Todd Akin may feel safe enough to continue voting with Bush against the farm bill and the extension of unemployment insurance, but Republican congressmen who feel more vulnerable (say, for example, Sam Graves) are running to the left, hoping to put half a continent between themselves and their radioactive fuhrer.

Then there’s Kenny Hulshof, who does neither, does nothing. He’s MIA on those votes. So there, Sarah Steelman! Try pinning me down.

But she is trying, and it’s beautiful to see. She’s accusing him of being a D.C. insider. Her new ad nails him:

Narrator: A conservative group rates Congressman Hulshof’s big spending record in Washington “unfriendly to taxpayers.” He’s voted for 11,000 wasteful earmarks, including the “Bridge to Nowhere.” Conservative groups give him a failing grade on wasteful spending.

Now, Congressman Hulshof wants to take his wasteful spending record to the governor’s office.

The rest of Missouri’s Republican delegation came to Hulshof’s aid with this statement:

“It is disappointing that our fellow Republican, Sarah Steelman, would attack the good work of Missouri’s Republican representatives in Washington, D.C.  It is not helpful to take votes out of context, distort interest group ratings and cast aspersions on our motives at a time when we, along with Kenny Hulshof, are doing everything possible to thwart the extreme agendas of Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid.

“Here are the facts.  Kenny Hulshof has a 95% rating from the Americans for TaxReform, a 95% lifetime rating from the US Chamber of Commerce, a 94% rating from Eagle Forum and an 89% lifetime rating from the American Conservative Union.  Suggesting that Kenny Hulshof is anything but an effective and committed conservative leader is wrong, misleading and a disservice to voters.”

In other words: “Use some sense Sarah! You’re grabbing the party by the heel and pulling it under in a year when we’ve barely got our heads above the waves.”

You go, girl.

And she is. Unfazed by the censure of her party’s congressional delegation, she made the same accusation in a debate at the Lake of the Ozarks today and Hulshof shot back that she is ignorant of how bills are passed. He voted on the transportation bill, which included money for the Bridge to Nowhere. He didn’t have the choice of voting for the bill without that amendment (which, by the way, didn’t get funded in the end).

Often, the underdog is the first one to go negative, and Hulshof’s campaign is claiming that such is Steelman’s motive. He’s got Bluntco in his corner (Is that better or worse than being a buddy of Bush?) and lots of D.C. contributors. In fact, he has enough money for polls, and his poll shows him with a double digit lead: 39-26. I’m not much good at math, but that doesn’t add up to a hundred, does it? Apparently, 34 percent of the voters can’t decide between Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee. They’re both so far right. Or voters don’t know who either one of them is.

(Those of you who understand polling, enlighten me here. How does that question get phrased so that 65 percent of those polled pick one of these two winguts? Does it read something like: “If the Democrats decided not to run anyone in the governor’s race and somebody put a gun to your head and made you vote anyway, who would you go for: Hulshof or Steelman?”)

I’m almost giddy these days watching Republicans mill around like a herd of cattle trying to decide which direction the stampede should go: McCain is flip flopping like a Cirque du Soleil performer, the Missouri GOP is ripping itself to shreds over whether to support stem cell research, Republican state senators are balking at doing the latest bidding of Missouri Right to Life. And the contest between Hulshof and Steelman is going to get uglier–which in my book is beautiful.

And we don’t have to pinch ourselves. It’s no dream.

SurveyUSA released a 1523 sample poll of “likely voters” in Missouri on May 19th which was in the field from May 16th through the 18th. The poll runs head to head match ups in the governor race between Attorney General Jay Nixon (D) and the two leading republican candidates. The margin of error is 2.5%.

That’s a very large (and very expensive) sample.

The poll was sponsored by KCTV in Kansas City and KSDK in St. Louis.

If the election for Governor were today, and the only two candidates on the ballot were (names rotated) Republican Kenny Hulshof and Democrat Jay Nixon, who would you vote for? ?

