ST. CHARLES COUNTY • Cynthia Davis, the outspoken Missouri House member whose criticism of summer meal programs for poor kids drew national attention last year, has a new verbal target these days — state Sen. Scott Rupp, a fellow Republican she's challenging in the Aug. 3 primary.

Davis contends that Rupp and other GOP senators sometimes stray from party principles, most recently Rupp's vote last week for tax incentives to keep a Ford plant in suburban Kansas City. Voters want "a true conservative" and "are fed up with the pandering cardboard politicians," said Davis, who opposed the bill.

Rupp says he and Davis usually vote the same way but that he's been more effective at passing significant legislation.

"You have to be able to build relationships with your colleagues," Rupp said. "You have to win over minds that might be against you."

As examples, Rupp cites his sponsorship of the Legislature's 2008 crackdown on illegal immigration and this year's measure barring abortion coverage by insurance exchanges to be set up under the new federal health care law.

Rupp disputes Davis' labeling of the Ford bill as a Washington-style bailout. He says the measure also would benefit various supply firms and potentially could aid General Motors' Wentzville plant and its employees and suppliers.

He also pointed out that the Legislature tied the measure to a change in pensions for future state employees, saving the state enough to pay for the incentives. Davis and Rupp both voted for the pension change.

The race between Rupp, of Wentzville, and Davis, of O'Fallon, is in the Republican-leaning 2nd District, which takes in western St. Charles County and all of Lincoln County. Don Crozier of O'Fallon is unopposed in the Democratic primary.

Rupp, 36, a bank vice president, has been a senator since 2006 and was in the House for three years. Davis, 50, who owns a Christian bookstore, has been a House member since 2003 but term limits prevent her from running again. Previously she was an O'Fallon alderman.

Rupp has a big campaign money edge, raising $331,000 to Davis' $83,000 through June 30, according to the most recent finance reports. Tom Kuypers, the St. Charles County Republican chairman who is neutral in the race, says that could be partly offset by Davis' "very loyal, hard-core group of supporters" in a midsummer primary in which voter turnout typically is low.

She also hopes her endorsement over Rupp by Missouri Right to Life, the state's longstanding anti-abortion lobby group, will be a plus. She says her biggest Jefferson City achievement was passage in 2007 of a provision prohibiting abortion providers from teaching sex education courses in public schools.

Rupp and Davis both were endorsed by another anti-abortion group, Missourians United for Life.

Last year Davis was scolded by liberal television commentator Keith Olbermann and others when she said "hunger can be a positive motivator" in opposing taxpayer-funded food programs for poor children. She contended that critics took her comments out of context.

In another flap, Davis was criticized by children's advocates when she, as chairwoman of a House committee on children and families, refused this year to hear a bill to give regulators power to close unlicensed day-care providers accused of criminal child abuse.

The proposal was called "Sam Pratt's Law," in honor of an infant who died at such a facility. Davis told the family that the measure appeared to be drafted to soothe their grief. Rupp said making such a statement hinders a lawmaker's overall ability to get things accomplished.

"There are other ways to articulate your viewpoint without embarrassing the constituency," said Rupp, who supported the day-care regulation measure.

Davis says she opposed the bill because it involves making government bigger. As for her way of expressing herself, "If I call a spade a spade, there are some people who love it and some people who don't like it."

Among other campaign flash points:

• Rupp sponsored a bill passed this year requiring health insurance companies to cover therapy for children with autism, saying denying such coverage is discriminatory and wrong. Davis says government mandates drive up the cost of insurance and preferred to enact tax credits to help such families.

• Davis criticized Rupp for urging a federal judge to be lenient in sentencing former state Sen. Jeff Smith, a St. Louis Democrat, who pleaded guilty of lying to investigators to conceal his involvement in an anonymous political attack.

"We're different on our get-out-of-jail free card," Davis said Friday at a joint appearance with Rupp before the St. Charles County Pachyderm Club.

Rupp said in an interview that requiring Smith to do community service by teaching inner-city youths would have been a better use of tax money than jailing him.

• Rupp criticized Davis for her use of campaign money in 2004 to pay property taxes on a home in Jefferson City owned by Davis and her husband. Davis paid a $1,000 fine to settle a state Ethics Commission finding that there was probable cause to determine she violated campaign finance laws in the incident. She says she had believed the expense was allowed.

• Davis complained that Rupp in 2008 sponsored an unsuccessful bill aimed at removing the $500 loss limit for Missouri casinos; she says gambling hurts families.

Rupp says he didn't support casinos when they were first legalized but that they now are a major employer. His bill would have directed extra tax revenue to early childhood programs, a feature that wasn't in the loss limit removal measure approved later in a statewide election.