National Races: Familiar Names and Long Shots

The United States Senate seat long held by Christopher "Kit" Bond is up for grabs as Senator Bond is retiring. The candidates for the seat are Robin Carnahan, Democrat and Roy Blunt, Republican. If those names seem familiar, it's because their families have been staples in Missouri politics for years. In addition, Blunt is a seven term congressman from the 7th District in southwestern Missouri. He has also worked as a teacher and was a university president. He got his start in politics in 1973.

Blunt has the reputation of being open to all the lobbyists and is generally regarded as well integrated into the Washington inside. Carnahan is less seasoned in Washington, but clearly has jumped right into politics. The 49 year old has worked abroad with the National Democratic Institute, worked briefly in international banking as an assistant, and has helped manage the Carnahan farm. She has not spent a great deal of time outside of work governmental in nature, and has no executive experience in the private sector.
Turning to the 5th District congressional race, we have the returning long shot running against the incumbent. Jacob Turk is running for the third time. He is a conservative Republican and has been consistant in his positions. He has held no previous political office; per his biography he has been both employee and owner in the business world.

Cleaver has been a pastor, a city councilman, the mayor of Kansas City and is now running for his third term in congress. He is a liberal, and has been quietly supporting each step of the Obama presidential agenda these past two years.
That's the basics of these two races.

I'm not liking the senate race at all. I am not in favor of many things that Robin Carnahan is in favor of. I am not in favor of the "Cap and Trade" carbon tax. I do not want more stimulus. I do not want knee jerk taxation. My inclination is to the conservative side. But when I look over there, I find an overly connected to the big money lobbyists politician who represents everything that is wrong with our system right now. We need politicians who truly represent all the people and not the people who give him the most money. Roy Blunt does not fit that description. I am not particularly happy with voting for Roy Blunt in a week and a day, but I probably will. He is running ahead of Carnahan in the polls and national Democrats and the President are not giving much support to her at this point.

As to the 5th District, well, this seat has been held by Democrats since--what--Truman? (More precisely, since 1933, there has been one Republican elected--Albert Reeves served from 1947-1949. All others Democratic.) Jacob Turk is going to have great difficulty overcoming the knee jerk Democrats--the "I vote Democratic because my father did, and my grandfather did." crowd. Furthermore, the Black vote will head to Cleaver, one, as he is a Democrat and two, because so many still believe that you can only be well represented by someone who looks like you. Turk is doing better this year than ever, but he probably will not win. I will vote for Turk, but I expect Cleaver to win. I would consider a Republican sitting in the Missouri 5th District seat a sure sign of the Apocalypse and would be looking for Jesus' coming any time.

Photo credits, from top to bottom: Blunt, from his FB page; Carnahan from her website; Turk, from his FB page; Cleaver, official government portrait.