President Obama traveled to Kansas City Thursday to speak on the economy at an electric vehicle plant and later as the headliner at a fundraiser for Missouri Secretary of State Robin Carnahan's U.S. Senate campaign. Blue Girl covered the fundraiser (one of two) held at the Folly Theater in downtown Kansas City and I covered the speech on the economy at Smith Electric Vehicles next to Kansas City International Airport.
In the lead up to and during the President's speech at the plant I took over 420 images. A few examples follow:
The view from the media riser before the audience was seated.
We'll be covering President Obama's visit to Kansas City tomorrow, both at the Smith Electric Vehicle plant and at one of the fundraising events for Missouri Secretary of State Robin Carnahan's U.S. Senate campaign. As a prelude to tomorrow's activities the White House offered a media conference call with administration officials this afternoon on the Recovery Act event:
The White House
Office of Media Affairs
For Immediate Release
July 7, 2010
CONFERENCE CALL: Administration Officials to Preview the President's Upcoming Visit to Kansas City, Missouri
WASHINGTON- Today, at 1:00 p.m. EDT Jared Bernstein, Chief Economist to Vice President Biden, and Matt Rogers, Senior Advisor to Energy Secretary Chu will hold a conference call to preview the President's upcoming visit to Kansas City, Missouri.
In Kansas City on July 8, President Obama will visit Smith Electric Vehicles where he will tour the facilities and deliver remarks on the economy to workers. Smith Electric Vehicles is an all-electric, zero emissions commercial truck manufacturer that received a $32 million Recovery Act grant to build all-electric trucks. The award, which is part of the $2.4 billion in Recovery Act advanced battery and electric vehicle grants the President announced last August, is helping Smith Electric establish operations at a re-purposed jet engine overhaul facility at the Kansas City International Airport, the first of as many as 20 regional assembly plants Smith Electric plans to open in the U.S....
The transcript:
Matt Lehrich, White House Communications: Hey everybody, it's Matt Lehrich, in White House Communications, thanks for joining us today. We are joined by Jared Bernstein who is chief economist for Vice President Biden and by Matt Rogers, Senior Advisor to Energy Secretary Chu. Gonna talk a little bit about, uh, what the President's gonna be talking about tomorrow as well as the Recovery Act more broadly, and some of the specific programs under Department of Energy. And with that I'll turn it over to Jared Bernstein....
....Right now, we are identifying about a 4.5-point Republican-leaning house effect in Rasmussen's polls, relative to a robust average, weighted based on pollster quality....
....We are using the new version of the pollster ratings for this update, by the way, which still rates Rasmussen as a somewhat above-average pollster. The problem is not necessarily that Rasmussen is bad but rather that they're so dominant; something like 40 percent of our state-level polls were put out by Rasmussen, and they are just about the only pollster at all in some states. A guiding principal of our house effects adjustment is that nobody should be advantaged (or disadvantaged) simply because they poll more often, so it effectively mitigates the impact of Rasmussen flooding the zone, as it would for any other pollster which did something similar. With that said, Rasmussen certainly could be right, so it's useful to check sometimes on what what the overall Senate picture would look like through their lens....
There are some interesting results for other questions in the poll:
A week ago, Robin Carnahan kicked off her "Stop the bull" tour at a donut shop in North St. Louis County by letting Norma Linke describe how a brokerage house committed fraud on her and how Carnahan stood up to the bankers and got Linke's money back for her. Once Carnahan got behind the podium, she laid out a message that's bound to have heads nodding everywhere she goes. Okay, my head wasn't nodding approval that the bailouts should never have happened. Our economy might well have frozen into permanent gridlock without them. But still, I recognize how outraged people are that the miscreants who created the Great Recession have been rewarded and are making more money than ever.
You know, as Secretary of State, as Norma said, I've always worked hard to put middle class families first, to cut costs and red tape for businesses, saved over $12 million for them just in five years. And we stood up for consumers, like Norma, against those big financial institutions. In three years, just three years, we've gotten over $10 billion back for them at a time when in Washington people were asleep at the switch, when they were supposed to be doing this job.
So I'm proud of that, I'm pleased that we could help Norma and her family get the money back. She's not the only one. You know, a guy named Tom in Chesterfield had his money frozen in a similar way, and we stood up for him and his wife. They got their money back. We've worked across party lines to get things done and pass the Senior Investor Protection Act that's one of the toughest laws in the whole country when it comes to protecting seniors against financial fraud. So standing on the side of Missouri families, whether on Wall Street or in Washington is something I have done and I'll continue to do if I go to the United States Senate. But unfortunately, unfortunately, all too often there are people in Washington that have just been there too long. They forget who they work for. They forget that they don't work for theses powerful lobbyists and special interests. They forget that they work for us. And forgetting that to me is what represents the very worst of what's going on in Washington these days. That's what's gotta change.
