Polls show Blunt leading Carnahan as push begins

ST. JOSEPH, Mo. -- Rep. Roy Blunt on Tuesday kicked off a 50-city bus tour for the final week of the race for Missouri's open U.S. Senate seat, telling supporters the election is a referendum on the policies of the Obama administration.

"The crowd in control in Washington doesn't think what we believe matters," the Republican congressman told dozens of supporters on the front lawn of an upscale home in the western Missouri city of St. Joseph.

Polls show Blunt leading Democratic Secretary of State Robin Carnahan in the race to replace retiring GOP Sen. Kit Bond. While Blunt said 28 polls have been conducted and all have him in the lead, he said what matters is who turns out to vote Nov. 2.

"This campaign is about the kind of country you want to live in," he told dozens of supporters on the front lawn of an upscale St. Joseph home. "Are we going to live in a country where government is bigger than the people, or the people are bigger than government?"

Earlier Tuesday, Carnahan continued her final-week push by speaking with supporters at the Pony Express Museum in St. Joseph before moving on to several other western Missouri towns.

Carnahan, who has been comparing her Senate bid to Harry Truman's successful presidential run against Republican Thomas Dewey in 1948, urged backers to recruit voters to come out on Election Day.

She said Blunt has had 14 years in Congress and has been part of the problem with Washington. She said anyone in the business world who had his track record would be fired.

"He doesn't deserve a promotion," she said.

A poll released over the weekend by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and television station KMOV showed Carnahan trailing Blunt by 9 points. The poll, conducted last week by Mason-Dixon Polling & Research, had a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.

Blunt's campaign arrived Tuesday in a massive black campaign bus that was more like a rolling billboard than a mode of transportation. Blunt showed up about 10 minutes later to an energetic crowd of campaign supporters and Republican candidates for statewide races.

Blunt spoke briefly before shaking some hands and then climbing aboard his bus for a 30-minute ride to Platte City for an event there.

"I think he's saying the right things," said George Hopkins, 82, a retired dentist who has voted Republican most of his life. "I believes he lives them, too. I haven't seen that any of the allegations his opponent has thrown at him have stuck."

Hopkins said he's worried about the direction of the country and hopes changes come before it's too late.

"The trend has been to the left for so long," he said. "I hope it's not too long. I hope it swings back."