Missouri Attorney General Jay Nixon told fellow Democrats at Saturday night’s St. Louis County Thomas Jefferson Dinner that his campaign was all about restoring what Missourians used to count on.

He cited the cuts in the state Medicaid program that reduced or eliminated coverage for 300,000 people, the benefit cuts and interest rate hikes in the state’s college-loan program (Missouri Higher Education Loan Authority) and the good-paying jobs lost to outsourcing or overseas countries.

He hammered at the MOHELA changes, which Nixon said has helped transform — for the worse — the picture for Missouri college graduates. “Now, the graduation gift we give is debt, debt, debt,” Nixon said.

“It’s really pretty simple. Missouri is at a crossroads,” Nixon said in his address to about 100 people attending the dinner at the Airport Hilton. “Matt Blunt has taken us backwards.”

Both of his two Republican rivals, he continued, “have made it clear that the people get four more years of Matt Blunt’s policies” if they’re elected.

Nixon didn’t mention by name either Republican –U.S. Rep. Kenny Hulshof and state Treasurer Sarah Steelman.

He added, “For the first time in a long time, the choices are stunningly clear.”

 Nixon contended that his Republican opponents’ worst failing — and he was referring to the Blunt administration as well as Hulshof and Steelman — is that “they do not understand the fundamental difference between politics and public service.”