So here's the plan I want to talk about today, boiled down into three, three simple things that stop putting the powerful ahead of middle class families.
The first thing I think we've gotta do, I think we've gotta stop these bailouts so that we start protecting taxpayers and taxpayers' dollars. Now ending bailouts for big businesses, they're the ones that ... this reckless behavior caused these problems in the first place and affected every single middle class family and every business. And whether that's a bailout on Wall Street or a bailout of big oil, we gotta have it stop. We can't let these corporate interests just run hog wild, just make mistakes, cause a mess, fail to keep us safe and then expect us to clean it up. It's gotta stop. It's wrong. (applause)
It also to me means we've gotta enact tough Wall Street reforms, tough Wall Street reforms. Because to me, while Missouri families are continuing to suffer an economic crisis, you have Wall Street, they have just gone back to business as usual, you know. They are doling out millions of dollars in bonuses, they're engaging in the same risky behavior, and they're making record profits. Still. And all of this is because the folks in Washington have not yet fixed what's a broken system. I'm happy that we're finally talking about it, but it shouldn't have taken two years to get around to fixing this problem.
Robin Carnahan paints Roy Blunt as a corrupt politician, pointing out that he takes more money from lobbyists than any other member of Congress:
"There are 535 members of Congress. USA Today says Congressman Blunt has taken more campaign contributions from them than anybody else."
She follows that accusation with this one:
"So when it comes to PAC contributions, he's the number two recipient in the entire House of Representatives."
She didn't even bother outlining his crooked ties to Tom DeLay and Jack Abramoff or mentioning the hypocrisy of a family values man divorcing his wife to marry a tobacco lobbyist and then trying to sneak through a piece of legislation beneficial to one of his largest donors, Phillip Morris--legislation that would have benefited not only his new wife but his son Andrew, also a Phillip Morris lobbyist.
Scum.
Sadly, though, we cannot assume, just because the Republican in a race whores after money, that his opponent is necessarily virginal. So let's take a look, shall we?
That last one is especially relevant, considering how Carnahan spotlights the fact that Blunt is number two in the House in PAC contributions. 27 percent of the money Blunt rakes in comes from PACs, while 14 percent of Carnahan's contributions do. But there are PACs and then there are PACs.
Employees at Goldman Sachs and Citigroup weren't outraged by the $700 billion bailout in 2008. Everybody else was. It grinds your grits to give those scumsuckers that kind of money. And aside from the question of whether that money kept the economy from slipping into a coma, the fact is that most voters would like to spit on the big banks and the politicians who bestowed all those benjamins on them. Maybe the government got that money back with interest or maybe it really didn't. Depends on how you figure it. But politically? Especially in Missouri? It's a no brainer for Robin Carnahan to handcuff Roy Blunt to the bailout.
And that's exactly what she's doing in her "Stop the bull" stump speech. She starts by shackling him to his 1999 vote for the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act that allowed traditional banks to merge with investment houses. When the inevitable result of that law hit the fan nine years later, Roy Blunt was in the forefront, crafting the deal that saved AIG's and Goldman Sucs' bacon. He was the lead negotiator for the GOP.
Carnahan sort of doesn't mention that the Democrats--including Claire--were just as intent on bailing out the banks as the Republicans were. But the implication that she wouldn't have voted for it is clear. Some of you may approve of that stand; some not. But we'll all nod our heads vigorously when she berates Blunt for voting against the regulatory reform bill last December; for voting against the bill that required the bailed out banks to prove they were using the money to increase lending to consumers and small businesses; and for voting against capping executive compensation and bonuses at the bailed out companies.
"[Blunt] didn't just [vote for the bailout], he twisted arms to get other people to bail them out as well. I call that bull. And Congressman Blunt-you might not know this--he sits on the Energy and Commerce Committee. That's the committee that oversees the oil companies, supposed to investigate what went wrong in the Gulf. Trouble is, he's one of the top ten recipients of all time of BP money in Congress. He's taken over a million dollars from oil and gas interests and, of all the people on that committee, he's taken more money from oil and gas interests than any other member of the committee. So it shouldn't be a big surprise that he's stood every step of the way on the side of oil and gas companies. (...)
