Former U.S. Senator Jim Talent has sent an email to supporters reflecting on his loss and requesting financial aid in erasing his $85,000 of campaign debt.
“I’ve replayed the campaign more than a couple of times,” Talent writes. “There were a few things I would have done differently, but they weren’t many and they weren’t major.”
“I’m secure in my knowledge that we did everything we could to win. It was a great campaign. It just was not a great year,” said Talent.
Talent requests donations from his supporter to go towards his campaign’s debt.
“We can legally accept contributions earmarked to our debt as long as the individual has not already contributed the legal maximum of $2100 to our general election campaign,” said Talent. He refers questions to his former National Finance Director, Steve Gordon, who he says remains his consultant.
In his email, Talent also says he has accepted an invitation to become a Distinguished Fellow at the conservative Washington DC think tank, the Heritage Institute.
SHE SAID WHAT? — Following the our city’s dubious distinction once again as the “Most Dangerous City in America“, comes an interesting quote from one of St. Louis’ paid cheerleaders.
Mary Hendrod, of the St. Louis Convention and Visitors Commission, was quoted in Venues Today, an industry trade magazine, in their “Quote of the Week” section.
“It’s a bad part of town, but every city has a bad part of town… Frankly the only reason anyone would go there would be to purchase crack cocaine,” she said, reportedly referring to “a bad neighborhood of St. Louis.”
Hendrod told PUB DEF this morning that the quote was taken out of context and was meant to be off the record.
AND THEN THERE WERE THREE — Looks like Tower Grove Easter Christian Saller is joining Kacie Starr Triplett and Committeeman Patrick Cacchione in the race to succeed 6th Ward Alderman (and Aldermanic Presidential candidate) Lewis Reed. The Arch City Chroniclereports Saller, 43, made the announcement at a southside neighborhood meeting last night. We’re also hearing there will be even more candidates joining the race before it’s all over. Expect a crowded field.
FAIR-WEATHER FRIENDS? — We emailed outgoing Republican State Rep. Sherman Parker this week to ask if we should read anything into his presence at Claire McCaskill’s victory party last week. He did not reply.
But two other African-American Republicans called us over the weekend to let us know what they thought about former Congressional candidates Parker and Leslie Farr (who recently said he was re-joining the Democratic Party) partying with the blue team while the reds shed tears into their champagne glasses last Tuesday.
“Traitors” is about the least offensive word used that we can write here.
“After all Jim [Talent] did for Sherman?” one said, referring to Talent’s early endorsement in the contentious 2002 primary fight that eventually led to Parker becoming the first African-American elected to the state legislature from St. Charles.
“They should know the lines are too long for them to ever get anything out of the Democrats,” said the GOPer.
Two days before Election Day, then-U.S. Senate candidate Claire McCaskill met with a small group of black elected officials representing an area of north St. Louis City and was asked to make some very specific promises.
First Ward Alderman Charles Q. Troupe, State Rep. Yaphett El-Amin and her husband State Rep.-elect Talibdin El-Amin presented to the ultimately victorious Democratic senate candidate a proposal that included these commitments to north St. Louis:
Secure at least 60% of funding for the expansion of Metrolink to north St. Louis
Secure $10 million in low to moderate income housing funds
Secure $5 million in HIV/AIDS outreach funds
Secure $20 million for Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs) for the uninsured and under-insured in north St. Louis
Secure $10 million to repair Dr. Martin Luther King Blvd. and other major northside streets
Secure $5 million for employment training and assistance
Advocate local control of the St. Louis police department
Advocate diversity in state, county and local offices
Open a Senate office in north St. Louis
According to the three northside representatives, McCaskill agreed to these commitments, which represent hundreds of millions of dollars for an area that has long gone without its fair share of the pie of public dollars.
PUB DEF had a special correspondent of sorts at the Talent campaign’s watch party last night. The always dapper Jamie Allman, co-host of “Allman & Smash in the Morning” on 97.1 FM Talk and a former reporter for Channel 4 News, gave us a special report and early Election Night analysis.
