St. Louis tops KC as more bang for presidential buck

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- It is more than coincidence that President Bush has visited St. Louis twice as often as Kansas City since he took office, political watchers say.

"It's raw numerical politics," said Democratic pollster Fred Yang, who knows the state's political makeup from his polling for the late Gov. Mel Carnahan and his wife, former U.S. Sen. Jean Carnahan. "You go where the votes are in politics."

And campaign experts say the votes are in St. Louis and its swing-vote suburbs. Kansas City isn't as attractive because its western neighbor is heavily Republican Kansas.

That's why, they say, Bush has visited St. Louis six times since taking office, if an appearance last fall in nearby St. Charles is counted.

In comparison, Bush has visited Kansas City just three times since he was elected, one a stop in Independence.

A St. Louis trip is also a "two-fer," Yang said, because the city's news coverage seeps into Southern Illinois, whose rural Democrats are receptive to Republicans. Also, St. Louis' media market covers 40 percent of the Missouri vote.

St. Louis offers another attraction: money. Far more deep-pocket Republican donors live on the eastern side of the state.

St. Louis "is a bigger bang for the buck," said David Webber, a University of Missouri-Columbia political expert.