Steelman: Brunner is Trying to Buy the Election

Whoa! I actually agreed with Sarah Steelman on something! Here's what she had to say at the GOP Senate primary debate that John Brunner was afraid to attend:

Oh well I say it’s due to his tv ads and the fact that he’s basically trying to buy this election. The 30 second ads or he’d be here tonight participating in a debate where he could actually get questions from the audience and share his views of the country’s problems are. I also note that he’s got a lot of money to spend. He made the decision he wants to invest a lot of his money in buying this race. The way I look at it, that’s what’s wrong with politics today.

h/t Caitlin Legacki

Loesch Publicly Humiliates Steelman Campaign

Dana Loesch attacked the Sarah Steelman campaign over Twitter and Facebook today because they misspelled "athletes:"

Steelman staffer Lucas Case responded by saying he's never seen so much hate "toward fellow conservatives:"

Loesch responded with her typical childish antics:

But as Case pointed out, why didn't Loesch just send an email rather than making a big scene about it?

Naturally, Loesch described this suggestion as "trying to crush dissent even from the right:"

Wait, did she just say "Right?" Oh dear...

Reardon Accuses Sarah Steelman of "Lying" About Paul Ryan's Plan

I'm not even sure Sarah Steelman has a coherent position on Paul Ryan's disastrous budget plan, but apparently is it's coherent enough for KMOX radio host Mark Reardon to accuse her of "lying" about it:

That's the modern Republican Party; if you dare even hesitate about the plan to destroy Medicare as we know it, you will be attacked.

Steelman Undermines GOP Medicare Plan But Doesn't Want to Admit It

Yesterday, Sarah Steelman put out a video criticizing the Medicare privatization plan being pushed by Paul Ryan and pretty much every member of the Republican Party. However, despite the fact that she's opposed to a key provision in the plan, she's trying to pretend like she's not undermining the Republican Party. From Fired Up Missouri:

After criticizing the core component of the plan to eliminate Medicare as we know it put forward by Rep. Paul Ryan, Todd Akin and supported by the full GOP delegation in Washington, Sarah Steelman says it's not right to say she opposes or supports the plan.

I don't think it's an either/or question on the Ryan Plan. I think those people in Washington, both Republicans and Democrats, say ‘Oh you gotta take a position on this.’ Well, there's some things I like about it, there's some things I don't like about it. I'm still working through it and looking at it and as an economist, I'm going to make my own conclusions about it."

I guess Steelman doesn't want to be one of those legislators who has to say "aye" or "nay" about complex issues that don't have perfect solutions that everyone agrees on.

GOP Plan To End Medicare As We Know It Too Extreme For Sarah Steelman?

It sounds that way! Fired Up Missouri reports that she has now endorsed what her campaign adviser described as the "Obama/Reid plan."

According to Steelman, the budget legislation with the Medicare changes put forward by Reps. Paul Ryan and Todd Akin includes the "cuts" to Medicare Advantage that Republicans campaign against in 2010, and "I don't like the idea of vouchers that don't keep up with the skyrocketing costs of health insurance."

Steelman certainly tries to frame it as an attack on McCaskill, but it sure sounds like she's basically undermining a key Republican proposal.

Sarah Steelman Afraid To Endorse Paul Ryan's Extremist Plan

Fired Up Missouri has a post up that indicates that Sarah Steelman might be getting nervous about the massive unpopularity of Republican Paul Ryan's plan to eliminate Medicare as we know it. Not only is Steelman afraid to endorse Ryan's plan, she also comments that she's specifically concerned about Medicare. Check out her comments:

I think it’s important for people to understand that we need to protect what our commitments are today and honor those and look at look at how we can reform these programs in the future. Because these people did pay into Medicare.

Most people are thinking that Paul Ryan's plan is going to be damaging to Republicans in 2012, but it will be interesting to see how it plays out in Republican primaries, especially considering that Akin has bragged about helping to craft the plan.

St. Louis Tea Party Leadership Already Shilling for Ed Martin

I almost feel bad for Sarah Steelman since she apparently believed that the St. Louis Tea Party might actually give her a fair shake in the GOP Senate primary. Maybe she thought they were being serious when they claimed that they don't endorse in Republican primaries. Anyway, they criticized her when she first declared her candidacy for not having spoken with them. Then, when she met with them and listened to their point of view, they attacked her anyway. And now they're of course happily shilling for Ed Martin's senate primary campaign, just as they did for his congressional primary:

Of course, considering they can't even get 20 people to their rallies when they don't have support from other groups, maybe she shouldn't care that much about their support anyway.

