The open seat in Missouri where GOP Sen. Kit Bond is retiring after four terms represents one of four Republican-held seats in the Toss Up column. The race took shape early as Republican Rep. Roy Blunt and Democratic Secretary of State Robin Carnahan announced their candidacies. Both managed to fend off serious primary opposition, though Blunt faces two minor candidates.
There has been little engagement between the two candidates as both focus on fundraising, but the contours of the race are beginning to become evident. Democrats aim to define Blunt, who has served in the House since 1997, as the “insider” candidate; a creature of Washington who is part of the problem and who had a hand in creating the economic policies that caused the current problems facing the nation. At a Christian Science Monitor breakfast yesterday, Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee Chairman Bob Menendez called Blunt “Tom DeLay’s enforcer,” a reference to his tenure as Majority Whip under then-Majority Leader DeLay, who was indicted and subsequently did not seek re-election. Democrats will undoubtedly take aim at Blunt for opposing many
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