All

Kenny Hulshof – 33%

Jay Nixon – 57%

Undecided – 10%

If the election for Governor were today, and the only two candidates on the ballot were (names rotated) Republican Sarah Steelman and Democrat Jay Nixon, who would you vote for?

All

Sarah Steelman – 33%

Jay Nixon – 58%

Undecided – 8%

The crosstabulations by party identification are always interesting:

Party Affiliation

Democrats [45% of sample]

Kenny Hulshof – 7%

Jay Nixon – 87%

Undecided – 6%

Sarah Steelman – 8%

Jay Nixon – 88%

Undecided – 5%

republicans [30% of sample]

Kenny Hulshof – 74%

Jay Nixon – 18%

Undecided – 8%

Sarah Steelman – 66%

Jay Nixon – 25%

Undecided – 9%

Independents [19% of sample]

Kenny Hulshof – 33%

Jay Nixon – 50%

Undecided – 18%

Sarah Steelman – 40%

Jay Nixon – 45%

Undecided – 15%

Note that this survey has a very high percentage of self identified Democrats and a very low percentage of self identified Independents when compared to previous monthly releases from SurveyUSA:

SurveyUSA interviewed 2,050 Missouri adults 05/16/08 through 05/18/08. Of the adults, 1,857 were registered to vote. Of the registered voters, 1,523 were determined by SurveyUSA to be likely voters in the 11/04/08 general election….

Note that they used a “likely voter” screen as opposed to “registered voter”. A possible explanation for the difference in the distribution of the sample in party self identification, when compared to previous monthly releases, may be that Democrats are currently more motivated to participate (as indicated by their affirmative answer to being a “likely voter” this far out) in the election and Independents may not be so inclined to do so at this time. The republicans, as always, will vote come hell or high water.

Top Issues for Next President (Hulshof/Nixon and Steelman/Nixon numbers for “who would you vote for?” within each group)

Economy [50% of sample]

Kenny Hulshof – 30%

Jay Nixon – 60%

Undecided – 10%

Sarah Steelman – 29%

Jay Nixon – 63%

Undecided – 8%

Health Care [12% of sample]

Kenny Hulshof – 22%

Jay Nixon – 69%

Undecided – 9%

Sarah Steelman – 19%

Jay Nixon – 72%

Undecided – 9%

Iraq [11% of sample]

Kenny Hulshof – 21%

Jay Nixon – 72%

Undecided – 7%

Sarah Steelman – 31%

Jay Nixon – 63%

Undecided – 6%

Terrorism [7% of sample]

Kenny Hulshof – 69%

Jay Nixon – 19%

Undecided – 13%

Sarah Steelman – 61%

Jay Nixon – 29%

Undecided – 9%

Immigration [6% of sample]

Kenny Hulshof – 60%

Jay Nixon – 32%

Undecided – 9%

Sarah Steelman – 58%

Jay Nixon – 34%

Undecided – 9%

Social Security [4% of sample]

Kenny Hulshof – 40%

Jay Nixon – 55%

Undecided – 5%

Sarah Steelman – 29%

Jay Nixon – 61%

Undecided – 10%

Environment [3% of sample]

Kenny Hulshof – 9%

Jay Nixon – 72%

Undecided – 19%

Sarah Steelman – 25%

Jay Nixon – 68%

Undecided – 7%

Education [3% of sample]

Kenny Hulshof – 22%

Jay Nixon – 68%

Undecided – 10%

Sarah Steelman – 23%

Jay Nixon – 67%

Undecided – 10%

The republican candidates continue to hold their  “fear” base [Terrorism and Immigration]. “It’s the economy, stupid” – for everyone else.

Gender

Male [48% of sample]

Kenny Hulshof – 39%

Jay Nixon – 52%

Undecided – 9%

Sarah Steelman – 36%

Jay Nixon – 55%

Undecided – 9%

Female [52% of sample]

Kenny Hulshof – 28%

Jay Nixon – 61%

Undecided – 10%

Sarah Steelman – 30%

Jay Nixon – 62%

Undecided – 8%

Wow. Sarah Steelman has a reverse gender gap. It must be those “family values” television commercials.

