Ed Martin in DC today

WASHINGTON — Nobody has sent Ed Martin to Washington yet, but here he was this afternoon declaring to a roomful of GOP funders and heavyweights how he plans to return as a new congressman from St. Louis.

Martin, who is campaigning to take on Rep. Russ Carnahan, a St. Louis Democrat, said he intends to key on older voters, disaffected Democrats and ethnic groups including Bosnians and Vietnamese in his drive to overcome Democrats’ structural advantage in the 3rd District.

“The district is full of senior citizens, one of the highest percentage of Social Security recipients in the country,” Martin said, adding his belief that many older voters feel uneasy about the doings in Congress on health-care.

Martin was speaking at the Capitol Hill Club, a Republican institution situated a pitching wedge from the House office buildings where Martin hopes to have quarters.

In the audience of several dozen were Missourians who Martin hopes will assist his quest, among them the totality of the state’s GOP congressional delegation: Reps. Roy Blunt, Todd Akin, Blaine Luetkemeyer, Jo Ann Emerson and Sam Graves.

Also on hand was former Missouri Gov. Matt Blunt, who Martin worked for as chief-of-staff and whose post-public life includes a job with a prominent Washington lobby firm, Cassidy and Associates.

A year after the GOP braced for its second straight electoral wipe-out, Republicans gathered today sounded on the verge of giddy about their prospects in the mid-term elections next year.

“There isn’t anything that is impossible in this election,” remarked Akin, adding his belief that Martin stands to prosper from the populist tone of his campaign.

Martin told the gathering that he has talked with autoworkers who have trouble understanding what has happened to their jobs and to growing ethnic populations in what he referred to as a transitional district.

Besides seniors and unhappy Democrats, Martin said he will appeal to “some of the neighborhoods and ethnic communities who may not have had attention to the issues they’re concerned about.”

In two days in DC, Martin also made the rounds of the GOP political war rooms that will be distributing the money he would need if he has hopes of unseating Carnahan, a three-term incumbent. He was heartened, he said, when the National Republican Congressional Committee this week added him and about 30 other aspiring House members to a category called On the Radar, which ranks behind a top-tier of Republican candidates referred to by the committee as Contenders.

Today’s meet-and-greet didn’t include money but Martin wasn’t shy about noting his needs.

“Cash is king,” he said to the gathering.

He added later: “This trip wasn’t about ‘the ask’, if you know what I mean. It was laying the groundwork and visiting with people. I’m not a DC sort of insider guy.”