Free Republic

Buchanan County Clerk Kelley Stahlin confirmed on Wednesday morning she has fired election winner Mary Baack-Garvey from the clerk’s office. Citing tensions that she said had existed for years, Ms. Stahlin said she let go of Ms. Baack-Garvey to quell any drama until the latter takes office on Jan. 1. “With all of the insubordination and the blatant disregard ... I just felt it best with us going forward that there wasn’t room for both of us in here,” she said. Claiming she doesn’t think she will suffer any repercussions for the decision, Ms. Stahlin said she had no regrets...

GARDEN CITY, Mo.| Vicky Hartzler — taking advantage of central Missouri’s anger toward and distrust of government — decisively upset 34-year U.S. House veteran Ike Skelton on Tuesday. With all precincts reporting, unofficial results showed Hartzler with 113,500 votes, or just more than 50 percent. Skelton, the Democrat, had 101,507 votes, or 45 percent. “I’ve told people all along that this district has been fed up and fired up and ready to stand up, and we did,” Hartzler told cheering supporters. Hartzler’s victory was part of a huge nationwide sweep for her party, and reflected the strongly conservative nature of...

Can't post due to copyright: http://www.news-leader.com/article/20101102/BREAKING10/101102048/1007/NEWS01/Fox++NBC+call+Missouri+Senate+race+for+Blunt

LAQUEY, Mo. (Oct. 30, 2010) — With the major exception of the Missouri Farm Bureau, many organizations which typically endorse conservative Republican candidates for office have endorsed Congressman Ike Skelton for years despite him being a Democrat. That includes right to life and veterans organizations, as well as the National Rifle Association; the Farm Bureau had endorsed Skelton for 14 years until this election. However, the NRA endorsement of Skelton over his Republican challenger, Vicky Hartzler, has become a point of controversy this year. Skelton has severely attacked Hartzler for opposing a 1998 proposal to place concealed carry permits on...

LAQUEY, Mo. (Oct. 30, 2010) — Republican congressional candidate Vicky Hartzler earned her reputation as a Christian conservative during a successful statewide campaign in 2004 in which voters decided by a 71 percent margin to amend the state constitution to bar gay marriage. She’s been blasted by a national liberal magazine which asked if she is the “most anti-gay candidate in America,” and conservative Christian themes were brought up several times during her Saturday morning veterans rally at VFW Post 3168 next to the Laquey ambulance base. Hartzler attacked incumbent Congressman Ike Skelton for his role as chairman of the...

PULASKI COUNTY, Mo. (Oct. 29, 2010) — A new poll commissioned by a Springfield-area television station and Missouri State University in Springfield shows U.S. Rep. Ike Skelton up by 7 percentage points over his Republican challenger, former State Rep. Vicky Hartzler. The poll attributes Skelton’s rise to concerns over the future of Fort Leonard Wood, and both candidates will hold campaign rallies in the Fort Leonard Wood area today and tomorrow. According to the poll’s director, Missouri State University Professor Brian Calfano, Skelton’s lead in a bad year for Democrats is due to “three words: Fort Leonard Wood ... Skelton's...

SEDALIA, Mo. (Aug. 20, 2010) — For the first time since the mid-1990s, U.S. Rep. Ike Skelton has lost the endorsement of the Missouri Farm Bureau’s political action committee. The trustees of Missouri’s 4th Congressional District FARM-PAC announced Friday morning that they’ll be endorsing Vicky Hartzler, a former state representative from Harrisonville, over Skelton. “It has been a long, long time since we didn’t endorse Skelton, and for a long time before that, we made no endorsements,” said Charles Bassett, a rural Dixon resident who chairs the 4th Congressional District FARM-PAC. The Farm Bureau endorsement could reflect an important shift...

If anybody is within driving distance of St. Louis, MO and would like to join us tomorrow evening (Saturday) at 5:00pm for some great Italian food and interesting discussion, it's not too late to join us - please let me know as soon as possible by responding to this thread. I will respond to you via FReepmail no later than tomorrow morning with the name and address of the establishment. Also, please let me know how many people will be coming along with you so that I can get the information to the restaurant. Everyone will be able to order...

ST LOUIS, Missouri (AFP) – Many Americans have lost faith in their government, US President Barack Obama admitted Wednesday, tackling a pervasive sentiment hobbling his hopes for enacting sweeping reform. American suspicion of government was deepening, he said in a speech from the heartland state of Missouri, where he pushed his endangered health reform drive that has been branded by Republicans as a government takeover. "People have lost faith in government -- they had lost faith in government before I ran (for president), and it has been getting worse," Obama said at a rally in St. Louis. He quoted his...

