Ike Skelton loss named top Missouri story in 2010

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- In a year dominated by big winners in the November elections, the biggest headline was about who lost.

Missouri voters ended the 34-year career of Democratic U.S. Rep. Ike Skelton on Nov. 2, electing Republican Vicky Hartzler after a campaign in which the GOP worked furiously to connect Skelton to an unpopular President Barack Obama and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

The result was ranked as the top news story of 2010 in a survey of Associated Press member newspaper and broadcast editors.

Skelton had long maintained a strong grip on a 4th District that otherwise tilts toward Republicans by emphasizing his military expertise and social conservative views. But Hartzler scored points with voters by casting Skelton as out of touch with his constituents and portraying her congressional campaign as a "fight to take back our country."

The state's budget mess was the second-ranked story. Gov. Jay Nixon's administration has estimated that Missouri faces a shortfall of between $500 million and $700 million for the next fiscal year, a gap equivalent to almost 10 percent of the state's general tax revenue.

Through two years of slumping tax revenues, the Democratic governor and Republican-led legislature already have eliminated more than 2,000 state jobs and reduced funding for public colleges and universities, early childhood programs, public health clinics and home care providers for the disabled, among other things.

U.S. Rep. Roy Blunt's ascendency to the Senate was ranked as the No. 3 story by editors after his 14-point win over Democratic Secretary of State Robin Carnahan. It was the largest margin since John Ashcroft's Senate victory in the Republican wave of 1994.

The rest of the top 10:

4. Missourians approved a ballot measure expressing opposition to a federal health care mandate and Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder filed a lawsuit against it.

5. Because of the budget shortfall, Gov. Nixon warned the state's public colleges and universities to prepare for tuition increases and significant funding cuts after two consecutive years of tuition freezes.

6. The University of Missouri remained in a scaled-down Big 12 Conference after the Big Ten -- which was believed to be courting Mizzou -- instead chose Nebraska amid conference realignments.

7. Kansas City school officials vote to shut down nearly half the district's schools in a bid to improve academics and avoid using what little is left of the $2 billion it received as part of a groundbreaking desegregation case.

8. Missouri lawmakers met in special session to approve tax breaks intended for Ford Motor Co. and a pension overhaul after overcoming an all-night filibuster.

9. The Veterans Administration urged nearly 2,000 veterans to return for blood tests because inadequately sterilized equipment may have exposed them to viral infections such as hepatitis and HIV during dental procedures. The news angered lawmakers and triggered a congressional hearing in St. Louis.

10. Four masked gunmen cart away containers of cash in an armored van in one of the biggest heists ever in St. Louis. They remained on the loose into December.