Hillary Clinton stumps for Sen. Bond's opponent

ST. LOUIS -- Underscoring Missouri's importance in national politics, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton stumped Saturday for Nancy Farmer in the state treasurer's quest to unseat Republican Sen. Kit Bond and perhaps help Democrats wrest back control of the Senate.

"We are now at a turning point," the former first lady, now serving constituents in New York, told the more than 200 gatherers for the fund-raising luncheon for Farmer, the self-described underdog against a three-term incumbent.

"There isn't a day that goes by that this administration doesn't try to turn the clock back on America," Clinton said, adding "there could not be more at stake."

Clinton cast Farmer as a straight-shooting, savvy tax-cutter while she served as a former state lawmaker who demonstrated fiscal soundness once she became the state's first female chief financial officer.

"I'm running because I am worried about the promise of America," Farmer said, having described Bond as a "rubber stamp" for Bush.

Bond, a former two-term Missouri governor, has not formally announced his intentions to seek a fourth term in the Senate but has laid all the groundwork for a campaign.

In a statement Friday, the Missouri Republican Party suggested that Farmer's campaign "continues to lurch to the left" with the appearance on her behalf by Clinton, "one of the nation's most liberal senators."

"We are obviously very pleased with Senator Bond's leadership, and every indication is that he will be soundly re-elected in November," John Hancock, a former executive director of the state GOP who is now a Republican consultant, said Saturday.

A Bond spokeswoman said Saturday that comments by the state GOP and Hancock would suffice in addressing what Clinton said.

Farmer is likely to face some opposition in an August 2004 Democratic primary. Political newcomer Charles E. Berry, a St. Louis lawyer, already is in the Democratic Senate race.

Farmer said she wants to raise $7 million for her campaign but has suggested she has no intention of raising as much money as Bond, who as of Sept. 30 had a campaign war chest of $4 million to just $383,650 for Farmer, then just weeks into her campaign.

Candidates are expected to report fourth-quarter fund-raising in mid-January.

"This will be an expensive campaign," Farmer told supporters Saturday. "But I hope that you will all agree it is worth it. The stakes are incredibly high in this race."

The outcome of the 2002 Senate race shows money doesn't decide who wins. Former Democratic Sen. Jean Carnahan raised $12.3 million but lost to Republican Jim Talent, who raised $8.65 million.

Clinton's visit came two days before Bush is to return to Missouri, which he won in 2000 when he claimed 50 percent of the vote to Democrat Al Gore's 47 percent.

During a Monday visit to St. Louis, Bush is to take part in a roundtable-type discussion at St. Louis' Pierre Laclede Elementary School about the No Child Left Behind Act before resuming his re-election campaign fund-raising schedule at the Gateway City's downtown America's Center.