New ad in 9th CD race turns contest red hot
WASHINGTON—The conservative Club for Growth has launched a blistering ad criticizing former State Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer, one day after it endorsed his GOP rival, state Rep. Bob Odner, in the five-candidate Republican primary for the 9th Congressional District.
The Club for Growth has made a name for itself by pouring cash into competitive GOP primary campaigns, often to skewer Republicans it views as too moderate. Apparently they’ve got Luetkemeyer in their sights at the moment.
The new spot questions the St. Elizabeth politician’s record on taxes, saying he has opposed suspending the gas tax and voted to make it easier to raise property taxes, among other things. A Club for Growth spokeswoman, Nachama Soloveichik, said the ad buy would be $100,000 for broadcast TV in Columbia and cable TV throughout the district and run at least 10 days. Click here to see the ad. She also said the CFG would be “bundling” contributions from its supporters on Onder’s behalf.
Luetkemeyer’s spokesman, Paul Sloca, slammed the spot as “a politically-motivated distortion of Blaine Luetkemeyer’s record by Bob Onder, who hoodwinked the Club for Growth about Blaine’s credentials as the only true fiscal conservative in this race.”
Sloca said that on taxes, “Blaine supported giving local communities the right to vote to either pass or vote down a tax increase rather than have the Legislature impose them — that is not a tax increase as Onder claims.”
Sloca also took aim at Onder’s use of Rod Jetton as a political consultant “to help fast-track legislation for political purposes on the taxpayers’ dime.” He said 9th District voters would “embrace Blaine’s genuine fiscally conservative approach to government.”
Yow! The CFG’s noisy entry certainly raises the temperature on this already hot race to replace retiring Rep. Kenny Hulshof, R-Columbia, who is running for governor. In addition to the five GOP candidates running, there are four Dems and one Libertarian in the ring.
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Having not made up my mind who to vote for in the 9th district race, I at least now have one that I won’t vote for, that one person is Bob Onder. I don’t like this sort of political assassination from outside influences trying to tell our state how to run itself.
After reading this I have been checking Blaine Luetkemeyer’s record when he was a representative and as Director of Tourism. From this research it seems that he is very qualified and as such has my vote.
I hope I get to see Bob somewhere so I can tell him this in person.