President Obama is coming to St. Louis on Wednesday to push his “angry mob unpopular” nationalized health care bill. But, you won’t get to see him. HE’S LOCKING THE DOORS ON THE ST. LOUIS PUBLIC. President Obama and Missouri Democrats including Senator Claire McCaskill, Governor Jay Nixon and Russ and Robin Carnahan want to ram their toxic health care bill down your throat but THEY DON’T HAVE THE GUTS TO FACE THE PUBLIC!

During an interview Friday night, Rep. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) convinced me he lacks basic understanding of the people who are members of the "Tea Party Movement."

Little has changed this month in Missouri's race for the seat being vacated by retiring Republican Senator Kit Bond. The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of likely voters in the state shows Republican Roy Blunt leading Democrat Robin Carnahan 49% to 42%. Just three percent (3%) of Missouri voters would opt for some other candidate, while six percent (6%) are undecided at this point. In January, Blunt held a 49% to 43% lead over Carnahan, who is currently Missouri's secretary of state. That survey marked a shift in Blunt’s favor from a poll conducted in December, when Carnahan held a...

Recently, VoteVets.org began running a television commercial designed to tear down Rep. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) as he seeks the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Sen. Christopher "Kit" Bond (R-Mo.). Unfortunately for the folks from the liberal group purporting to represent veterans, my Kansas City friend Bungalow Bill did some research and found several holes worth noting in the 30-second spot.

Wake up to Missouri. The 2010 US Senate Race is heating up with a variety of polling sources pointing out some interesting results. Jan 19th Rasmussen reports show polling reports putting Rep Roy Blunt (RINO) against Robin Carnahan, DemoRat. Latest Poll on Jan 19 shows Blunt ahead of Carnahan 49% to 43%. Unfortunately Rasmussin reports only polled the other CONSERVATIVE Republican Chuck Purgason back on Nov 13-15th. Purgason polled 35% to 42% to Carnahan. I find it very unfortunate that the polling for Purgason is not being current. It is the assumption of the Republican Party operatives in Missouri that...

A Rally and Lobby Day at the Missouri Capital will be held on January 27th, 2010 to support legislation introduced into the Missouri House and the Missouri Senate supporting Missouri Tax Reform. The rally and lobby event is in support of (HJR-56) and companion Senate Bill (SJR--29) which will, if passed, go to a vote of the people to change the Missouri Constitution to ABOLISH the State Income Tax, and replace the income tax with just under a one cent sales tax increase. Studies conducted by the Show Me Institute have proven that Missouri is losing substantial economic development opportunity...

Conservatives across the country may have celebrated Republican Scott Brown's defeat of Democrat Martha Coakley in the race to replace Ted Kennedy as Massachusetts' next U.S. senator. In O'Fallon, Mo., however, the "party" didn't last long for members of the K and N Patriots.

Dear St. Louis Area FReepers, Given the current political climate, I thought that it would be advantageous to meet over dinner somewhere to discuss current events and our personal strategies to restore the Republic. The restaurant is not important to me (there is absolutely no need to squabble over trivial things like that), but I would like to get to know everyone better beyond the monitor. Of course, if you are already meeting on a somewhat reoccurring basis, I'd like to get involved. We can discuss places on the public thread, but let's keep the final decision private, via FReepmail....

MISSOURI ELECTION CENTRAL If we are going to make a difference in the upcoming election, we need to KNOW the candidates. Please post the names of ALL your Congressional candidates on this thread along with any and all information available. We need names, positions, platforms, news articles, statements, pictures. We need to separate the RINOS from the Conservatives, and most of all, we need to get the liberals of either party OUT!We can do this if you help. I have started this thread. All you have to do is contribute a little time and a little research. Help us...

Freshman Sen. Claire McCaskill uttered seven words rarely heard from a sitting lawmaker: “It’s OK if I don’t get re-elected.” In a profile in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch Tuesday, the Missouri Democrat, who was elected just three years ago, offered some uncommon candor on life in the Senate and her frustration with the way Washington works. “I’m very frustrated with some of the habits around here,” she said. “What happens around here is that so many people are more focused on getting everybody to love them and getting re-elected than they are on solving the really hard stuff. Because when...

