Missouri Congressman Roy Blunt, the frontrunner for the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate seat currently held by the retiring Kit Bond, is having a lousy couple of weeks.
First came the first-quarter FEC filing deadline, when Blunt was forced to announce to a stunned nation that he'd raised the grand total of $542,000 for his Senate bid...about half the take of Democrat Robin Carnahan.
Now, it seems, the natives are getting restless, and Royboy is not instilling confidence:
"I like Roy Blunt, but the Republican Party keeps going back to the same old names, and we’ve lost a lot of races doing that," said Lincoln County GOP Chairwoman Carol Wessel. "You got to have that money to run, and I just think people are just being cautious right now with their money."
"Roy Blunt has been a very big part of the mess we’re in. His new wife is a lobbyist. His children are lobbyists. We need a fresh face up there," said Norm Harty, a longtime Republican activist and donor from southeast Missouri. "He’s going to have blood dripping from him; he’s going to be so beaten up."
Blunt's ties to lobbyists are certainly some concern, but he's also taking heat for being part of the failed GOP establishment in Washington, a criticism which helped sink the candidacy of Rep. Kenny Hulshof for Governor in 2008.
It also seems that for a guy who isn't bringing in much money, Blunt's burn rate is especially bad, and a serious concern:
Behind the scenes, the Blunt campaign has recently undergone a shake-up, with several longtime allies pushed out in favor of a leaner infrastructure. One source with deep ties to Missouri Republicans said that Blunt and his closest advisers must have realized that they were putting together "a totally unwieldy campaign apparatus, a 10-headed monster."
"It was way too big and bloated and would lead to a high burn rate," said the source, referring to the cost it takes to pay all the staffers this early in the cycle.
It's certainly better to have a campaign shake-up sooner rather than later, but still, this can't be very inspiring for the Missouri GOP, especially given that they already face a tremendous challenge beating Carnahan in Missouri.