By Antonio D. French
Filed Monday, September 18, 2006 at 10:23 AM
Labels: State_Senate, U.S._Senate_Race
SMART PLAY, REGARDLESS - The Kansas City Star's Steve Kraske gave U.S. Senate candidate Claire McCaskill props for the "Smart Move of the Week" for buying 100 tickets to last weekend's Rams game, helping to ensure the game would be broadcast locally. "It gave McCaskill a big splash of free media in the state's largest media market," wrote Kraske.
But some Republicans are talking conspiracy. STLMedia.net is reporting allegations that the McCaskill campaign and the KMOV sales department made a deal to give the campaign TV coverage in exchange for the buying the tickets, valued at $4,400.
"The sell-out made it possible for KMOV to air the game, which otherwise would have been blacked out locally," writes Mike Anderson. "Unconfirmed, so far, but eminently believable: without a News Director and GM Alan Cohen out of town, the Sales Manager forced the deal through, promising the news coverage in return for the sell-out of tickets so the game could air and thus be sponsored locally."CAPITOL INACTION - As legislators gathered in Jefferson City last week for their annual Veto Session, many observers were left wondering, "What's the point?"
In the constitutionally required session, the State Legislature declined to override any of Gov. Matt Blunt's vetoes (he only made four line-item budget vetoes this year) and a move to restore some of the Governor's harmful reductions in Medicaid benefits didn't even make it on the agenda.
"We could've ensured some of our most vulnerable citizens could continue to report for work. But we didn't," State Sen. Maida Coleman told the Associated Press.
One cynical Capitol observer noted that, despite accomplishing next to nothing, all of the legislators that showed up did get paid for their efforts -- and if they opted to stay overnight, they got paid for that too. For those that did stay overnight, several lobbyist-sponsored Shindigs kept them from getting too bored in their hotel rooms.THE AIR WAR - Both Jim Talent and Claire McCaskill are duking it out on the tube now. After a month-long headstart in which incumbent Talent ran unanswered commercials touting his centrist "political party's don't matter" message, challenger McCaskill joined the TV fight last week with an ad featuring her mom, daughter, and true-and-through Missouri values.
The Hill's Jonathan E. Kaplan reported on a survey which showed both ads appealing to centrist voters. From his article:
The survey conducted by Wilson Research Strategies showed that the advertisements were equally appealing: Talent's ad was slightly more effective than McCaskill's ad, 42 to 38 percent. But among independents, McCaskill's ad trumped Talent's by 42 to 34 percent.
Nevertheless, neither ad was particularly impressive to the respondents in terms of message, effectiveness or an ad that "I would talk about." Both ads scored lower than the average in each category. Yet they were equally appealing, earning a 5.8 on a 10-point scale. McCaskill's ad was more memorable.
Kaplan quotes political handicapper Stuart Rothenberg calling the race a "toss-up", but adding he thought of the five most vulnerable Republican seats, the Republicans are most likely to hold Talent's.
1 Comments:
In complaining about the KMOV coverage, the Republicans are merely practicing their karaoke act:
"Everything I think I see" (the Tootsie Roll song)
The world looks mighty scary to me
'cause conspiracy is all I see
Whatever it is I think I see
becomes a conspiracy to me
Conspiracy how I love your limited review
Conspiracy I think I'm in love with you
Whatever it is I think I see
becomes a conspiracy to me!
9/18/2006 8:14 PM
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