By Kevin Murphy
KANSAS CITY, Mo., Aug 7 (Reuters) – Three Missouri
Republicans are in a political free-for-all for the party
nomination on Tuesday to challenge U.S. Senator Claire
McCaskill, who political analysts consider the most vulnerable
Democratic incumbent in the country this November.
The U.S. Senate primary race in Missouri is drawing the most
national attention as voters in three other states – Michigan,
Washington and Kansas – also go to the polls on Tuesday.
St. Louis businessman John Brunner held a narrow poll lead
over conservative Congressman Todd Akin and former state senator
Sarah Steelman as the tight Missouri race hurtled toward a
close. Akin and Steelman were within striking distance and many
voters were undecided.
“With the high undecided vote and the frenzy of the final
week, it’s anybody’s race,” said Steve Glorioso, a political
consultant who has worked on past McCaskill campaigns, but not
yet this year.
A recent poll also showed that any one of the three
challengers could knock off McCaskill in November, good news for
Republicans in their effort to pick up at least four seats in
the U.S. Senate and take the majority.
McCaskill is struggling in a state that has gone
increasingly Republican after being a bellwether in presidential
elections for a century. McCaskill’s support of Democratic
President Barack Obama’s healthcare reform has hurt her in the
state, Glorioso said.
Brunner, who has never run for political office, is another
in a string of insurgent Republican candidates who have shown
they can upset the party establishment in Senate races this
year. Brunner has bankrolled his own campaign and led most of
the way.
Insurgents in Indiana, Nebraska and Texas have upset
traditional Republicans, and others are running strong races in
Arizona and Wisconsin.
The last poll before the Missouri vote published on Sunday
by Democratic firm Public Policy Polling, showed Brunner with 35
percent, Akin with 30 and Steelman with 25 percent. One-in-ten
voters were undecided.
In Michigan, another incumbent Democratic U.S. senator,
Debbie Stabenow, is doing much better and has been comfortably
ahead of any Republican challenger in recent polls.
The best known Republican in the Michigan race, former
Congressman Peter Hoekstra, has been prone to gaffes that have
hampered his campaign. Hoekstra’s first campaign ad this year
was criticized as racist because it featured an Asian woman on a
bicycle speaking broken English in an attempt to accuse Stabenow
of selling out U.S. interests to China.
Hoekstra was leading his Tea Party movement-backed opponent
Clark Durant in final polls before the voting.
Washington state’s primary advances the top two candidates
in the vote count to the November election rather than holding
separate Republican and Democratic primary elections.
Incumbent Democratic U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell is expected
to cruise into the top two for the November election over a
crowded but little-known field of challengers.
In Kansas, there is no U.S. Senate election this year and
all four incumbent members of Congress are Republicans expected
to sail through the primary.
(Writing and additional reporting by Greg McCune; Editing by
Vicki Allen)
