GOP CANDIDATES ASSEMBLE IN CAPE FOR LINCOLN DAY

With the 1996 races for statewide office just starting, this year's Republican challengers have the utmost confidence in their strengths while dismissing outright any mention of weaknesses.

"We've put forth one of the best slates of candidates the Republican Party has ever offered the state," said John Hancock of St. Louis, the GOP candidate for secretary of state.

Hancock, who is challenging incumbent Rebecca McDowell Cook, was one of several Republican hopefuls who talked with reporters prior to the Lincoln Day dinner Saturday night at the A.C. Brase Arena Building in Cape Girardeau.

The strength of the Republican candidates, Hancock said, is they are from diverse regions of the state, and have diverse experiences and personalities but that they share a vision of conservative change in state government.

All five of the executive branch positions on the ballot this year -- governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general, secretary of state and treasurer -- are held by Democrats. Republicans have filed to challenge in every race except attorney general. Hancock said a strong candidate, whom he did not name, is expected to emerge in the coming weeks to challenge incumbent Jay Nixon.

The biggest state election news so far has been the decision by state Sen. Bill Kenney of Lee Summit to drop his gubernatorial campaign and instead run for lieutenant governor, avoiding a primary battle with State Auditor Margaret Kelly.

"I know what it takes to be a team player and felt it was best for Republicans around the state," said Kenney, a former quarterback for the Kansas City Chiefs.

The willingness shown by Kenney to settle for the No. 2 spot on the ticket, where he will oppose Lt. Gov. Roger Wilson, is a demonstration of the Republican slate's willingness to help each other, Hancock said.

"We are, as a party, so committed to changing the state that we are doing things not normally seen in politics," Hancock said. "We do not see people subvert their own personal interests for the good of the party."

In 1992, a bitter Republican gubernatorial primary left winner Bill Webster so mired in scandal that it brought down the state GOP as a whole. Democrats, led by now Gov. Mel Carnahan, swept the executive branch and Webster ended up in federal prison.

U.S. Sen. John Ashcroft, Missouri's outgoing governor in 1992, said the Democrats will not have it so easy this year.

"You have got to understand that those were unusual circumstances and a situation we will not have repeated," Ashcroft said. "I think the circumstances of 1992 were an anomaly and that 1994 demonstrated that the 1992 circumstances were an anomaly."

Along with touting their individual and collective strengths, the candidates said their opponents will have difficultly campaigning on their record of the last four years.

"I think they have a very thin story to tell people about what they've done," said Carl Bearden of St. Charles, who is running against State Treasurer Bob Holden. "The only thing they can tell them is they've raised taxes" and campaign on conservative themes they would not embrace if re-elected.

The overall Republican strategy will attempt to demonstrate that Carnahan and the others have not run the state as they said they would in 1992. The main target will be a tax increase for education approved without a public vote in 1993. During the campaign Carnahan, who supported the increase, said he would oppose any taxes not voted on by the electorate.

"The governor's popularity is based solely on the fact that people do not realize what he has done," Kenney said.