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Once upon a time, Roy Blunt ran statewide and wasn't the most conservative candidate.
Although, Roy running guarantees a MO-7 primary which means higher turnout in the most GOP-friendly primary turf and more votes for Blunt. Hailing from the land of milk, honey, and Democrats
But this is still great news!
20 of 34 state senators are termed out in 2010 or 2012 (with 10 of them out in 2010). So now's the time for politicians to find their next campaign, and there may be a bit of a perfect storm for that in 2010. Hailing from the land of milk, honey, and Democrats
Anyways, one of the scenarios has Steelman running for Congress (the incumbent Rep. would lose her Senate bid decisively).. although such a bid would be opposed by one of the incumbent Republican state Senators from down there (neither of which is up in 2010).
But, that's a scenario.
Kit would love to get his primary done without a huge problem, but I think Sam Graves wants to move on up. Hailing from the land of milk, honey, and Democrats
Molly woulda done just fine here, too. All Texas has on us is tarantulas and cactus.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Thursday, January 08, 2009 CONTACT: Rebecca Kirszner... ...KOSTER STATEMENT ON SENATOR BOND'S RETIREMENT The following is a statement by Attorney General-Elect Chris Koster on the news of Senator Kit Bond's retirement: "Senator Bond has served with distinction for nearly four decades. His love for Missouri and public service is evident in all that he has done. "As talk turns to 2010 and who may replace Senator Bond during these challenging economic times, I am confident that the Democratic Party will nominate a strong candidate, and we don't have to look any farther than Robin Carnahan. As Attorney General, I look forward to supporting her, if she chooses to run. Together, we will work to make our state a safer, stronger place to live, work and raise a family." ##
Thursday, January 08, 2009
CONTACT: Rebecca Kirszner...
...KOSTER STATEMENT ON SENATOR BOND'S RETIREMENT
The following is a statement by Attorney General-Elect Chris Koster on the news of Senator Kit Bond's retirement:
"Senator Bond has served with distinction for nearly four decades. His love for Missouri and public service is evident in all that he has done.
"As talk turns to 2010 and who may replace Senator Bond during these challenging economic times, I am confident that the Democratic Party will nominate a strong candidate, and we don't have to look any farther than Robin Carnahan. As Attorney General, I look forward to supporting her, if she chooses to run. Together, we will work to make our state a safer, stronger place to live, work and raise a family."
##
Chris Koster in Independence, MO [March 25, 2008] ...Why did I switch parties? Probably three reasons. As much as I, there are two big ones. The biggest one might be stem cell research. Um, when I walked in to the Missouri Senate I walked...first of all, when you're a prosecutor you're really not a Democrat or a Republican. I mean you run with a letter after your name but you apply the laws equally. So I never really had to exist in a partisan whirlwind until I got down to the Senate. Everybody knew that I was a centrist when I ran for office. Walked in, and as soon as I walked in, we hit the stem cell debate on the floor. Everybody who's been watching my career, um, and who believed that there might be opportunities some day to advance said to me, "Stay away from this. You don't want to touch this thing. If you touch it is, if you touch it as a Republican it could end you." Couple of issues. One, it's the Stowers Institute. Okay. Stowers Institute has a three and a half billion dollar endowment. Within ten years after Jim and Virginia make their final gifting to that, meaning after, which is a polite way of saying after they make their final gifting [laughter], uh, you know, this thing is going to be as much as a ten billion dollar endowment and will be the most well endowed medical research facility on the planet Earth. Um, Washington University has a five billion dollar endowment. It took them a hundred years to put it together. Stowers has a three billion dollar endowment, it's been up and goin' for a decade now, and it's going to ten. And Washington University's endowment is split between education and medicine and Stowers' endowment is totally focused on stem cell research. By the end of my lifetime Stowers Institute will be as important to this city as Washington University is to St. Louis. As..I think everybody in the room knows there's a hundred acres that Stowers has under contract in the state. What everybody might not know in the room is that there already exists a plat map of what that hundred acres is gonna look like. And, there could be as many as ten facilities the size of the current Stowers Research Institute on that hundred acres. Ten research facilities, six hundred thousand square feet per research facility, state of the art, world class scientists coming to Kansas City and doing research that is recognized around the planet. It was not an issue that you just backed away from. I mean, if you're in politics..I think anybody who's worth their salt in politics is looking for some hill that's worth dying on. Every hill's not worth dying on, but if no hill is worth dying on then you should just go practice law. This was a hill worth dying on.. So Bartle and I had our day out there. It was an extraordinary experience, I remember it like it was yesterday. I worked my tail off preparing. I had an hour long presentation, that I probably spent forty hours working on and, I dunno, three months researching. One of the cool things was the Stowers Institute gave me access to the finest scientists in the world as I prepared my floor speech. So I got to talk to people in London, Paris, Harvard. It was incredible. So Bartle and I do our thing. It goes on for about five hours and, and we won that year. That was 2005 and so, you know, the rest of the thing has rolled forward with Amendment 2 and all. But, you know what? The political handlers were right. It created a breech between myself and the Republican Party that never healed. And it was never going to heal. And, you know, they put a target on my head after that. The, the, the conservative wing of the party put a target on my head to make sure that no one who held these beliefs would advance. Okay, so that was reason number one. That I basically became fed up with that attitude. Because they are willing to take the Stowers Institute and send then to San Diego. As if though, somehow that enhances the, the morality of the planet. It just doesn't. We should be proud to have them here. I bet that most of the people in this room are proud to have them here. And people make all the difference to keep them here...
