As Missouri's Senate race tightens, some Republicans hope dark-horse Chuck Purgason can win

  Chuck Purgason.  (Missouri General Assembly).

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With Missouri’s Senate race between Missouri Secretary of State Robin Carnahan and U.S. Representative Roy Blunt heating up, three percent of Missourians say they will vote for a different candidate come Election Day.

State Senator Chuck Purgason (R-Caulfield, MO) represents Missouri’s 33rd senate district, an area that sprawls through the Ozarks and along the Arkansas border. Despite his lack of name recognition, Purgason is challenging Blunt for the Republican nomination.

At a meeting held in St. Joseph, Missouri on Thursday night, Purgason told a gathering of about fifty conservative members of the Northwest Missouri Republican Club that their party received a “spanking” in the 2006 mid-term elections.

Despite having comfortable majorities in both houses of Congress in 2001, and control of the White House, the party turned a thirty billion dollar deficit into a $566 billion deficit by 2006. That’s when the Democrats made significant gains in both houses of Congress, followed by the historic election of Barack Obama in 2008.

Republicans, says Purgason, were defeated “because we didn’t follow through on the principles of our party.”

“We got caught up in spending for everything. We forgot where we came from,” said Purgason, alluding to the fiscal conservative roots of his party. Something that Purgason did not mention, was that Blunt was a member of the Republican majority in the House of Representatives when the deficit began its ascent.

Now, the deficit is higher than ever. Many Missourians are unsatisfied with the healthcare bill, and many Republicans claim it will only increase the deficit.

Some of the Republicans in attendance, including Missouri Representative Jim Guest (R-King City, MO), are hoping that Purgason can capitalize on Scott Brown’s (R-MA) historic victory in his recent race for the United States Senate: “Maybe he’ll be the Scott Brown of Missouri.”

Scott Brown was able to defeat opponent Martha Coakley (D-MA) because citizens across the country are growing unsatisfied with the Democrat’s handling of healthcare reform. This is also the case in Missouri, according to a Rasmussen poll released Thursday.

A Harvard poll released after Tuesday’s election also shows that voters are angry with the Democrat’s agenda, which could help Republicans across the country pick up congressional seats in November.

Like Brown, Purgason is a dark-horse candidate. Despite his “Contract with Missouri,” wherein he promises to promote a balanced budget, and a self-imposed term limit, Purgason is facing an uphill battle.

Blunt and Carnahan have the odds in their favor. And with the recent ruling by the Supreme Court, Purgason’s voice, like so many alternative candidates, is likely to be drowned out by an influx of corporate campaign spending.