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Nine in the 9th

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Govt Track

This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon: July 13, 2008 - The 9th Congressional District stretches across Missouri like a hand-stitched quilt. Some patches are rural, some urban, some red, some blue.

The district encompasses the progressive city of Columbia and parts of conservative St. Charles County. It borders the rural southwest corner of Iowa and western border of Illinois.

It leans Republican, with 59 percent of votes going for President George Bush in 2004, according to Congressional Quarterly. And since 1996, U.S. Rep. Kenny Hulshof has kept the district in Republican hands.

But the primary on Aug. 5 could change all that.

“Yes, it leans Republican,” says David Valentine, research associate professor with the Institute of Public Policy at the University of Missouri-Columbia. “And as long as Hulshof was running, there’s no question that he would continue to win.”

But Hulshof’s not running, at least not for his seat in the 9th. In February, Hulshof announced he’d run for governor, hoping to replace Gov. Matt Blunt, who’s not seeking re-election.

And so a flock of candidates have emerged. Some are liberal, some conservative. There are farmers, veteran politicians, a doctor and even a former MU football star. But all insist again and again that they're made of the same fabric as the district they want to represent in Congress. 

And this year, thanks to the national political mood, among other things, the seat in the 9th district could go either way.

“This looks like a year when Democrats could get elected,” Valentine says. Marvin Overby, a professor of political science at MU, agrees, but he’s not crediting the Democrats’ political savvy.

“This is a generically good year for Democrats …”

And it’s a generically bad year for Republicans.

Overby thinks Democrats will benefit from presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama’s aggressive push for votes in Missouri, as well as the unpopularity of the Bush administration.

Terry Jones, a political science professor at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, agrees. The district doesn’t have hardcore GOP voters, he says, but rather independents who usually go with the Republicans.

Usually.

Overby calls the district inorganic, thanks to how districts were drawn in the 1960s and tweaks to the maps ever since.

Essentially, he says, there’s no sense of community or common interest. Because of that, Overby thinks once a candidate is elected, he or she is pretty safe because name recognition goes far.

Voters tend to vote less on issues, he says. And for their parts, representatives then serve the district in nonpartisan fashion, taking care of the university, the highways and rivers in the district.

But Dave Robertson, a political science professor at UMSL, does think some issues matter to everyone.

“I think the economy has cast a pall on all Americans,” he says, and prices matter both to people in rural areas due to agriculture and to suburbanites.

Over the next few days, the Beacon will offer a look at each candidate and one thing each has emphasized in the campaign. Given the long list of issues -- war, taxes, abortion, illegal immigration, border security, health care, education and the economy-- we've tried to focus on one thing that helps define each candidate and offers insight into his or her political perspectives. For candidates’ positions on the rest of the issues, we've included links to their Web sites.

Kristen Hare is a freelance journalist. To reach her, contact Beacon features and commentary editor Donna Korando.