The Hill is reporting tonight that it is looking more and more like Sarah Steelman may decide to forego a challenge to MO Rep. Roy Blunt in the primary for Kit Bond’s Senate seat.  Instead she may try to run for Blunt’s current 7th District House seat in Missouri.

Former state Treasurer Sarah Steelman appears increasingly less likely to run against Blunt, and she acknowledged Monday that she is looking at a possible campaign for Blunt’s open House seat as an alternative.

Steelman said shortly after Sen. Kit Bond’s (R-Mo.) retirement announcement in January that she was leaning toward entering the Senate race, and for a while, it was a foregone conclusion.

But after unleashing a string of Blunt criticisms and opening an exploratory committee in April, she has grown quieter and begun evaluating other options.

She was still largely quiet last week when potential Blunt challenger Tom Schweich and the man who had been promoting him, former Sen. John Danforth (R-Mo.), both changed course and announced their support for Blunt.

Though rarely afraid of ruffling feathers in the GOP establishment — including in a pitched gubernatorial primary with former Rep. Kenny Hulshof (R-Mo.) in 2008 — Steelman told The Hill on Monday that she is worried about hurting the GOP.

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Several sources are reporting today that a new name has emerged on the Republican side of the quest to replace Christopher “Kit” Bond in the U.S. Senate.  Thomas Schweich, a law school professor at St. Louis’s Washington University and an attorney with Bryan Cave, is apparently being recruited by former MO Senator John C. Danforth, former Hungary ambassador and Bush cousin Bert Walker, and former Belgium ambassador Sam Fox.

My immediate reaction to this news was “if he’s coming from Danforth, I gotta be concerned.”  While Danforth served as a Republican, he has made it a habit in recent years of stabbing Christian conservatives with pointy sticks, despite his credentials as an Episcopalian priest.  Danforth was at the head of the wave of GOP “moderates” blaming social conservatives for the ills of the GOP.  Sound familiar?  And now he’s promoting a candidate for Senate.  Tell me I shouldn’t be suspicious.

But there’s another, more significant reason to be concerned about Schweich.

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Sarah Steelman is one of two contenders for the Republican nomination to face Democrat Robin Carnahan in Missouri’s open Senate seat next year. (Roy Blunt is the other.) To the surprise of absolutely no one, Jimmy Hoffa was in Missouri today to endorse the Democrat Carnahan:

Robin Carnahan appeared with Teamsters president Jim Hoffa in KC this afternoon after picking up the union’s endorsement for the Senate seat being vacated by Kit Bond.

Does this seem like a complete non-story? It would be, except for one thing. Sarah Steelman used to be a supporter of the labor movement. In her 2002 Senate race, she was endorsed by the UAW, the SEIU, and other unions. She received multiple donations from union leaders. And prior to that - in March, 2000 - she appeared at an event with Jimmy Hoffa and then-Governor Mel Carnahan (Jean Carnahan’s father). By the time of this rally, Carnahan had long since declared his campaign against incumbent John Ashcroft, so Steelman was appearing with Jimmy Hoffa and the Democrat Senate candidate. From Westlaw:

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A couple of items on the forthcoming US Senate race in MO for retiring Senator Kit Bond’s seat

• Sarah Steelman filed her 1Q2009 disclosure report for the Missouri Ethics Commission this week.  There’s a big glaring number in there:  a $770,000 debt from the 2008 gubernatorial race.  That is one whopping big hole to start with if/when she decides whether or not to run.  But even with that debt, she apparently thought it appropriate to spend over $100,000 on consulting and polling.

• A recent poll showed a very close race more than 18 months before the election.  From the KY3 TV report:

(Pollster Chris) Wilson said the poll was taken as a feasibility study for a potential Steelman U.S. Senate candidacy. But Steelman did not pay for the poll. Wilson said because of his company’s confidentiality clause, he could only say that a third party unaffiliated with Steelman paid for the data.

The Blunt campaign’s response to the poll was short but pointed: “Push polling is a nasty tactic and these tactics do not merit a response from the campaign,” said Blunt spokesman Rich Chrismer.

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Well I’m really flattered. I was headed out of a meeting on the Hill and an unknown number showed up on my cell phone. I usually don’t answer unknown numbers, but I did. I’m glad I did.

The other day I wrote that people in Missouri, including people who had given Steelman large sums for her governor’s race, were calling to tell me she is a jerk.

I verified the people so I know they are who they say they are. I don’t know why they felt the need to call. They know, I’m sure, that I really like Roy Blunt, but they also know, I’m sure, that Roy Blunt and I do not see eye to eye on a lot of fiscal issues. He’s great on life issues and social issues, but he’s not really a fiscal conservative. And I have real issues with that.

So it’s no surprise, I guess, that people would be calling to push me toward Blunt and away from Sarah Steelman, with whom I share many, many common positions.

Anyway, Sarah Steelman was on the phone.

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To virtually no one’s surprise, today MO Congressman Roy Blunt (MO-7) officially enters the race for Christopher “Kit” Bond’s U.S. Senate seat..  Blunt will be the first GOP candidate to officially enter the race.  On Feb. 2nd, MO Secretary of State Robin Carnahan announced that she would seek the Democratic nomination for the seat, and as of right now it appears that she may not have a challenger, although rumors are still floating around that U. S. Rep. Lacy Clay (MO-1) may have a go at it.

Blunt will make his announcement at Harris-Stowe State University in St. Louis at 9:30 CST.  A source in the GOP revealed to Redstate on Wednesday night that Blunt would be making appearances in eastern Missouri on Thursday, spend time in Springfield Thursday night, and travel through western Missouri on Friday, with a speaking appearance at Lincoln Days in Kansas City on Friday evening.  And who will be introducing Rep. Blunt on Friday evening?  None other than Senator Kit Bond. It is not known right now if Sen. Bond will be officially endorsing Rep. Blunt in his run for the Senate, but this appearance could be a good sign.

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On January 8th, GOP Senator Christopher “Kit” Bond of Missouri announced that he would not seek re-election. Bond has a long, distinguished career in Missouri and national politics and has held his current Senate seat since 1986. He’s a fairly dependable conservative vote, with an 82.5% lifetime rating from the American Conservative Union. He disappoints hard-core conservatives on occasion, as with his recent support for the automaker bailout, but he is, in general, a dependable vote for the GOP (for example, today’s opposition to protectionism in the Obama economic destruction recovery legislation). Considering the current battle for the GOP to hold fillibuster rights, Bond’s seat is critical, and will be one of THE key matchups in 2010.

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