Monday, June 15, 2009

The Hill Goes Bearish on Steelman for Senate


The D.C. based newspaper reports that Sarah Steelman appears increasingly less likely to run against Roy Blunt for U.S. Senate next year.

Aaron Blake of The Hill writes: "Steelman insisted she is still thinking about the Senate race. But in defending the tone of the gubernatorial primary last year, she also suggested it might be time for someone else to take up the mantle against Blunt."

"Republicans close to Steelman and the state GOP say her choice of words is telling. Her other options include running for state auditor next year or for governor in 2012, but they say it’s now more likely that she will run in the 7th congressional district.

ALSO: GOP consultant David Barklage, who's advising Sen. Jack Goodman in the 7th Congressional District race said that Steelman's probably about "50-50" on a run for U.S. House.

"It became apparent she wasn’t going to run for Senate when the Club for Growth looked like they were going to sit out,” he said. “When you run for statewide office in Missouri, there are 200 people you call. She’s not called any of those people."

Another source tells The Hill that Tom Schweich's decision against a possible candidacy is probably impacting Steelman's thinking: "She was looking at it as: Two men against a woman, she’s got a better shot at winning the race," the consultant said. "Now it’s her against Blunt, and it’s a Hulshof thing all over again. She would be heavily outspent and she starts down very far in terms of name ID."

2 comments:

Charlie said...

It makes more sense for Sarah Steelman to run for the U.S. House than it does for the U.S. Senate. She would be far more likely to win a crowded primary in the 7th that a one on one match up with Roy Blunt. The Carnahan campaign is probably hoping Steelman jumps into the Senate race, though.

conservativeguy said...

Why is it that I'm not suprised at all by Steelman's indecisiveness as to what statewide/Congressional race she can run for and screw up for Republicans this time??? We wonder why the party is in as bad shape as it is when you have vindicative and over-ambitious people such as Sarah whose only answer to not being "annointed" by the establishment is to damage the Republican front-runner as much as she can only to watch them lose in November...WAY TO ADVANCE THOSE CONSERVATIVE PRINCIPLES YOU ESPOUSE SO MUCH SARAH BY ELECTING DEMOCRATS!!!