Congressman Blunt says he's looking out for us in his fourteen years in Washington. So I ask this question: Why is it you've taken more money--listen to this--more money from lobbyists than any other member of Congress? There are 535 members of Congress. USA Today says Congressman Blunt has taken more campaign contributions from them than anybody else. (...)
Lobbyists aren't the only way these big corporate special interests try to influence politicians. The other way is through PAC contributions, and I'll tell you that's another chart where Congressman Blunt comes in at the top. So when it comes to PAC contributions, he's the number two recipient in the entire House of Representatives. In PAC contributions, this is the other way. Lobbyists and PAC contributions, that's how these big interests influence congressmen. And Congressman Blunt is at the top of both of these lists. I think it's bull.
At the Old Town Donut Shop in North St. Louis County, Robin Carnahan kicked off her statewide swing of events titled "Stop the bull." She had plenty to say about Roy Blunt's habit of wearing plaid shirts and cruising around the state in a rented pickup, presenting himself as a good ole boy, then returning to D.C. to sabotage U.S. jobs and shill for bankers and Big Oil. (More about all that in a later posting.) And she laid out the specifics of how she wants to stop the ingrained Washington practices of ignoring the needs of most of the populace. (That, too, deserves its own posting.) But she started her presentation by letting Norma Linke speak for her. And although Linke is no polished orator, what she said was eloquent.
[Robin] is the kind of leader who gets things done. I (ahem, excuse me) I know Robin is the kind of person who does get things done because she personally helped me and my husband at a very hard time. We had thought we had invested our money into weekly CDs. And instead the brokerage put our money into a complex investment. And when the economy took a downturn, they froze our investment, and we thought we would never get our money back. We didn't know what to do because we had started a new room addition and didn't know if the money ... or where to find the money to finish the job or where it would come from since we were relying on the CDs. That's when we contacted the Attorney General's office and the matter was turned over to the Secretary of State's office. When Robin took charge, she didn't give up and she stood up to the brokerages and banks who put people's money into these complex investments known as auction rate securities and told the people that they were CDs or like the money market where you can get your money out at any time. Because Robin continued going after the big financial institutions to correct their misrepresentations, she got over ten billion for the wronged investors. (Clapping) But that's not all. Robin has helped small businesses save nearly twelve million. That's a lot of money. She has done more and spent less. In fact, she has cut her budget over twenty percent. Robin has gotten real results with her get it done, common sense approach, and we need her leadership in the U.S. Senate. (Applause) For too long, Washington has been busy looking out for Wall Street, Big Oil, and corporate special interests--and sticking the middle class with the bills. But I can tell you from personal experience that Robin puts Missouri families first. It's time the middle class families have someone fighting for them. And I know Robin is just the person we need.
I found Norma Linke's clear, personal, and, truth be told, somewhat stilted speech charming. And convincing.
Missouri Secretary of State Robin Carnahan (D) addressed Boys State and swore in the elected Boys State office holders tonight in a ceremony in Hendricks Hall on the campus of the University of Central Missouri.
Greeting the clerks of the Boys State General Assembly after being escorted into the hall.
Secretary of State Robin Carnahan (D): ....Oftentimes the goals that we see and the things that we know we want to do we can't reach in one step. But we know we can start in that direction and after a series of steps and commitment and being dedicated and being persistent that we can reach that goal. And so I hope as you wind down your time at Boys State you'll do that with a renewed sense of purpose, some understanding about yourself, about your community, about you can be leaders in that community. And I hope each of you will go home and try to figure out how you can make a difference. To look around in your community, at things that you can help make better.
Martin Luther King said something many years ago that has stuck with me through my life and I hope you'll remember this. He said, "Every one of us ought to believe in something. And believe in that thing so fervently that we're ready to stand up for it 'til the end of our days." Think about that. Think about what that is for you. What is it you believe in? What is it that you're passionate about? What is it that you are ready to stand up for 'til the end of your days? I hope that you'll spend some time in the next little while before you leave and through this summer finding out what that is. Because folks, our state and our nation is depending on you to do just that.
The Johnson County Democratic Club held a start of the summer picnic featuring barbecue and potluck, an election year tradition, at the home of former State Representative Deleta Williams in Warrensburg. Democratic House candidates, countywide candidates and Secretary of State Robin Carnahan (on her way to address Boys State on the campus of the University of Central Missouri) were scheduled to speak to the crowd.
Courtney Cole, the Democratic Party candidate in the 121st Legislative District.
