McCaskill swings by Columbia

Posted to Politics Watch by Gretchen Mahan at 2:08 p.m., Oct. 24, 2008

U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill, D- Mo., and Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius visited Columbia on Friday to encourage volunteers to hold the line through the last days of the election and to drum up support for their party’s presidential candidate.

McCaskill addressed college students in Columbia, and encouraged them to vote on Nov. 4.

“It ain’t like there aren’t a lot of you around here,” McCaskill said in reference to college students. She said if students do not get out to the polls: “Shame on you. I know I sound like a mother, but shame on you.”

Sebelius echoed McCaskill in her speech.

“Nothing counts until the polls close on Election Day,” she said.

Sebelius also discussed state elections and said she is “waiting” for Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jay Nixon to be elected as Missouri’s governor.

“It will be wonderful to have a partner again,” she said.

McCaskill said that if Obama were elected president, the American people would see how he works with both parties.

“He really will be bipartisan,” she said. “He really will reach across the aisle.”

Sebelius said some people have criticized her for taking time to promote Obama as the Democratic candidate rather than focus her time on Kansas.  She said people have accused her of attempting to put herself in a position where she could become a Washington legislator.

“I don’t want a new job,” she said. “I want a new president.”

Both McCaskill and Sebelius have been big names in the Obama campaign this year. McCaskill threw her support behind Obama in January during the primaries, and Sebelius was considered by many as a serious choice for Obama’s running mate.