DEBATE: What will they do about gas prices?
It’s ironic that Sarah Steelman’s big gas-guzzling bus/RV was parked outside the KMOX studios, and yet the treasurer made mentioning gas prices a focus of her debate strategy.
Steelman mentioned high gas prices during the debate at least four times; and Kenny Hulshof, too, said this election would be settled over “pocketbook issues.”
So how do the two candidates differ on what to do over gas prices?
Steelman would get rid of the ethanol mandate. Hulshof embraces the mandate. The mandate, part of a law pushed by Gov. Matt Blunt and passed into law in 2007, requires gasoline in Missouri to contain 10 percent ethanol if the price is equal to or less than gasoline.
Steelman blames the mandate (which she used to support) for high food prices and says the market should decide. Hulshof said getting rid of the mandate would make the country more reliant on foreign oil and thus would increase gas prices.
The real challenge for both candidates is how they address pocketbook issues during a tough time in the Missouri economy.
Both embrace the economic policies of Blunt and claim that they are responsible for Missouri’s business environment. Yet they both also recognize the reality of the current difficult economic situation. Missouri unemployment is up; jobs are being lost; gas and food prices are high; people are losing their homes.
It’s a tough line for the Republicans to walk, and during the debate they tried to walk it by suggesting that more of Blunt’s policies will grow the economy. Might be a tough sell with voters.
One other note on gas prices: Steelman is continuing her call for an oil refinery to be based in Missouri. Whether the governor can have much effect on that happening is questionable; but it’s a position unique to her.
I think Steelman has effective rhetoric for a general election, but she’s going to lose to Hulshof in the primary because, for all their rhetoric, most rank-and-file Republicans actually like Washington insiders telling them what to think. That’s why the right wing blogosphere has been such a complete failure.