Rasmussen conducted a poll of 500 likely voters in Missouri on June 2, 2010. The margin of error is 4.5%.
3* 2010 Missouri Senate Race
Roy Blunt (R) - 45%
Robin Carnahan (D) - 44%
Some other candidate - 4%
Not sure - 6%
Do you think "Some other candidate" might be Chuck Purgason?
Interesting. These Rasmussen numbers have Roy Blunt's (r - lobbyists) numbers trending down. Maybe it's about the oil.
11* In the long-term, will the recent Gulf Oil Spill have a devastating impact on the environment, a major impact, a modest impact, a minor impact, or will it have little lasting impact on the environment?
47% Devastating impact on the environment
35% Major impact....
12* Who should pay for the clean-up from the oil leak - the companies who were drilling for oil, the government or both?
81% Companies who were drilling for oil
1% Government
17% Both
1% Not sure....
Robin Carnahan's (D) senate campaign has been quite adept at and persistent in painting Roy Blunt (r - lobbyists) with his big oil contributions:
....From easing restrictions on exploration, to allowing billions in government giveaways, Congressman Blunt has established himself as a friend of Big Oil and they have paid him back handsomely with campaign contributions. In fact, Congressman Blunt is an all-time top ten recipient of BP contributions in the House of Representatives. And this cycle, Congressman Blunt ranks 2nd in the entire House of Representatives when it comes to oil and gas contributions....
...."The facts are undeniable - Congressman Blunt has a 14-year Washington record of looking out for Big Oil," said campaign spokesman Linden Zakula. "Congressman Blunt pushed for the Wall Street bailout so there's every reason to believe he'll try to bail out Big Oil too. Congressman Blunt wants to argue details to mask his support for policies that would not guarantee taxpayers aren't left to pay for Big Oil's mess."
I just wanted to remind everyone that today (Wednesday) is the final day of the first fundraising quarter of 2010. The fundraising totals reported by federal candidates will help determine their relative strength as we head toward Election Day 2010.
Please contribute as generously as you can today.
For instance, you can contribute to Robin Carnahan's campaign for U.S. Senate via my Expand the Map! ActBlue page. On it, Robin has 49 contributions. Can you be contribution number 50?
(Remember: every contribution you make to Robin via the Expand the Map! ActBlue page is not only a show of support for Robin but an investment toward Roy Blunt's long overdue retirement!)
We have some success on the "Finding candidates" front! Democrat Theodore "Ted" Rights of Hamilton filed in the 6th district to challenge Republican Sam Graves. Rights is a Doctor in General Practice in Jamesport (Daviess County). Which should make Graves "The Government took over your health care" talk a lot more ridiculous since he will be facing an actual doctor. Graves also got a primary opponent, as Christopher Ryan of Liberty filed.
Frequent candidate Richard Charles Tolbert (D-Kansas City) filed for the US Senate today. He is running for re-election to the Metropolitan Community College Board of Trustees on April 6th. Tolbert ran for Lt. Governor in 2008, Jackson County Executive in 2006, 2002, and 1998, and he last ran for the Senate in 1992. Tolbert and Francis Vangeli will be splitting the contrarian vote while Robin Carnahan wins the primary easily.
Republican Marshall Works of Ballwin and Republican Fred Sauer of St. Louis filed for Congress in the 1st Congressional district. Expanding that field to 4. Republican James "Bryant" Walker of Jefferson City filed in the 4th Congressional District, expanding that field to 9 candidates. Republican Ron Shawd of Lee's Summit filed in the 5th Congressional District, expanding that field to 5.
But we don't have Democrats in the 2nd or 9th district. Which should be fixed before filing closes tomorrow, hint hint.
Democrat Don Crozier of O'Fallon filed in the 2nd Senate District, providing valuable insurance in case Cynthia Davis wins the primary and expands on the virtue of hunger. Can't win if you don't file.
Libertarian Bob Ludlow filed in the 10th Senate district, meaning that he will talk about liberty as he loses to Jolie Justus in November.
Jack Jackson withdrew and filed again in the 26th Senate District to get the bottom of the ballot spot. Two of his opponents for Auditor in 2006 played that trick while Jackson had the top spot on the ballot.
Speaking of tricks. The weirdest filing of the day comes out of HD107, Republican John Fischer of Bonne Terre filed to face Democrat Linda Fischer of Bonne Terre. John and Linda are married. When I speak of having contested elections, I never spoke of filing for office against your spouse. Seriously guys, you're getting a bit too clever for your own good. Either a Republican or Democrat is going to file there to block whatever you two have in mind.
