Columbia University Democrats

What’s crackin Dems,

On an initial welcome, HEALTH CARE!

Welcome back to school, and welcome back to Election Watch with Matt and Bridgit! Today we take a look at Missouri, where four-term Republican Senator Kit Bond is retiring. Missouri has become one of the most competitive states politically of late, with John McCain defeating Barack Obama in the 2008 Presidential election by less than 4,000 votes, which comes out to less than .14%. In addition, Missouri has voted for every single victorious Presidential candidate since 1964, except for, of course, this past election. Currently, Missouri’s other Senator is Claire McCaskill, a first term Democrat who won election in 2006.

Neither party’s primary appears to be very exciting, but let’s begin with looking at the Democratic candidate. Robin Carnahan, the current Secretary of State of Missouri, is running unopposed in the Democratic primary. Carnahan comes from the most famous political family in Missouri; her father was a two-term Governor of Missouri, and was elected a United States Senator posthumously following his plane crash during the campaign. His wife, Jean Carnahan, filled his seat for two years before a special election outed her. In addition, Robin’s brother, Russ, is a current U.S. Representative, also from Missouri, and her grandfather also served as a Congressman and Ambassador to Sierra Leone. Robin Carnahan is wildly popular in Missouri, winning reelection to the Secretary of State job in 2008 with 62% of the vote, receiving over 1.7 million votes, the most votes ever cast for a candidate in Missouri history.

The Republican side of this election does have a primary, but one candidate has certainly been labeled the front-runner. Roy Blunt, a current seven-term incumbent Congressman from Missouri, has stormed to a virtually insurmountable lead over his two opponents. Blunt is the former Acting Majority Leader of the U.S. House of Representatives, stepping in for Tom Delay when he was removed from office. Blunt has also served as the Republican Whip, being replaced only in this Congress by Eric Cantor. Blunt has been the subject of ethics violations while serving if the House, having been named in CREW’s “Crew’s Most Corrupt,” and he has been linked to Jack Abramoff, a man convicted on multiple counts of fraud. Blunt’s other opponents are James H. Schmidt, a police officer, and Chuck Purgason, a current State Senator in Missouri. Neither of these two men appear to have any chance of defeating Blunt.

Virtually every political website has this as one of the three most competitive races in the nation this year, with polls indicating an absurdly close race. The most recent poll, conducted by Rasmussen on March 9, had Blunt 6 points ahead of Carnahan, with 12% undecided. However, earlier polls had Carnahan up by virtually the same amount. Opposition to health care reform is higher in Missouri than it is nationally, which might account for Blunt’s recent rise. In any case, this is sure to be an exciting and hard-fought contest, with one of the most powerful Republicans in the House running against a popular Democrat with strong family ties to the Senate. It is sure to be a race to watch! Hopefully our girl can turn this red seat back to blue.

Next Week: New Hampshire (Let’s take back the Northeast!)

I don’t always get political, but when I do, I prefer the Democrats. Stay liberal my friends.