Page 8A — SUNDAY & MONDAY, February 28-March 1, 2010 Columbia Missourian

Attendance up at Lincoln Days State Sen. Kurt

Republican Party
showed support for
Rep. Roy Blunt’s bid
for U.S. Senate.
By Jeremy Essig
news@ColumbiaMissourian.com
ST. CHARLES — With bik-
ers, Tea Party supporters and
an influx of youth contribut-
ing to a near record turnout,
Missouri Republicans are
searching for more.
The Missouri Republican
Party held its annual Lincoln
Days event in St. Charles on
Friday and Saturday. With
attendance estimated around
800 — double the previous
year — according to Lloyd
Smith, executive director of
the party, the message of the
weekend was one of inclu-
sion.
“We rise and fall on the vot-
ing behavior of swing voters,”
Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder said at a
banquet Friday.
House Majority Leader
Steven Tilley, R-Perryville,
attributed the rise in atten-
dance to work he and Sen-
ate Majority Leader Kevin
Engler, R-Farmington, did
mobilizing younger voters.
After a low turnout at the
event last year in Kansas
City, Tilley said he and Engler
spent the last year attempting
to drum up “young energy
and exuberance.”
At a town hall event early
Saturday, U.S. Rep. Roy Blunt
said another group of voters
should also be brought under
the Republican umbrella.
“Hispanics are very pro-
family, they’re socially con-
servative, they work hard.
They should be Republicans.”
With all the talk of inclu-
sion, it was hard to miss the
party’s embrace of Blunt as
its nominee for the U.S. Sen-
ate seat being left open by the
retirement of Sen. Kit Bond.
While Smith would not
say the party was official-
ly endorsing Blunt over his
opponents in this summer’s
Republican primary, Blunt
and his campaign parapher-
nalia were displayed promi-
nently at the St. Charles Con-
vention Center.
The halls and entrances of
the convention center were
awash in blue and white Blunt
campaign balloons and the
candidate began the event
with a rally.
Jonathon Prouty, spokes-
man for the Missouri Republi-
can Party, said that the Blunt
rally was not one of the con-
vention’s scheduled events.
At a town hall meeting
Saturday morning, U.S. Rep.
Todd Akin discussed the
importance of Republicans
winning “Roy Blunt’s race,”
while one of Blunt’s primary
opponents, state Sen. Chuck
Purgason, R-Caulfield, was
seated in the audience.
On Friday, Purgason said
his party had worked against
him in his first race for state
representative and that he
was running undeterred on
a platform to balance the
federal budget — something
Republicans, including Blunt,
failed to do while in the Con-
gressional majority from
2000-2006.
“Blunt was part of the lead-
ership that added debt... He
enjoys earmarks and failed to
balance the budget.”
Blunt never mentioned his
Republican challengers by
name, instead focusing on
likely Democratic Senate
nominee Robin Carnahan and
national Democratic leaders.
“No one has done as much
for my Senate campaign
as Nancy Pelosi and Harry
Reid,” he said referring to
the House and Senate lead-
ers. “Along with the President
they have scared the county
to death.”
In another contested pri-
mary race, state Rep. Allen
Icet, R-Wildwood, is facing
former Bush official Thom-
as Schweich for the Party’s
nomination for state Auditor.
On Friday night, Icet defeat-
ed Schweich 87-13 in a straw
poll held by the campaign
consulting firm Survey St.
Louis.
“They’re just for fun,” Icet
said. “But it’s always nice to
win a straw poll.”
Primary races aside, Ste-
ven Tilley said he had never
seen a Lincoln Days event
quite like the 2010 version.
The party is “more unified
than I’ve ever seen us be,”
Tilley said.
Schaefer weighs in
on Republican party
By Jeremy Essig
news@ColumbiaMissourian.com
ST. CHARLES — With a
scoop in one hand and a cup
in the other, Sen. Kurt Schae-
fer, R-Columbia, doled out ice
cream during an event hosted
by Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder at the
annual Republican Party Lin-
coln Days convention. After
retiring from his ice cream
post, Schaefer took a few min-
utes to spoon out his thoughts
on state issues and the state of
the Republican Party.
State budget
Gov. Jay Nixon held a meet-
ing last week with Senate Pres-
ident Pro Tem Charlie Shields,
Senate Appropriations Chair-
man Rob Mayer and Majority
Leader Kevin Engler.
Schaefer said he assumed
the meeting centered around
$300 million in federal dol-
lars Nixon had included in his
budget proposal that the U.S.
Senate decided not to include
lican representing a district
that’s 52 percent Democratic,
Schaefer said his election is
“absolutely” a sign that the
party is beginning to grow.
“First of all, it’s always
important to have, you know,
a candidate who represents
their district,” he said. “Maybe
I do well in the district I’m in,
maybe I wouldn’t so well in
southwest Missouri.”
The key, Schaefer said, is for
the party to begin embracing
a broad base of constituents.
“The Republican Party is
the party of individualism,”
he said. “That’s a principal
to be embraced and you got
to then recognize not every-
one is the same or always on
the same page. But that’s the
strength of the party.”
Capitol improvement
Last week, Republican lead-
ership in the House decided
to not bring to the floor a
bill that would have put the

