Senator Claire McCaskill (D) campaigned door to door this afternoon in the neighborhood she represented when she was in the Missouri General Assembly. She was accompanied by several young campaign workers, campaign staff, two reporters, several photographers, one blogger, and later, one Kansas City television affiliate videographer.

A number of times people out walking stopped to talk, or greet Senator McCaskill, or call out encouragement. Several people came out of their houses to see the senator when they noticed the crowd.

Several kids, on their way home from school noticed the commotion and called out across the street, “Are you Claire McCaskill?” The senator replied that she indeed was and called back, “Come on over.” They posed for pictures on their cell phones. One of the kids asked the senator to sign a Captain America action figure, which she did after a staffer found a Sharpie pen.

Definitely a supportive neighborhood.

Senator Claire McCaskill (D).

Checking out all that commotion behind Senator McCaskill.

[in response to a question]

Senator Claire McCaskill (D): ….Um, you know, it’s, it’s beautiful day. Uh, this is my old neighborhood. I’m feeling very nostalgic right now. Uh, I lived in this neighborhood, this is the first home I bought. And when I represented, um, part of Kansas City in the legislature this was my district. So, I’ve knocked on all these doors before. And so all those memories come flooding back. Um, and in those campaigns both my mom and my dad sometimes would walk with me. And they’d take one side of the street and I’d take the other side of the street. So, um, this is, this afternoon is full of memories, good memories for me. And it, it’s a, I think it’s a great way to kind of cap off the campaign, uh, where I’ve really tried to keep it focused on what Missouri families are suffering from and what they need in terms of us fixing problems that are never gonna be fixed by people at opposite ends of the room yelling at each other. It’s gonna take compromise.

Question: How have you been received out here?

Senator Claire McCaskill (D): You know, really warmly. Um, now, it’s a little more high tech now than when I knocked on doors many years ago. Um, now we’ve made phone calls. And so what we’re trying to do at this point in the campaign is encouraging our voters to turn out. And one last pass at some of the voters who hadn’t made up their mind. So, in the old days I’d knock on doors and lots of the doors I knocked on were very unfriendly because, um, chances were that, you know, someone maybe wasn’t, didn’t agree with you on things. Um, but, today, especially the people we’ve run into, just waking their, their dog and we’ve had a couple of moms with their children, uh, on this beautiful afternoon. And everyone’s been incredibly supportive. Thanks.

Question: Thanks.

Senator Claire McCaskill (D): Anything else from you guys?….

The gaggle of reporters, photographers and campaign staffers along with Senator Claire McCaskill (D) makes its way north to the next street.

The gaggle surrounds Senator McCaskill, a mother and child.

It is a myth. Very similar to the confidence fairy. Wishing really, really hard that something exists can’t make it so.

From a 48 hour campaign finance report for Vicky Hartzler’s campaign in the 4th Congressional District filed at the Federal Election Commission:

10/31/2012 15 : 03

Image# 12961225424 [pdf]

Vicky Hartzler for Congress

Ann Wagner for Congress Transaction ID : 21031.C11087 10/30/2012 [$]1000.00

[emphasis added]

That’s a $1,000.00 endorsement from republican candidate (in Missouri’s 2nd Congressional District) Ann Wagner (r) of vouchers for Medicare, privatizing Social Security, USDA farm subsidies for large operations, navel oranges, and microchips in our toasters. Just to name a few.  

Left overnight on the windshield of a vehicle parked in a driveway in a residential neighborhood in a small town in west central Missouri.

This is what passes these days for a republican presidential campaign GOTV operation in Missouri.

Hi Friend,

I just wanted to let you know that some knucklehead vandalized your car by slapping an Obama sticker on it. The last thing you want is to be driving around all day looking like an idiot.

Take care,

A Good Samaritan

Gee, it’s not even an original idea:

LETTER: Reply to supermarket note-leaver (July 10, 2012)

Right wingnuts are doing this all over the country.

This is why Mitt Romney (r) will lose the election.

Instead of knocking on doors and engaging voters directly, or working a phone bank, or doing a literature drop a whole bunch of people have spent time implementing this and placing it on vehicles.

Remind me now, who’s the fucking idiot?

Yesterday, at the Missouri Ethics Commission, another republican candidates for statewide office got his last minute $50,000.00.

Shane Schoeller (r), the republican candidate for Secretary of State, also got another chunk of change along with that $50,000.00:

C061132 11/01/2012 SCHOELLER FOR MISSOURI RSCL Missouri PAC 1800 Diagonal Rd Alexandria VA 22314 11/1/2012 $50,000.00

C061132 11/01/2012 SCHOELLER FOR MISSOURI Citizens for Diehl 2404 White Stable Road Town and Country MO 63131 11/1/2012 $10,000.00

[emphasis added]

That’s a total of $500,000.00 from the same folks (RSCL) in the past week. In a down ballot statewide race. That’s just obscene.

An ad for Jason Kander, the Democratic Party candidate for Secretary of State, illustrating the difference between the two:

Jason Kander: In November two thousand six I was serving in Afghanistan while America was voting. But I was able to mail in an absentee ballot and vote in the Democracy I was fighting to protect.

