KINDER'S COMMENTARY: USING 'GUN EXTREMIST' LABEL NETS DEMOCRATS AN ELECTION LOSS

The Aug. 3 special election for an open seat in the Missouri House of Representatives, up in suburban Kansas City's Platte County, was an instructive episode. While 104 of Missouri's counties were passing last April's right-to-carry referendum -- some by margins up to 5-1 -- Platte County was one of the 10 mostly urban and suburban counties that rejected it by margins sufficient to cause its narrow defeat. Deep inside their own echo chamber, Democrats convinced themselves that focusing on conceal-carry as a species of pro-gun extremism was their ticket to victory in this previously Republican House seat, vacated by the election of longtime state Rep. Bonnie Sue Cooper to the Kansas City Council. Merely label the Republican nominee an "extremist" with guns as the symbolic issue, Democratic strategists said, and victory was assured.

Republicans nominated wife, mother and small businesswoman Susan Phillips. Democrats chose Riverside city administrator Ann Daniels, a person of wide experience in local government. Democrats seized on the fact that Phillips and her family had been members of the Western Missouri Shooters Alliance, a pro-gun, pro-conceal-carry group devoted to the safe use of firearms. Like most members of the shooters alliance, GOPer Phillips had backed conceal-carry.

Democrats were convinced they had all they needed. Running in a county that had rejected conceal-carry barely 100 days earlier, Democrats shoved their entire stack of chips into the middle of the table on the gun issue. With each side spending around $100,000 to win a swing seat in the closely divided House, Democratic strategists running the Daniels campaign dumped an astonishing nine pieces of mail to all registered voter households focusing on the gun issue and labeling Republican Phillips a pro-gun extremist.

Phillips mostly refused to respond to the shrill attacks but neither flinched nor backed down from her support for the rights of law-abiding gun owners. The election-day result: Republican Phillips cruised to an easy win with 56 percent of the vote and will take her seat in time to vote with the House majority that will vote to overturn Gov. Carnahan's veto of the partial-birth abortion bill next month.

For Democratic strategists such as state party executive director Roy Temple and Carnahan chief of staff Chris Sifford, both Puxico natives, it's back to the drawing board. But don't expect them to give up their patented "extremist" rap against U.S. Sen. John Ashcroft and U.S. Rep. Jim Talent, the GOP candidate for governor.

This episode is another confirmation of what Texas Gov. George W. Bush said to a few of us privately on his visit week before last: "If the other side thinks the way to win is to signal that they're coming for your guns, they're going to find out differently."

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Speaking of Talent, this week he offered a proposal for sticking with the 15-year highway plan trashed by Carnahan and state treasurer Bob Holden, the likely Democratic nominee for governor. Noting that a promise made should be a promise kept, and pledging to get the 15-year plan "out of the ditch," Talent said that Missourians don't look to anyone for a free lunch, rather we expect to pay for our lunch. "But we don't want to pay for our lunch twice," Talent quipped.

Assuming this bonding plan stands up to financial scrutiny, it will go a long way toward helping the St. Louis County congressman win the outstate votes he must have to become governor.

~Peter Kinder is assistant to the president of Rust Communications and a state senator from Cape Girardeau.