Union Violence: An African-American is beaten up at a political rally by thugs shouting racial epithets, and after three months his assailants are charged with the moral equivalent of jaywalking. Why wasn't it a hate crime? The beating of Kenneth Gladney by people wearing the purple shirts of the Service Employees International Union outside a Missouri health care town hall meeting three months ago met all the classic definitions of a hate crime. Time was, the beating of a black man outside a protest rally, and the arrest and prosecution of the perpetrators, would be headline news. Gladney was working...

Democrat Robin Carnahan and Republican Roy Blunt are dead even in the first Rasmussen Reports Election 2010 survey of the hotly contested race for the U.S. Senate in Missouri.

Democrat Robin Carnahan and Republican Roy Blunt are dead even in the first Rasmussen Reports Election 2010 survey of the hotly contested race for the U.S. Senate in Missouri. Both candidates capture 46% of the vote in a new telephone survey of Missouri voters. Two percent (2%) favor some other candidate, and five percent (5%) are not sure which candidate they will vote for. Blunt, a member of Congress since 1997, has held the number two GOP position in the House, serving as minority whip. His son was governor of Missouri from 2005 to 2009. Carnahan, currently Missouri’s secretary of...

Missouri state Sen. Bill Stouffer is seeking the 2010 Republican nomination to oppose veteran Democratic Rep. Ike Skelton. Stouffer recently filed a statement of candidacy and a statement of organization to organize a campaign in Missouri's 4th, a Republican-leaning district that includes all or part of 25 counties in central and western Missouri. "Enough is enough," Stouffer told CQ Politics Friday. "We've lost sight of what the role of the federal government is. We forget that the federal government was created by the states to serve the states, not to dictate to the states, and I'm concerned with the deficits...

Rep. Roy Blunt (R-MO), the likely 2010 GOP nominee for Senate in this perennial swing state, says he doesn't want to talk anymore about whether President Obama was born in the United States, the Springfield News-Leader reports. But Blunt still doesn't seem to be giving up on it as a legitimate issue, either. Blunt said last week that "I don't have any reason not to believe" that Obama is a natural-born citizen -- but at the same time he said the Birthers had a "legitimate question" about Obama's birth certificate. Well, the local media in Missouri is now asking him...

Two prominent Republicans today endorsed the bid of U.S. Rep. Roy Blunt for the U.S. Senate. The Associated Press reported that former U.S. Sen. Jim Talent and Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder announced their support for the Congressman’s campaign.

. . . . . Elected Republicans should govern by the principles they profess in campaign rallies and advertisements. Those principles were once the difference between the parties. . . . . . The Republican Party, at its best, is a party of broad ideas and principles. For example, those who tend to vote Republican believe in limiting the size and scope of government and respect the guarantees of individual freedom and liberty of our Constitution. They respect life and its diversity; and they understand that free market capitalism, the glue that holds the Republican Party, and our nation, together,...

Greene County prosecutor Darrell Moore says he is running for a southwest Missouri congressional seat. Moore joins an already crowded field of Republicans seeking to replace Rep. Roy Blunt, who is running for Senate in 2010. While announcing his candidacy Thursday, Moore said he would make balancing the federal budget his top priority. He also stressed health care reform, stabilizing Social Security and bolstering national security. Moore, of Springfield, has served as Greene County prosecutor since 1999. Other Republicans who already have declared their candidacy are state Sen. Jack Goodman of Mount Vernon, Springfield auctioneer Billy Long and Ozarks Technical...

With the upcoming retirement of Sen. Kit Bond, Republicans across the state are wondering who will run to replace the Godfather of the Missouri GOP. My sources confirm that Congressman Roy Blunt is seriously considering a run for Bond’s seat.  In a press release on his website, Blunt says, “There is no doubt that if Senator Bond’s name was on the ballot in November of 2010 he would have won handily.”The question is, can Roy Blunt win?  The likely opponent for Blunt would be current Secretary of State Robin Carnahan.  For those outside of Missouri, the Carnahan family has...

Bond is the third Republican Senator to leave the chamber in 2010 -- following Sens. Sam Brownback (Kans.) and Mel Martinez (Fla.) down that path. Democrats are expected to heavily target all three seats. Bond's retirement ends a long -- and, at times, rocky -- career in Missouri politics that began more than four decades ago when he ran and lost a race for Congress. In 1970, Bond bounced back to be elected state auditor and two years after that was elected governor of the Show Me State. In 1976 he was defeated for re-election but in 1980 reclaimed the...