McCaskill taking her RV to rural Missouri

WASHINGTON -- Claire McCaskill is revving up the RV and taking her U.S. Senate campaign to Missouri's countryside in search of votes that eluded her two years ago.

With her 77-year-old mother, Betty Anne, along for the ride, the Democratic candidate is planning her most extensive campaign swing to date in Missouri's heartland. She'll cruise through 10 small cities next week and show off her new wheels -- a 31-foot RV that her campaign will use until November.

If she wants to unseat Republican Jim Talent this fall, the consensus is that she has to do a better job of pulling votes beyond her traditional urban bases in Kansas City and St. Louis. McCaskill lost the 2004 governor's race to Matt Blunt in large part because she failed to make enough inroads with rural and small town voters where GOP support has swelled in recent years.

"I just want to make sure that they feel comfortable that I am ready to take these folks on, that I am ready to be on their side, that I can do this," McCaskill said in an interview. "And that means listening to them and reassuring them that I'm not going to be afraid to say no to anybody in my party, anybody in the Republican Party or any lobbyist."

The April 12-14 tour includes stops in Kennett, Lebanon, Mexico, Moberly, Poplar Bluff, Rolla, Sedalia, Sikeston, Warrensburg and West Plains. None has a population larger than about 20,000, but many are in areas where Democratic candidates have struggled to draw support.

"It's really a very smart thing for her to do," said Richard Fulton, a political science professor at Northwest Missouri State University. "Democrats have had some success in the rural areas in the past and I think she's trying to rev up that constituency again."

Fulton said visiting smaller cities early in the campaign is a good strategy because residents who don't see as many statewide candidates for office remember those visits longer.

McCaskill, currently the state auditor, has visited rural areas early and often since she kicked off her campaign last summer in tiny Houston, Mo. Last month, she and her mother went on an eight-city swing to highlight confusion over the new Medicare Part D prescription drug program that has angered many senior citizens.

Her latest tour will continue to focus on the Medicare plan, access to health care and the need to reduce prescription drug costs for seniors.

Lloyd Smith, senior adviser to Talent's campaign, predicted McCaskill's effort to woo rural voters would fail because she's on the "wrong side" of issues like abortion and gun control.

"At the end of the day she brings a lot of baggage to the table in rural Missouri," Smith said. "I don't think she'll pull any Republican or Democratic support away from Talent."

Kurt Jefferson, chairman of the political science department at Westminster College in Fulton, Mo., said McCaskill needs to stress health care and other pocketbook issues to win over voters in farm country.

"I think she would make a mistake if she started to run against the President's record in Iraq or run on foreign policy," Jefferson said. "I think she's trying to appear to be very much a populist, a woman of the people and that's probably a pretty good strategy for her right now."

Talent has not formally begun campaigning yet, though he has held dozens of town hall meetings around the state to help seniors understand the new law. He has praised the program and said last month that two-thirds of eligible seniors in Missouri have signed up.

"He's been very pleased with the success of the Medicare prescription drug law which he helped pass in the Senate," spokesman Rich Chrismer said.

As the race wins more national attention -- recent polls show the candidates running even -- Republicans have increased the party's efforts to raise money and galvanize support for Talent. He is already way ahead of McCaskill in raising money for the race, and she conceded that her campaign is not likely to catch up.

"One of our challenges in this campaign is Jim Talent is going to have plenty of money and I'm not going to have the same resources he's going to have, that's pretty obvious," McCaskill said. "Somebody said they're bringing Vice President Cheney in on Monday and they're bringing President Bush in on Tuesday and I said 'That's OK, I've got mom on Wednesday."'

Cheney is holding a fund raiser for Talent in Springfield on Monday, while Bush will appear at a senior living center in Jefferson City on Tuesday to discuss the Medicare Part D program.

With her mother a hit on the campaign trial, McCaskill said other members of her family will play prominent roles as well. In May, she will hit the stump with her sisters and talk about their father's service during World War II.

"We'll try to bring home some of the points about the way our military personnel is being mistreated right now," she said, citing National Guard members without adequate health care and complaints that troops in Iraq don't have suitable body armor.

Over the summer, her three children will join her when she talks about helping more families afford college education.

"Frankly, this is a long haul and it's more fun for me and it makes it easier for me to be with my family," she said.

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On the Net:

Claire McCaskill's election Web site: http://www.claireonline.com

Sen. Jim Talent's election Web site: http://www.talentforsenate.com/