The Johnson County Democratic Central Committee sponsored their third annual James C. Kirkpatrick Heritage Dinner at the Johnson County fairgrounds near Warrensburg on Saturday night. Johnson County Auditor Kay Dolan Reynolds (D) was presented the James Kirkpatrick Award, honoring her public service in the tradition of the legendary Secretary of State. Former Senator Jean Carnahan was the keynote speaker.
Senator Jean Carnahan greets a fellow Democrat before the start of the Kirkpatrick dinner in Warrensburg on Saturday night.
Johnson County Auditor Kay Dolan Reynolds (D) was presented with the James C. Kirkpatrick Award.
Senator Carnahan's remarks:
Jean Carnahan: ...I'm engaged more fully in what I'm doing than ever before because I believe that we need to be right now. It's important. It's the time, and I feel very strongly about a number of things. So I've been doing some writing and speaking. I have a blog called firedupmissouri dot com. Do any of you ever go over and read that? I hope you do. [applause] Every day we expose the hypocrisy of Republicans. And believe me, that takes up a lot of space. [laughter] And we highlight the good works of true public servants....
....This mid-year election, as it shapes up, Republicans are already telling us what they're going to do, aren't they? They're telling us their intention. They tell us they're going to run on the repeal of health care. Well, if you recall from your history, back in nineteen thirty-six, Alf Landon ran against Roosevelt on the platform of repealing health care. That worked so well. [laughter] And just imagine now one of your local Republican candidates, he's got the Republican platform in his pocket and he's going door to door and he goes up and he knocks on the door and an elderly man comes to the door and he says, " I will tell you about the Republican platform and what we're gonna do for you." The man says, "Okay." He says, "We're going to reinstate the donut hole in Medicare so that you have to pay more." The man looks a little confused. He says, "And, and we're going to take our adult children from ages eighteen to twenty-six and we're gonna take them off your health care policy. What's more, you know that pre-existing condition clause that used to be in your insurance contract? We're gonna put that back in again." And the man's really becoming more and more confused. And finally he says, "What's more, we're gonna do away with tax credits for small businesses so they can get health care. And best of all, we're going to take health care coverage away from thirty-two million people." Well, with that, the man at the door thinks he is talking to an absolute idiot. He slams the door in his face. And I tell you friends, I believe this is what Missourians are gonna do for the Republicans come November. [applause]...
As we await the historic vote on health care reform, it's important to remember that we're just ten days away from the end of the first fundraising quarter of 2010. The fundraising totals reported in this quarter will be pivotal to determining the tenor of many races for the rest of the year. If there is any time to contribute, now is the time!
Please head over to the Expand the Map! ActBlue page and contribute whatever you are able to these terrific Democratic candidates for Senate.
Democrat
Currently At
End-of-Quarter Goal
Distance to Goal
Kendrick Meek
$25
$300
$275
Bill Halter
$445
$750
$305
Joe Sestak
$1,320
$1,600
$280
Paul Hodes
$1,447
$1,700
$253
Robin Carnahan
$1,163
$1,400
$237
Remember, the contribution you can make isn't just a donation to a single candidate or political campaign. It's an investment against Republican obstruction (and conservaDem enabling) and an investment toward achieving that more perfect union.
There was a fundraiser this evening for Courtney Cole, the Democratic candidate in the 121st Legislative District, at the home of former state representative Deleta Williams in Warrensburg. Missouri Secretary of State (and U.S. Senate candidate) Robin Carnahan attended and spoke briefly.
There was a vehicle with an individual in the driver side seat parked along an access road across from the driveway entrance to the event.
Note the video camera in his lap.
Our conversation:
Show Me Progress: How are you doing?
Tracker: Hello. How are you?
SMP: Good, good. So, are you a tracker or something?
Tracker: Uh, you could say that I guess.
SMP: Yeah. I'm with Show Me Progress. [I handed him my business card. He took it.]
Tracker: Oh!
SMP: Yeah. So, so, where are you from?
Tracker: Uh, I'd rather not say.
SMP: Oh, okay, that's cool. [sound of camera shutter]
Tracker: You like the license plate? [In response to me photographing the back of the car.]
SMP: Actually? Interesting.
Tracker: Um, hm.
SMP: Yeah, so, uh, so have you been doing this for long or working in, in politics and stuff like that? [crosstalk]
Tracker: Uh, yeah, I've been working in politics for a while. [crosstalk]
SMP: Yeah. Good, good. Uh, where are you from, just in, are you from Missouri or just?