2012 Senate Race Shaping Up in Favor of McCaskill

(L-R Jim Talent, Sam Graves, Ann Wagner, Jo Ann Emerson, Sarah Steelemen, Ed Martin)

In spite of my last two posts, and opportunistic attacks from Tea Party Republicans over the convention flap, the 2012 senate race is shaping up to look favorably for Senator Claire McCaskill (D-MO). In the months after the 2010 midterms conventional wisdom in Washington held that McCaskill was endangered. Robin Carnahan had lost her bid for Missouri's other senate seat by thirteen points against Roy Blunt and Obama's sub par approval ratings where predicted to hang like an albatross around McCaskill. While McCaskill is still vulnerable, the dynamics of the race have shifted in her favor: the strongest Republican candidates have declined to run while the remaining Republicans, Sarah Steeleman, Ed Martin among others, will likely wage a destructive primary campaign for the right to challenge McCaskill.

Last month former Senator Jim Talent (R-MO), who McCaskill defeated in 2006, declined to seek a rematch against her and this week Representative Sam Graves also decided not to run. Both candidates were thought of as strong opponents for McCaskill. A PPP poll shows Steelman performing worst against McCaskill (44-45) compared to Talent (47-45). Even before Graves dropped out Survey USA released an interesting poll showing McCaskill leading Graves 48-44. Although Graves is out of the race the poll provides a good baseline for McCaskill as he serves as a generic Republican and Democrats and Republicans who were polled line up with their respective candidates while independents split between the two. Surprisingly the poll found Graves capturing 21 percent of the African American vote, and 46 percent of voters between the ages of 18-29, numbers that are likely to fall considerably with President Obama on the ballot.

Several media outlets are in a tizzy about the latest fund raising numbers, noting Sarah Steeleman out raised McCaskill. However McCaskill still has $900,000 cash on hand, far more than Steeleman, and the Senator has only just began to aggressively fund raise. Martin was stuck at an anemic $40,000 and left without a campaign treasurer, worse yet the St. Louis lawyer, may have lied about his fund raising haul to lessen the political damage.

The Hill reports Republicans are working overtime to avoid an acrimonious primary:

...Lloyd Smith, the executive director of the state GOP, said he’s been in conversations with several candidates in order to express the party’s desire to avoid an “intense primary."

But these efforts are likely to fail. So far Steeleman is recognized as the Republican front runner, and national Republicans reportedly encouraged her to run. But if the 2010 congressional campaign was any indication, Steeleman will face a difficult challenge from Martin. His lack of funds probably won't stop him from practicing scorch and burn politics which will fracture the Republican base and badly damage the eventual Republican nominee. If Martin somehow manages to win the nomination his extreme views would easily make him the Sharon Angle/Christine O'Donnell of 2012 and give McCaskill a path to a decisive victory.

As for Steeleman her penchant for incoherent babble matches Sara Palin. Sean at FiredUp Missouri, caught a hilarious interview where Steeleman struggles to answer questions ranging from defunding Medicare to the date of the Republican Primary. Steeleman would likely flounder against the sharp articulate style of McCaskill.

Other potential challengers include Representative Jo Ann Emerson, though she would have to contend with her moderate reputation and chargers she would be willing to compromise with Democrats--high treason in the lizard brain of Republican rank-and-file.

Ann Wagner, former Ambassador to Luxembourg and consummate Republican Party insider, is also considering a bid. Wagner remains politically untested as she has never sought elective office, and despite this she will still carry the baggage of being an "insider" which would hobble her in both the primary and general election.

As of February 1st, Cook Political Report, projects Democrats are "likely"to win the Missouri Senate race and though election day is twenty months away at this point McCaskill is in a strong position to be re-elected.

Reminder: Astroturf St. Louis Tea Party Attacked Sarah Steelman *Immediately* After Meeting Her

In case there is any doubt about whether the ultra-astroturf St. Louis tea party will be in the bag for Republican insider and former-chief-of-staff-who-had-to-resign-because-of-an-ethics-scandal Ed Martin, I thought I'd remind people of what happened in early January. According to a Reboot Congress post on January 7, Sarah Steelman met with the tea party in St. Louis to discuss her campaign. The tea party initially complimented her for taking the time to meet with them and listen to their concerns:

She took questions and listened to our concerns. I'm optimistic that our meeting tonight will inform her decisions as she crafts the policy platform for her 2012 race against Claire McCaskill (D-MO).

