2008 Governor's Race

Tony Messenger has a story today about Kenny Hulshof changing his vote to override the President's veto of a Medicare reimbursement bill just weeks after a fundraiser through which he raised more than $20,000 for his gubernatorial campaign from funders who would benefit from the reimbursement bill.  

The money quote comes from our old friend Spence Jackson:

“You cannot trust Congressman Hulshof,” said Steelman spokesperson Spence Jackson. “He changed his vote explicitly for campaign contributions at Dr. Steve Reintjes house in Kansas City just a few days ago. Missourians can’t afford a government that’s for sale.”

Far be it from me to agree with Spence, but he may be onto something.

Watching this video makes me long for a fifty-five gallon drum of drawn butter.

Really, you have to hand it to the Steelman for Governor campaign for making the smoke and mirrors last this long.

It was a quarter in which Republican candidates for governor should have been raising money hand over fist and closing the funding gap between themselves and Jay Nixon.  Q2 of 2008 was the last full quarter leading up to the August primary and all the heat and light of the Missouri political scene was focused on their race.  Yet, when all the contributions were tallied and reported, the Republicans hadn't capitalized on the advantage, and Democrat Jay Nixon very nearly outraised the combined totals of the two Republican hopefuls.

As reported everywhere, Jay Nixon raised about $1.75 million this quarter past, while Kenny Hulshof hauled in about $1.48 million and Sarah Steelman posted a paltry $289,000.  Even in combination, the GOP candidates raised only a few thousand more than Nixon did on his own.­

It seems that Peter Kinder has endorsed Kenny Hulshof. Considering that the success of Kinder's past endorsements have lead to the expression "Kinder's Kiss of Death" a Kinder endorsement can only be "bad news" for the person being endorsed. 

Of course Hulshof will lose to Jay Nixon anyway so maybe "Kinder's Kiss of Death" does not matter in the case of Kenny Hulshof's campaign.

The last few weeks have been a sad and stark illustration of the inevitable economic results of Republican control of state government.  We've seen...

A Missouri Chrysler plant shutdown

The refusal of Bombardier to relocate to our state, despite lucrative inducements

The sale of Anheuser-Busch to a Belgian firm

Record levels of unemployment

A loss of 15,000 jobs since last October 

With Ethics Commission finance reports due tomorrow and fewer than three weeks remaining before the contested Republican primary, we're at a seminal moment for GOP governor hopefuls Kenny "I just don't like his name" Hulshof and Sarah Steelman.

For the Republican candidates, the second quarter and its corresponding report is clearly the most important as voters will be deciding between them shortly.  Obviously, both Steelman and Hulshof are likely to have outraised Democrat Jay Nixon as they are right in the throes of a heated race while Nixon awaits the news of who he'll face in November.

Kudos to Dave Catanese for his video interview with Kenny Hulshof.  Catanese sticks by his guns and refuses to let Hulshof off the hook by forcing him to answer for his history of supporting Congressional earmarks.  Here's Hulshof explaining carefully his nuanced position on the topic:

"In every instance, my principle is that the person that wants to cut this proposal has to make the case to me that it is worthwhile to cut and then whoever proposes the earmark has to defend that earmark."

Watch the video yourself (it's the first of the three clips) if you don't believe it.  Hulshof actually admits that his presumption is that any earmark included in a piece of appropriation legislation should get the benefit of the doubt, and that opponents of a particular earmark have to prove to him that it shouldn't be included.

There was ample time for Republicans of all kinds --Congressional Republicans, statewide elected Republicans, legislative Republicans-- to stake out a position in opposition to Rod Jetton's clearly untoward political consulting business when the issue first arose a couple years ago.   Of course, none of them did. 

Not Sarah Steelman, not Peter Kinder, not Kenny Hulshof.  None of those moral midgets thought Rod Jetton's consulting arrangement, which was as inappropriate then as it was during this session, was something with which they should concern themselves. 

But now that Jetton is a lame duck, term-limited Speaker who has lowered the gavel on his last meaningful legislative session these prominent Republicans are falling over one another trying to find a podium or an open mic from which they can tsk at Jetton and feign outrage at a practice of his they've known about since early 2006. 

A stroke of genius --grab hold of the very thing most responsible for sinking Matt Blunt's term as governor and run on that initiative in your campaign to succeed him:

Hulshof defended the controversial 2005 decision by Gov. Matt Blunt's administration to eliminate tens of thousands of Missourians from being eligible for Medicaid, the government health care system for the poor.

Brilliant!

Apparently, the inability to "string a sentence together" makes one "a maverick."

Who knew?

Sarah Steelman spokesman Spence Jackson on statements by Steelman's opponent:

"...more of congressman Hulshof's Washington-style deceit."

Unfortunately, this primary contest stretches on only for another five weeks.­

Imagine having to choose between the second coming of Fred Thompson who effectively wants to extend Matt Blunt's term by four years or some woman whom Chamber of Commerce members describe this way...

She was awful…She couldn’t string a sentence together…She wasn’t prepared…She made no sense…

Yet despite the widely acknowledged weakness of the GOP primary candidates, there aren't very many Republican lifers out there lamenting Matt Blunt's decision not to run for re-election.  Strange, that.  No? 

Via Youtube comes an amateurish (that's part of the charm) web video from a member of the never-say-die Ron Paul internet dead-enders crew.  The vid encourages viewers to contribute to a Sarah Steelman "Money Bomb" on June 27th.

A "money bomb" is apparently a tactic used to great effect by the Ron Paul for President campaign, which raised $6 million in one day with its own money bomb earlier during the primary season.