...Why did I switch parties? Probably three reasons. As much as I, there are two big ones. The biggest one might be stem cell research. Um, when I walked in to the Missouri Senate I walked...first of all, when you're a prosecutor you're really not a Democrat or a Republican. I mean you run with a letter after your name but you apply the laws equally. So I never really had to exist in a partisan whirlwind until I got down to the Senate. Everybody knew that I was a centrist when I ran for office. Walked in, and as soon as I walked in, we hit the stem cell debate on the floor. Everybody who's been watching my career, um, and who believed that there might be opportunities some day to advance said to me, "Stay away from this. You don't want to touch this thing. If you touch it is, if you touch it as a Republican it could end you." Couple of issues. One, it's the Stowers Institute. Okay. Stowers Institute has a three and a half billion dollar endowment. Within ten years after Jim and Virginia make their final gifting to that, meaning after, which is a polite way of saying after they make their final gifting [laughter], uh, you know, this thing is going to be as much as a ten billion dollar endowment and will be the most well endowed medical research facility on the planet Earth. Um, Washington University has a five billion dollar endowment. It took them a hundred years to put it together. Stowers has a three billion dollar endowment, it's been up and goin' for a decade now, and it's going to ten. And Washington University's endowment is split between education and medicine and Stowers' endowment is totally focused on stem cell research.
By the end of my lifetime Stowers Institute will be as important to this city as Washington University is to St. Louis. As..I think everybody in the room knows there's a hundred acres that Stowers has under contract in the state. What everybody might not know in the room is that there already exists a plat map of what that hundred acres is gonna look like. And, there could be as many as ten facilities the size of the current Stowers Research Institute on that hundred acres. Ten research facilities, six hundred thousand square feet per research facility, state of the art, world class scientists coming to Kansas City and doing research that is recognized around the planet.
It was not an issue that you just backed away from.
I mean, if you're in politics..I think anybody who's worth their salt in politics is looking for some hill that's worth dying on. Every hill's not worth dying on, but if no hill is worth dying on then you should just go practice law. This was a hill worth dying on..
So Bartle and I had our day out there. It was an extraordinary experience, I remember it like it was yesterday. I worked my tail off preparing. I had an hour long presentation, that I probably spent forty hours working on and, I dunno, three months researching. One of the cool things was the Stowers Institute gave me access to the finest scientists in the world as I prepared my floor speech. So I got to talk to people in London, Paris, Harvard. It was incredible. So Bartle and I do our thing. It goes on for about five hours and, and we won that year. That was 2005 and so, you know, the rest of the thing has rolled forward with Amendment 2 and all. But, you know what? The political handlers were right. It created a breech between myself and the Republican Party that never healed. And it was never going to heal. And, you know, they put a target on my head after that. The, the, the conservative wing of the party put a target on my head to make sure that no one who held these beliefs would advance. Okay, so that was reason number one. That I basically became fed up with that attitude. Because they are willing to take the Stowers Institute and send then to San Diego. As if though, somehow that enhances the, the morality of the planet. It just doesn't. We should be proud to have them here. I bet that most of the people in this room are proud to have them here. And people make all the difference to keep them here...
Emerson, who was reportedly considering a bid for governor in 2008, is somewhat moderate on issues like stem cell research, perhaps making her more appealing to voters in swing areas like the Kansas City suburbs.
Judging by the people that win Republican primaries in the KC burbs. I don't think Emerson is going to win that crowd. In fact, there's a stronger suburban swing vote in St. Louis that would be highly contested in a general election.
But I have reasons that I can restate as to why I'm not expecting Emerson to run. Hailing from the land of milk, honey, and Democrats