However, the very next day the tea party was already attacking her. From a post called "Follow the Money on Sarah Steelman;"

If you'd like to find out more about Sarah Steelman, just follow the money. She poured a lot of her own money ($770,000) into her failed gubernatorial bid in 2008. She also raised $460,000 from individual donors in that cycle. Those numbers look problematic. Will she be able to raise $10+ million dollar US Senate campaign? Can she self-finance such a campaign?

Recall that the St. Louis Tea Party, which claimed to have an official policy of not endorsing in primaries, virtually blacklisted conservative candidate John Wayne Tucker who was running against Ed Martin in the GOP primary for Missouri's 3rd District. In fact, Dana Loesch, whose husband's business Shock City Studios recieved $5,000 from Martin, had Martin on repeatedly while ignoring Tucker until finally publicly attacking Tucker via Twitter. This likely was a crucial reason why nearly 9,000 people voted for conservative third party candidates in the general election.

In the upcoming months, look for the St. Louis Tea Party to declare that Ed Martin is the "real tea party candidate," and come up with reasons why Steelman is somehow less "grassroots" than Matt Blunt's former chief of staff. Of course, the reality is that the St. Louis tea party leadership has never been grassroots and never been particularly interested in actually letting their membership make decisions.

Amazing Coincidence! "No Sarah Steelman" Talking Points Exact Same As Ed Martin's!

There's a new Twitter account up with the moniker @noSarahSteelman. In what can only be described as an amazing coincidence, the first two talking points of that Twitter account just happen to be the exact two talking points Ed Martin mentioned in his radio interview yesterday when he was asked to differentiate himself from Steelman. Both claim that Steelman is against tort reform and supports the bogeyman SEIU, which does scary things like protecting workers' rights. Here are the first three @nosarahsteelman tweets:

And here's the interview with Ed Martin (which, BTW, alludes to a debunked conspiracy theory about SEIU):

Ed Martin Campaigning on Debunked Conspiracy Theories About SEIU

In a radio interview, Ed Martin was asked what differentiated him from GOP primary opponent Sarah Steelman. Ed Martin said that she had been supported by the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) in the past and that SEIU "beats people up at tea party rallies." Here's his quote:

SEIU, over here in St. Louis, we call them the purple beaters. You know, they beat people up at our tea party rallies. You can hear the audio here:

Of course, what Martin is referring to is the tea party's hilarious conspiracy theory that President Obama sent "thugs" to a town hall to beat up a random merchandise seller. It obviously is nonsense that SEIU or Obama or Carnahan ordered people to beat up tea partiers, but even their basic description of events has been pretty thoroughly debunked here. Since the tea party has not ever bothered to respond to the points raised here, I can only assume that they aren't able to. Kenneth Gladney has been caught in multiple lies and the tea party witnesses do not appear to be credible. Anyway, it's a pretty ridiculous thing for Ed Martin to be campaigning on, though not surprising in the slightest.

And for those not familiar with the group that Martin and the tea party is trying to demonize, SEIU played a crucial role in fighting for the minimum wage increase in Missouri, in making sure that public transportation was funded in St. Louis, and in making sure St. Louis voters turned out in droves against Rex Sinquefield's earnings tax repeal. Since they do things to significantly improve the lives of the poor and middle class, they naturally are a bogeyman for politicians like Ed Martin.

h/t to Best Politics Blog FiredUp Missouri.

Rough Start for Steelman

Sarah Steelman announced she was running for Senate against Claire McCaskill way back on December 1. She proceeded to waste four weeks of time where she could have gotten as much free press coverage as she wanted as the only official Republican candidate (Jim Talent had said he would wait until after the holidays to decide). She then "officially" declared and launched her website on the week between Christmas and New Years, generally a bad idea for someone trying to maximize coverage. And now, as pointed out by intrepid twitterer Arthur Nunn, her website seems more than a little vulnerable for chicanery:

Steelman had set up her page so that it would automatically display tweets with certain hash tags. For example (click the photo for a larger view):

Of course, there's nothing wrong with her ad appearing on Grindr (though I suppose it could be a weapon that could be used to drive social conservatives away from her campaign), and Steelman was lucky that Nunn was pretty benign in illustrating his point. But it seems like a site flaw that could easily be used against her campaign for much more nefarious purposes.