Missouri race mirrors GOP struggles nationwide

[Judi Lynn]

Posted on Mon, Oct. 02, 2006
Missouri race mirrors GOP struggles nationwide
BY STEVEN THOMMA
McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON -- Sen. Jim Talent finds himself in a dead heat with Democrat Claire McCaskill in the latest poll, just one more indicator of how Republicans are struggling across the country.

Mason-Dixon Polling & Research showed the two at 43 percent each, with 13 percent of Missouri respondents undecided.

The Missouri survey done for McClatchy Newspapers and MSNBC was just one of a series conducted last week in 10 pivotal states that showed Democrats are within striking distance of taking control of the U.S. Senate on Election Day.

"Undecided voters typically go more for challengers than for incumbents," said Mason-Dixon pollster Brad Coker. "Even the two Republican incumbents who are tied, in Missouri and Virginia, are still in the low 40s. Those are not very impressive numbers for an incumbent. It doesn't mean they're definitely going to lose, but it's a warning sign."
(snip/...)

http://www.belleville.com/mld/belleville/news/local/15658570.htm

[Chipper Chat]

1. Unfortunately the republican will squeak it out in Va and Mo.

Too many church-going dumb fundie sheeple who dont read or watch responsible TV. And Diebold can always help. YUK - I do not want to look at Allen & Tallent for 6 more years!

[REP]

2. That May Be True In Virginia

But Missourians voted for a dead man over Ashcroft. Don't count McCaskill out - especially in the big metro areas (KC, St Louis, Springfield and Columbia) that have both big voter turn outs and majority dem voters.

[Chipper Chat]

3. Hope you're right!

I REMEMBER !!!!

Republican senator loses to dead rival in Missouri

Jean Carnahan

November 8, 2000
Web posted at: 2:49 a.m. EST (0749 GMT)

(CNN) -- The late Gov. Mel Carnahan collected enough votes to beat out incumbent Republican Sen. John Ashcroft for the U.S. Senate seat from Missouri.

The incumbent Ashcroft was left running against a dead man after his opponent, the popular sitting governor, died in a plane crash on October 16. By that time, it was too late to remove Carnahan's name from the ballot.

snip
Jean Carnahan said Tuesday night: "Abraham Lincoln never saw his nation made whole again. Susan B. Anthony never cast a vote. Martin Luther King Jr. never finished his mountaintop journey. My husband's journey has stopped short too, and for reasons we do not know or understand, the mantle has now fallen upon us. We remain heirs of a legacy."



"On this night I pledge to you -- rather let us pledge to each other -- we will never let the flame go out," she told supporters by speaker phone.

Ashcroft held the lead in polls until Carnahan's death threw the race into turmoil.

On election day, no one could predict how the sympathy factor would play at the polls. Jean Carnahan used ads to make emotional appeals for "the values and beliefs that Mel Carnahan wanted to take to the United States Senate."

Ashcroft was supported by two thirds of the voters who in exit polls said the federal budget surplus should be used to cut taxes. A majority of the voters who supported Carnahan said the surplus should go toward the national debt.

Republicans have vowed to fight Jean Carnahan's appointment on the grounds that a candidate must be an "inhabitant" of the state, a requirement a dead person can't fullfill. Her appointment must be approved by the Senate.

Both candidates were twice elected governor and had nine statewide victories among them.

The freshman Senator Ashcroft has a very conservative voting record. He favored term limits, was one of the first in the Senate to have his own web page, and was one of the first to say charges against Clinton might warrant impeachment.