My opponent, Shane Schoeller, wants to outlaw absentee voting by mail, which will make it nearly impossible for soldiers serving overseas to vote. And that that’s not right.

I’m Jason Kander. As Secretary of State I’ll make sure everyone who’s eligible to vote can vote. especially soldiers like me.

Announcer: Jason Kander for Secretary of State.

Now, ask yourself, who would drop a half a million dollars to fund a republican right wingnut candidate for Secretary of State like Shane Schoeller (r) who would disenfranchise so many voters? Just asking.

There is a freakin’ difference.

Previously:

Celebrate the grassroots! Not exactly, if you’re a republican… (October 30, 2012)

Campaign Finance: why, two can play at that same game… (October 27, 2012)

Campaign Finance: Celebrate the grassroots! (October 28, 2012)

This evening Senator Claire McCaskill (D) spoke at a get out the vote rally at Laborer’s Local 264 Hall in Kansas City. There were approximately a hundred people (mostly supporters and a few media) in attendance.

Senator Claire McCaskill (D) was greeted by supporters and media as she entered

the Laborer’s Local 264 Hall in Kansas City for a get out the vote rally on November 1, 2012.

Senator Claire McCaskill (D): ….You know what they think on the other side? They don’t think we have a ground game. [laughter] They think that this model of turnout, the reason you saw millions of dollars come into Missouri in the last twenty-four hours is they actually believe that we aren’t engaged in this election. They actually believe that our enthusiasm is gonna be so low that if they poor a couple a million dollars in for Congressman Akin at the eleventh hour that that’ll be enough to win the day. [voice: “And they’re nuts.”] Well, I got news for ’em. [voices: “Yeah.”] It isn’t gonna work. [applause, cheers] Not on my watch. Not on my watch.

I’m really proud to call so many of you my dear friends. And so many of you have been my friends for so long. Some of you are brand new friends. But, I want you to know I don’t take any of this for granted. I don’t take your support for granted, I don’t take your time for granted….

….And I’ll run the only way I know how, as if I’m ten points behind. [voice: “That’s right.”] But the reason I can do that is you guys lift me up and you give me passion and you give me energy. And what I will do for the next six years, I will work as hard as I know how to make you proud. And I do know this – how you feel about your United States Senator and how they represent you matters. [voice: “Yes.”] And you know in your heart the kind of senator Todd Akin would be. [voice: “No.”] He will not be the kind of senator that when you turn on your TV at night you think, you know, I’m proud of him. [voices: “Oh, no.” “No.”] That’s not the kind of senator he will be. He will be the kind of senator who is not willing to work across the aisle, not willing to forge those hard compromises, not willing to swim against the stream sometimes, not willing to fight for the middle class families that make this country the greatest on the planet.

So, with love in my heart and with mom talkin’ in my ear [applause] let’s go out and get this done. [applause, cheers]

According to Talking Points Memo, Todd Akin’s got a super PAC – a real one – behind him and they’re ponying up $800,000 to place ads asking folks to vote for Akin because he’ll help tip Senate support to a potential Romney administration. Guess they haven’t seen the latest polls or else they wouldn’t be counting their chickens before they’re hatched. It doesn’t necessarily  look like there’s going to be a President Romney.

Be that as it may, the Now or Never Pac, which supported Sarah Steelman in the primary contest, is, to put it gently, kind of holding its metaphorical nose and sneering at old Todd as it tosses money in his direction:

Todd Akin may have not been our first choice for Republican nominee in the race to replace Claire McCaskill,” said Tyler Harber, the group’s spokesman. “But, Congressman Akin plays an important role in securing the Senate chamber.”

Respectable GOP contempt aside, it might be just what Akin needs. Missourians have definitely gone rampaging off the reservation into wild, red territory in the past couple of years – it’s hard to believe that Akin polls as high as he does without positing some sort of mass insanity. Add to that fact that no matter what his overall chances are, Romney is likely to take Missouri (although we’ve still got to work our tails off to get out the vote and gin up Obama’s share of the popular vote), and he could possibly pull Akin along with him. A last minute money boost with a “take your medicine for Romney and the GOP” message might be just what the GOP doctor ordered.

UPDATE:  The Missouri Republican Party wants to get in on the act. Per Politico, a “a stunning reversal by Texas Sen. John Cornyn and other Senate GOP leaders”:

Rep. Todd Akin and the Missouri Republican Party are launching a nearly $700,000 TV ad blitz in the closing days of his challenge to Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill, but the source of the funds for the effort is unclear.

These are the first ads run by the Missouri GOP in conjunction with Akin’s campaign. Of the total, $386,000 will come from the Missouri GOP to pay for the ad run, with the remaining supplied by Akin’s committee.

Politico adds:

Democrats would undoubtedly pounce on such a move as a sign of Republican hypocrisy.

Yup. But, hey, who ever expected anything else? We watched the GOP batten down the hatches when Mourdock jumped overboard – and understood that they learned their lesson. Times are hard and nobody can afford scruples anymore.