more, check out the contemporaneous Twitter coverage from Dave Catanese and Chad Livengood.

State Senator Gary Nodler will announce his intentions for seeking Roy Blunt's 7th Congressional District seat on Thursday.

Nodler has two events scheduled Thursday, one in his hometown of Joplin and the other in Springfield, the 7th district’s largest city.

Nodler has been coy about his intentions, but it isn’t very often that a candidate schedules multiple events to announce that he is not getting into a race.

When Nodler last ran for the 7th district in 1996, Blunt won the GOP primary by 12 points. Since that loss, Nodler has gone on to win two state Senate races and is now chairman of the powerful Appropriations Committee.

How do you distinguish yourself in a crowded field of very conservative candidates?  Support torture earlier and louder than everyone else:

Jeff Wisdom doesn't think waterboarding is torture. But does believe "very good information" came from waterboarding, facts be damned.

That said, he doesn't support torture, "per se."

The full interview with KY3's David Catanese is here.

Wisdom is one of several conservative candidates in the race to replace Roy Blunt in Congress.