Let’s just say it was informative and entertaining…
Claire McCaskill, the new U.S. Senator from Missouri, thanked a roomful of ecstatic supporters, volunteers, campaign workers, and elected Democrats in the Majestic Ballroom of the Renaissance Grand Hotel tonight.
“The great state of Missouri has spoken,” said McCaskill. “They have said ‘we want change’!”
“Missourians have rejected the politics of personal character attacks,” said McCaskill as she reached over and kissed her husband, Joseph Shepard, who had been the target of several negative TV commercials.
McCaskill also thanked her mother, Betty Anne McCaskill, who she called the “star” of the campaign.
To the nearly half of Tuesday’s voters that did not voter for her, McCaskill said she “will work hard to earn your trust and respect.”
McCaskill will join at least three other new Democrats in the U.S. Senate. With the Senate race in Virginia likely taking several days to determine a winner, the balance of power is still in doubt.
What is not in doubt is that the Democratic Party had a very good night on Nov. 7, 2006 — one that has changed the nation’s political landscape and reintroduced two-party government to Washington D.C.
With 71% of the vote in, Sen. Jim Talent is leading challenger Claire McCaskill 50% to 47%.
The Democrats have already won control of the House of Representatives. With the balance of power in the U.S. Senate at stake, the eyes of the country are on Missouri…
Hundreds of people were standing in line this morning at the corner of West Florissant and Jennings Station Road in north St. Louis waiting to help flush out voters for Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Claire McCaskill.
There is some confusion among the potential workers in line just what they will be doing and how much they will be paid.
Some people near the back of the line think they are going to be paid between $300 and $250 for the day, while others closer to the front think the pay is around $9 per hour.
Some said they thought think they’ll be working a poll. Others said they thought they would be going door-to-door. But all seemed to be clear on one thing: that they would be voting for the Democrat, Claire McCaskill, today.
Senators Jim Talent and Kit Bond rallied a roomful of volunteers and supporters at the Drury Inn in St. Louis County this morning, just 24 hours before Tuesday’s election to decide if Bond will be joined in the Senate again by Talent or Democrat Claire McCaskill.
UPDATE: Bond reminded his fellow Republicans of his first Senate win 20 years ago. “That was the election in the 6th year of President Reagan’s term,” similar to this election, he said. “It’s tough on Republicans in the 6th year of a Republican president’s term.”
“That was the year that seven incumbent Republican senators were knocked off,” said Bond. “Right before the election, I was beind in the polls three percent and I had a knot in my stomach the size of a softball.”
He said he won that race “not because I was so good looking or so smart” but because of the GOTV efforts of his party.
Also… Supporters of Senator Talent will be gathering on Election Night at the Frontenac Hilton, 1335 South Lindbergh Blvd.
UPDATE 2:Click here to see video of Claire McCaskill rallying her troops with Congressmen Lacy Clay and Russ Carnahan Saturday in north St. Louis. And click here to see video of Sen. Barack Obama stumping for her on Sunday.
And as we reported last week, McCaskill supporters will be gathering on Election Night on the eastern side of the state in downtown St. Louis and on the western side of the state in downtown Kansas City.
In St. Louis, in the Majestic Ballroom of the Renaissance Grand Hotel, 800 Washington Ave. In K.C., in the Count Basie Ballroom of the Downtown Marriott, 200 W. 12th Street.
“The American people are not as divided as their politics would indicate,” Senator Barack Obama told a packed house of Claire McCaskill supporters in St. Louis yesterday.
Obama, who has been jetting across the country to lend some of his popularity to Democrats in close races, spoke yesterday at the World’s Fair Pavilion in Forest Park to more than 1,000 people who hope that come Wednesday morning, the Democrats will have taken control of the U.S. Senate and House.
For there to be a change of power in the Senate tomorrow, Democrats will have to pick up six seats. In the House, the number is 15.
“I’ve replayed the campaign more than a couple of times,” Talent writes. “There were a few things I would have done differently, but they weren’t many and they weren’t major.”