ProVote organized a meeting at Rep Hulshof’s Columbia office today with about 20 people representing all walks of life, calling for Hulshof to vote to over ride the President’s veto of the SCHIP program. SCHIP is the health insurance program covering children from low income families.
Tim Farmer, the local field director for Hulshof accepted a gift of 77 colorful bandaids , each representing 1000 Missouri children who will lose their health care coverage with the loss of SCHIP. Physicians and nurses present spoke to the health crisis the lack of insurance will cause. Children not receiving preventive care and presenting to Emergency Rooms for every medical need will increase the overall expense for all of us. SCHIP, even in its expanded form, is a net money saver for this reason.
Mr Farmer politely accepted the appeal. Could there be hope for Kenny to do the right thing, this time around…for the children?
Time will tell.
Here it is as reported on KMIZ (Jef City):
http://www.kmiz.com/…
Meanwhile lets keep those letters to the editor, and to our representatives going!

Democracy for America, True Majority Action, MoveOn and other groups have been encouraging citizens to hold public forums with their representives on the Iraq Occupation. This week saw one such meeting attempted in Columbia with an empty chair where Kenny Hulshof should have been.
Despite being given the opportunity to pick his own date, time and venue Kenny Hulshof refused to meet with his constituents at an Iraq War Forum sponsored by ProVote, which reluctantly took place without him.
In the 3 weeks before the event, when it seemed that Rep Hulshof would not come, ProVote and Democracy for Missouri asked folks to call Kenny’s office to encourage his attendance. The message from Kenny and his staff was that the Iraq War is only important to Columbia. The rest of the district, according to them, does not care about the occupation of Iraq.
The 150 or so in attendance at the Forum gave lie to the idea that the Iraq War is off the radar in the 9th District. There were folks present from Fulton, Jefferson City, Moberly, Sturgeon and other towns outside “Liberal Columbia”. Even if the only people present had been from Columbia, is not Hulshof Columbia’s Representative as well? Is Kenny just that afraid of any but Bush Neocon views?

The Forum was ably moderated by radio host Darren Hellwegge and included a panel of speakers including Glenn Rehn representing students, Rev Maureeen Dickmann (pastor of Rockbridge Christian Church), Monta Welch of the Columbia Climate Change Coalition, and Stacey Hafley of Military Families Speak Out.
It is a shame that Kenny Hulshof was absent. Not only was he unable to hear the petitions and opinions of his constituents, but his entourage were not present to offer dissenting views. All those who spoke were for supporting the men and women of the armed services by bringing them home from an unjustified war and supporting them in their post traumatic health and mental care. If other constituents had differing opinions…they did not attend or did not speak up.
  Pictures of this event are in the DfMO Image Gallery
It is high time that the 9th District is represented by someone willing to meet with his or her constituents. Lets round up a good progressive winning candidate and rally round that person to send Kenny back to his Southwest MO show farm.

ProVote is sponsoring an Iraq War Forum at the Roger Wilson Boone County Government Center, Commission Chambers, in Columbia on August 29th 7:00PM.
Despite being offered the option of choosing his own date and time, Rep. Hulshof’s office says that he is so otherwise booked that he cannot attend such a meeting.
We have heard that a staff member stated: “If Rep. Hulshof wants to have a Town Hall meeting on this subject (Iraq), we will not be partnering with ProVote.”
ProVote, I believe, would be happy to have any meeting by Hulshof on Iraq. When was the last time anyone in the 9th Congressional District saw Kenny Hulshof at any Town Hall meeting? He is our Representative and this is a matter of great importance.
Call Kenny’s office (573 449 5111) to encourage the Congressman to be there on the 29th or hold a Town Hall meeting of his own.