Lincoln Days: Senate races and stimulus
In what could be considered the main event of the morning at Lincoln Days, Republican Missouri legislators — both state and national — held a town hall meeting in which they spoke and took questions from the audience.
Check back here later for video of the some of the legislators answering questions from the audience.
Other than U.S. Sen. Kit Bond, who spoke first, no one spent too much time discussing the looming race to fill Bond's seat, which he announced earlier this month he would vacate. U.S. Rep. Roy Blunt, who officially threw his hat in the race on Thursday, is not present at the event today, but judging by the number of "Roy Blunt, U.S. Senate" posters hung on the walls and stickers of the same design on peoples' chests, it could be argued that he is here in spirit.
Blunt was in St. Joseph today to make an appearance, but Sarah Steelman, the former state treasurer, is here in Kansas City at the event. Steelman said all the stickers and posters don't bother her, and said she is still considering a run for the seat.
In an interview, Steelman said the Republican Party needs to get back to "basic conservative principles" that former President Ronald Reagan once stood for.
"I think we have moved away from those principles," Steelman said.
Speakers at the town hall did discuss certain election strategies, however. Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder said that Republicans could reach students through increased use of social networking technologies such as Facebook and Twitter. He also said that Republicans could chip into the heavily Democratic black vote by focusing on social issues such as abortion rights and same-sex marriage.
The town hall centered very heavily on the federal stimulus package, which was signed by President Barack Obama this week, and which almost no Republicans supported. The speakers even had a wide array of different pet names for the measure — U.S. Rep. Todd Akin called it the "porkulus bill."
U.S. Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer called the measure "abominable."
"The public that elected the people that created this mess are now the ones that have to pull them out of it," Luetkemeyer said.