When politicians draw quality opponents, they have to respond with quality campaigns or they lose.
Well, Missouri 6th District Congressman Sam Graves drew a quality opponent in former Kansas City Mayor Kay Barnes and he responded by running the campaign of his life.
The latest KCTV5/SurveyUSA poll confirms that fact. It shows Graves sporting an 18 point lead over Barnes. Barnes at one point reduced Graves’ lead to 4 points. It’s been all downhill for her since then.
Graves was deemed by some national pundits to be one of the most vulnerable Republican incumbents in the country. What happened?
You can’t blame Barnes’ campaign. She had a solid plan and she raised a lot of money to implement it. She also had a solid record as mayor to sell to voters.
But the political geography of the district was tough for her. She lives in the Northland of Kansas City, not a very good base in a rural district that stretches over 26 counties.
Barnes also suffered political damage in the 2007 Kansas City mayoral contest. Mark Funkhouser’s attacks on her administration’s spending practices set the stage for Graves to blast her as a liberal big city mayor.
Many people assumed that Graves would run a scorched-earth, values-based campaign. When he ran an early commercial attacking Barnes’s “San Francisco values,” a lot of folks just nodded and thought, “Yep, here it comes.”
But Graves shifted when Barnes started to make headway. He started to run a more traditional Republican campaign that focused on the increase in spending and debt in Kansas City during her administration.
Voters in the Kansas City area had heard the liberal Funkhouser raise those issues. It hardly seemed rude, then, when the conservative Graves followed suit.
Graves also ran a commercial featuring his daughter, Emily, that helped soften the rough-edged image he had acquired in previous campaigns.
Barnes’ campaign seemed to fade a little.
It’s crucial to Barnes’ hopes that she run well in towns in Kansas City’s orbit. Look to the numbers in places such as Smithville, Excelsior Springs, Kearney, and the small part of eastern Jackson County in the district. If she doesn’t run well in those areas, it’s light’s out for her campaign.
But let’s not get into the blame game if Barnes loses. She’s a woman of substantial achievement and she ran a good campaign.
Let’s instead credit Graves. He showed that he’s got a political A-game. He brought it to this fight.
Saturday, November 1, 4:15 p.m.
obviously she didn’t have what it took: be that her campaign manager or herself. perhaps she should try to get a job as walmart employee doorgreeter:scary