Tracker: I'd rather not say.
SMP: Okay, that's cool. Well, listen, have a good evening, all right?
No job is too insignificant in a campaign, but wearing a tie for this?
Roy Blunt may be a little too obsessed with Robin Carnahan; she may not be quite as powerful as he thinks. According to Big Bucks Blunt, he is opposing not "Obamacare" which seems to be the bane of most members of the Party of No, but Carnahan's government takeover - as he twittered earlier:
According to @RasmussenPoll 60% of Missourians support our position on health care. Only 37% want Carnahan's govt-takeover.
Carnahan has recently expressed support for health care reform; she is after all a reasonably sane individual, and there is no reason to oppose it unless you are unhinged (Tea-Party) or lying about it as a tool to regain power (other Republicans). However, she might be a little surprised to know that she is the entity responsible for what so many of the cowering right wing consider a government takeover.
If Blunt does manage to establish that Carnahan should be credited for health care reform, he may live to regret it. He cites the Rasmussen polls, which many consider to have a Republican bias because they so consistently perform as an outlier in the direction of Republican druthers, to claim that health care reform is not popular in Missouri. Other polls show, however, that the national trend is now moving in the President's favor and once health care is passed - and the news tonight is that reconciliation will start Monday - approval rates in Missouri will likely climb. Which, oh frabjous day, may well leave Roy Blunt out on a limb while Carnahan picnics underneath.
....Since she [Robin Carnahan] also has a couple of campaign fundraisers scheduled while she's in the capital, Zakula said the campaign is paying for the trip.
Still, the president is not the most popular guy in Missouri, lately. He only had a 40 percent approval rating in the state last month, according to a Rasmussen poll.
But Zakula denied that Carnahan was leaving town to avoid sharing a stage with him.
"She appreciates the support from Sen. McCaskill and the president and she's looking forward to seeing them on the campaign trail this year," he said....
"...He only had a 40 percent approval rating in the state last month, according to a Rasmussen poll..."
....I want to stress that the only point I'm making in this post is that at least in national tracking polls, in any given timeframe, a Rasmussen poll is overwhelmingly likely to show better news for the GOP than any other poll.
To illustrate this point, I generated a series of scatter plot charts using pollster.com's index of polls. Every poll in pollster.com's index is represented on each chart by a dot, plotted horizontally by the date of the poll, and vertically by the results of the poll.
Rasmussen polls are in red; every other poll is in green. Shaded red areas on the charts represent areas where results would favor the GOP.
I think you'll see that Rasmussen polls literally stand out from all the others and they almost always deliver good news for the GOP....
You'd think the Kansas City Star might mention that. If they even knew or bothered to try and figure it out.
The pool report forwarded this evening by the White House Media Affairs Office:
Air force one landed at lambert-st louis international airport at 323 pm local time (423 east coast time).
No gaggle on the flight to St. Louis. But Reid Cherlin stopped by to chat, and says, on the record, that Robin Carnahan had already scheduled her trip to Washington when Potus decided to come to St. Louis. "Her people have asked if President Obama would please appear with her in a future event soon," Mr. Cherlin said. "We are working on that now."
417 candidates filed today for state and federal offices. 224 Republicans, 170 Democrats, 17 Constitution Party Members, and 6 Libertarians filed. A surprisingly high turnout of Constitution Party candidates (gotta find a way to describe those party members without being too long-worded or vague) and another low turnout for Libertarians on day one. Although 2 Libertarians did file for Lacy Clay's seat.
14 candidates filed for the US Senate. 3 candidates filed for Auditor. 37 candidates filed for the US House. 39 candidates filed for 17 State Senate seats. 308 candidates filed for 163 State House seats. And 16 candidates filed for Circuit Court spots.
Roy Blunt and Chuck Purgason were joined by 7 other Republicans. These Republicans include Businessman R. L. Proprotnik (who won the first spot on the ballot), unknown James Schmidt, Hector Maldonado (who is in the Army until the end of this month), Kristi Nichols (who poses in front of a flag with some text I can't read on it), unsuccessful school board candidate Deborah Solomon, small business owner Davis Conway, and Tea Partier Mike Vontz.
Two Constitution Party candidates are dueling for their nomination. Jerry Beck (who ran as a Democrat in previous elections) and contemporary furniture maker Joe Martellaro are filed for that nomination.
A week ago, Robin Carnahan kicked off her "Stop the bull" tour at a donut shop in North St. Louis County by letting Norma Linke describe how a 
