First, there was this item:

CUNA Search for New CEO Nearing End

4/28/2010

…Among the names that have been mentioned include California-Nevada Credit Union League President Bill Cheney, Massachusetts-New Hampshire Credit Union League President Dan Egan, Rep. Jo Ann Emerson (R-Mo.) and Rep. Bart Gordon (D-Tenn.). None of them returned calls seeking comment…

Emerson was elected to the House in 1996, succeeding her late husband Rep. Bill Emerson. She has not been active on financial services issues and although she voted for the most important credit union bill in recent years-H.R. 1151-which passed 411-8, she wasn’t a co-sponsor. If she is chosen, she would be the second consecutive CUNA president with ties to the insurance industry. She was senior vice president of American Insurance Association from 1994 to 1996 (and before that a lobbyist for the National Restaurant Association)….

[emphasis added]

And then this, in the St. Louis Beacon:

Mo GOP, Dems raise questions about jobs: Carnahan’s past and rumors of Emerson’s future

By Jo Mannies, Beacon Political Reporter

…The Times said Emerson, among others, had been interviewed by an executive search committee hired to assemble a job description for CUNA’s top post and some candidates for it.

Emerson chief of staff Jeffrey Connor said today that he could not comment on the Times report. But he did note that she was still running for re-election….

And Tommy Sowers (D) campaign pointed out via e-mail today:

Jo Ann Emerson is considering retirement:

St. Louis Beacon, 5/3/10: Jo Ann Emerson is “among several big-name individuals who may be under consideration to become the new president of the Credit Union National Association (CUNA), the industry’s national trade association…The [Credit Union] Times said Emerson, among others, had been interviewed by an executive search committee… Emerson chief of staff Jeffrey Connor said today that he could not comment…”

This proves our insurgent strategy is working. If she’s planning her exit strategy already, she must be really scared of us. She’s scared of the buzz we’re building. The press we’re getting. She’s scared of the money we’re raising. According to our intelligence (some of her friends are really ours…) the thing she’s most scared of is that we’re somehow doing this by bringing together lots of people.

This could be a tipping point moment in our campaign and we need to a make sudden show of force. So… we’re launching an emergency offensive. Our goal is to raise 25,000 dollars FAST from tons of grassroots donors. Why? Because she can’t. (And she knows it.)

Please click here and donate to help us launch this emergency offensive.

Make this decision easy for her — chip in to Jo Ann Emerson’s retirement fund:

http://www.sowersforcongress.c…

Let’s pack that Golden Parachute!

[….]

Heh. Don’t you just love a campaign that knows how to take it to an inside the Washington beltway republican incumbent?

Previously:

Tommy Sowers (D) in the 8th Congressional District: on CNN

Missouri republicans in Congress: teabaggers “r” us

Scotland on ten dollars a day? That’s for the little people…