Mo. GOP hopeful of election rebound in 2010

ST. CHARLES, Mo. -- Several hundred Republicans gathered Saturday at a suburban convention center with a newfound optimism for big election victories this fall. Under the Gateway Arch in downtown St. Louis, a nearly equal number of "tea party" activists simultaneously rallied for a conservative electoral surge.

Few participants from the two groups' gatherings overlapped. But Republican Party leaders are hoping to tap the energy of the tea party crowd to propel them to sweeping congressional victories in the November elections.

"I contend they are naturally our people," Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder, Missouri's top Republican elected executive, said in an interview with The Associated Press. "It is our task to earn their trust again."

"I think you have a higher level of political interest right now -- I think that's a good thing, and will be a good thing for us in November," said U.S. Rep. Roy Blunt, the leading Republican candidate in this year's race to replace retiring GOP Sen. Kit Bond. The top Democratic Senate candidate is Secretary of State Robin Carnahan.

Missouri Republicans hope to capitalize on a general sense of frustration that drew thousands of people to town-hall health care forums around Missouri last summer and attracted thousands more to "tea party" rallies against big government, rising spending and ballooning national debt.

But it won't necessarily be any easy sell.

"Just because they say they're Republican doesn't mean squat to me," said William Holland, 48, of Jefferson County, who held a "Don't Tread on Me" flag at the tea party rally on the concrete steps leading from the Mississippi River to the Arch.

It was a coincidence that the Republican Party and tea party activists were meeting on the same day barely 20 miles apart. The riverside rally was scheduled on the one-year anniversary of the first St. Louis tea party event. And the Republican Party holds its statewide conference on a February weekend each year.

What Republican Party leaders are hoping for are plenty of people such as Cynthia Rice, a 54-year-old St. Louis resident who said she attended numerous tea party events last year. She now is volunteering for at least four Republican candidates seeking federal or state offices.

"I'm a conservative before I'm a Republican," said Rice, who was attending the Republican conference. "The tea parties and town halls were very good in 2009, but we're now at the point where we have to get involved with campaigns."

Blunt and Kinder both said they have spent considerable time reaching out to the leaders and participants of the limited-government movements. Their goal is to draw them to the Republican Party and avoid a surge toward independent or minor party candidates who could split the conservative vote and damage the Republicans' chances.

But few people attending the Republicans' Lincoln Days event actually drove to the tea party rally. One notable exception was Ed Martin, a Republican attorney seeking to challenge Democratic U.S. Rep. Russ Carnahan. Martin said he also attended the first St. Louis tea party rally last year.

"I don't think, candidly, that the conventional (Republican) party people know what to think of it," said Martin, who served as chief of staff to former Republican Gov. Matt Blunt. "For me, these are more likely to be voters."

Although not at their rally Saturday, state Sen. Chuck Purgason has based his lightly funded U.S. Senate campaign on an antiestablishment, anti-debt theme. Purgason said he didn't want to force himself into the tea party movement.

But Purgason largely was excluded from the headlining events at the Republican conference, while Blunt was given prime speaking roles and frequent praise by other Republican leaders. Purgason and Blunt both have denounced ballooning federal debt, but Purgason notes that Blunt was in House Republican leadership in the early 2000s as that debt started rising.

"They're wanting to ignore that their candidate is part of the problem," Purgason said.