School leaders make push for bonds

Fifty-seven percent of the
vote is needed to pass the
$120 million bond issue.
By Kourtney Geers
news@ColumbiaMissourian.com
If you haven’t heard about the bond
issue by now, chances are you will by
April 6.
The leaders of Columbia Public
Schools are doing their best to educate
the community about the issue by mak-
ing approximately 130 presentations
before the vote appears on the ballot in
early April. District leaders began mak-
ing the presentations to school and com-
munity groups in mid-January.
The presentations about the $120 mil-
lion bond issue are designed to answer
questions from the community and
highlight benefits of the proposal that
will need 57 percent of votes to pass.
As the second phase of the plan was
previously approved by voters in 2007,
the bond issue is designed to address
five areas: building improvements, con-
in its jobs bill last week. House
Budget Chairman Allen Icet,
R-St. Louis County, confirmed
Schaefer’s assumption. He
said he spoke to Mayer and
struction, air conditioning, technology, of students.
and interest and fees associated with The presentation shown at some of the
no decisions were made about
the funding. Out of this plan, the biggest meetings highlighting the talking points
what to do if the money does
not appear.
projects would be the construction of a is available on the bond issue page of
new high school and the new gyms at the district’s Web site. An “Election “I think what the Gen-
eral Assembly would like to
Rock Bridge and Hick- Update: Questions
man high schools. and Answers” hand- know from the governor, is
what his proposal is now that
By law, the bond issue
can only provide fund-
More online out is also given out at
the presentations. we’re tasked with dealing with
a budget he gave us that is
ing for these types of To read a list of frequently asked The material pro-
projects, not salaries, questions on the school bond issue, vided by the district clearly not in balance,” Schae-
fer said.
benefits or supplies. go to ColumbiaMissourian.com. points to the need to
At Superintendent reduce overcrowding K2 ban
Chris Belcher’s latest and prepare for the Schaefer said the intention
presentation at the Boone County Mule- 1,000 new students projected to enter of a bill he sponsored to ban
skinners weekly meeting on Friday, he the district over the next five years. If
K2 and related substances is
stated that the current economic envi- the bond issue is passed, the current
not an attempt to ban the flow-
ronment has made this the “perfect time plan calls for the new high school to
ers and leaves that make up
to go for the bond issue.” open its doors in 2013.
the substance, but rather to
Belcher went on to say that bond issues Although the district can’t advocate
ban the spray applied to them.
are “about the future” and the expecta- a “yes” vote on the ballot issue legally,
“I think once people under-
tion is that in the future, the district will it can inform the community about the
stand what it really is, it’s
see increased numbers of students. He issue. And as the schedule stands cur-
not quite as controversial as
explained that construction costs are rently, there are another 50 presenta-
people think it is to ban it,”
low because of the economic state and tions to be made to school and commu-
he said.
this makes it a positive time to create nity organizations before the April vote.
Citing the Clemson Univer-
the needed space for growing numbers
sity scientist who developed
the spray, Schaefer said, “This
is the guy that invented the
substance who said, ‘You’d
have to be a complete idiot to
smoke this.’ You know so that’s
kind of telling.”
Schaefer said he expects his
bill to clear the Senate Judi-
ciary Committee Monday.
Message of inclusion
Throughout the Lincoln Days
events, Republicans stressed
that the party needs to be
more inclusive. As a Repub-
possibility of the state issu-
ing bonds for capitol improve-
ment money on the November
ballot. The bill was sponsored
by Rep. Chris Kelly, D-Colum-
bia. Schaefer, who sponsored
a similar bill in the Senate last
year, said he thinks the state
is missing a prime opportu-
nity.
According to Schaefer, a
program in which the feder-
al government will pay off
part of the interest accrued
on bonds expires at the end
of the year. He said adding
that to low interest rates and
cheap construction costs, the
time is perfect for the state
to issue debt for construction
programs that will eventually
have to be done.
“You’re never going to get
cheaper money than right
now, so do it now,” he said.
Schaefer said some Republi-
cans believe that being fiscal-
ly conservative means never
borrowing money.
“You can still borrow money
and be fiscally conservative,
you just have to be smart
about it,” Schaefer said, mak-
ing an analogy to home mort-
gages that carry low fixed-
rate interest.
Those opposed to the bond
issue admit that the capitol
improvements will eventually
have to be made, Schaefer
said, adding that if the state
waits to issue bonds, it will
have to do so at higher inter-
est rates.
“How is that being more
fiscally conservative? I don’t
understand,” he said.