KLINE BEATS DURNELL IN 8TH BY 518 VOTES

Richard Kline's prayers came true with a nudge from the voters.

"Thank you, Jesus," the 56-year-old Gipsy Republican said after narrowly defeating Cabool cattle farmer Earl Durnell in Tuesday's 8th District congressional primary.

It wasn't until early Wednesday that the final votes were tallied.

Kline won by 518 votes out of almost 25,000 cast in the 8th District Republican race.

Durnell, who suffered his second primary defeat in four years, heavily outspent Kline.

Durnell said he spent about $25,0000 to $30,000, most of it on television advertising. In contrast, Kline spent about $1,000, mostly on simple fliers.

Kline said he handed out 12,000 to 13,000 fliers in the 26-county district.

He plans to rewrite the fliers for the fall campaign, stressing God and prayer, the flat tax and downsizing government.

Kline, who is retired from the Coast Guard, said his candidacy appealed to voters who are tired of an overbearing government and want it scaled back.

Kline won in 19 counties and Durnell in seven.

Durnell's strength was in the western part of the district. In his home county of Howell, he piled up 3,159 votes to 1,773 for Kline.

But Kline easily outdistanced Durnell in the Bootheel. In Perry County, Kline defeated Durnell by a 456-vote margin.

Durnell said the GOP should back Kline this fall as the party nominee. But Kline doesn't expect that to happen.

Republican Party leaders favor Jo Ann Emerson. The widow of the late congressman Bill Emerson is running as an independent candidate. She plans to serve as a Republican if elected.

Kline said the GOP wrote him off before the primary. "They probably still are going to write me off," he said.

Ironically, Kline may have won the primary because of votes from Emerson Republicans who viewed the Bollinger County man as less of a threat to Emerson's candidacy.

Durnell suggested such a scenario.

Keith Kirk, Emerson's campaign manager, said some Emerson backers voted for Kline. But he said there was no concerted effort on the part of the Emerson campaign to funnel votes to any particular candidate in the primary.

Emerson's name wasn't on the primary ballot because the filing period had closed prior to the death of her husband.

Kline said he won't debate her. "I have no intentions of recognizing Mrs. Emerson," he said.

She has proposed a series of five debates involving all five 8th District candidates.

The debates would be during the first two weeks of October at five college campuses -- Southeast Missouri State University, Mineral Area College, the University of Missouri-Rolla, Three Rivers Community College and Southwest Missouri State-West Plains.

Panels of local journalists would ask the questions, with the colleges' presidents serving as moderators where possible.

"We should keep in mind that debates are for serious discussion and are not cheerleading sessions," Emerson wrote in a letter to the other candidates.

Democratic nominee Emily Firebaugh of Farmington and third-party candidates David Zimmer and Greg Tlapek of Cape Girardeau said they would welcome debates. Zimmer is the candidate of the Natural Law Party and Tlapek is running on the Libertarian ballot.

Chris Keuleman of the Firebaugh campaign said ground rules for the debates still need to be addressed.

Tlapek, 39, is the youngest of the five candidates.

He recently quit his job as a commodities broker in what he said was a mid-life crisis. He isn't sure how hard he will campaign this fall.

"I went into commodities with the goal of getting filthy rich and I was unable to do that," he said.

Tlapek conceded he isn't the best candidate from a public-relations point of view.

"I am unemployed. I live at home. I am not married. I don't go to church. I am not in any civic organizations.

"I don't even have a dog to have my picture taken with," he said.