Ike Skelton Loses, Vicky Hartzler Wins Missouri House Seat

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Democratic U.S. Rep. Ike Skelton is out after more than 30 years in Congress, losing his Missouri seat to Republican challenger Vicky Hartzler.

The 78-year-old Skelton first won election to Congress in 1976, rising to chairman of the House Armed Services Committee. He's built a reputation as a military expert and social conservative in a district that normally tilts toward Republicans.

But Hartzler linked Skelton to President Barack Obama and Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. She said he had lost touch with his district by voting with Democratic congressional leaders 95 percent of the time.

Hartzler is a 50-year-old former home economics teacher and state lawmaker who drew support from tea party activists. She served as spokeswoman for a group backing a 2004 ballot measure that banned gay marriage in Missouri.

Comments

[anniebwanny]

07:59 PM on 11/03/2010

BOO Hoo!!

[jsrl317]

12:54 PM on 11/03/2010

O.k. time to eat crow. The Corporate backed Tea Party rocked the house last night. I despise these cave people, but it is true, they won. Out of nowhere a new faction arrived to be very disruptive to the GOP and the Congress, good show.

Democrats need to take heed. Heat rules this country, not exactly light. Elections are about passions as much as policy, and when your opponent goes hard right, you should go hard left. Lessons that the Democrats will take decades to learn. It's time to reform the Democratic party from within. We should call ourselves what we are Progressive Democrats. Stop running away from liberal and stand and fight with simple themes and memes.

[Ioan Lightoller]

08:27 PM on 12/06/2010

F&F. The Democrats are trying too hard to play by the Republican's rules. Let's have "A Choice, Not an Echo".

[montn2]

10:41 AM on 11/03/2010

MO is a conflicted state -- lived there for 6 years. They are not sure if they are southern or northern. Even the locals will admit to that. Too bad they moved in the tee bagger direction.

[FearlessLiberal]

06:54 AM on 11/03/2010

Missouri lost a great Congressman. Ike held the seat for 30 years for a reason. The tea party is a big threat even if some of the fringe, far-right tea-baggers ( Angle, O'Donnell) didn't win this time around.
It shows that they can push out career Dems with their far right slanderous propagangda, then we have something to worry about if the tea party gains momentum, Democrats could lose the Senate in the next election.
I still like Ike!

[montn2]

10:43 AM on 11/03/2010

The tee baggers will not gain momentum on their own -- they will get stronger only because of Rove and the like people funding them. Sadly, today we are no longer a democracy. We are a corporatocracy.

[mamacat]

05:05 AM on 11/03/2010

This seat went to a TPer, but if the Republican Party had stuck with moderates instead of fringe candidates, they would have won both houses of Congress instead of just the House of Representatives.

The majority of Americans are turned off by radicals like Angle and O'Donnell, no matter how much the Tea Party and Fox "News" try to spin things to seem otherwise.

[jsrl317]

12:57 PM on 11/03/2010

Then why did the baggers do so well. Your premise is false, they tapped into something and won more than lost. This movement is going to change the GOP. The only question for Democrats is what will change the capitulating compromising middle-right Democrats?

Sorry to see Pelosi go, but she played too soft and could not whip the Democrats, especially the middling moderates, to step in line. Time for party discipline and it needs to take a left turn.

[Temp24897624986]

04:53 AM on 11/03/2010

Possible Recount in MN Again:

http://howwillamericavote.com/articles.aspx?ID=372

[John51]

04:47 AM on 11/03/2010

It appears that a substancial number of DINOs bit the dust after voting, "No." on the HC Bill. Some of the seats went to Republicans; truth be told, I would rather have my opponent wear the uniform of their politics, than to be back-stabbed by a DINO during the heat of battle, wearing Dem Blue.

[howdydostu]

03:04 AM on 11/03/2010

The lines are drawn!
Progressives like myself sincerly believe that old time reps like Skelton and Blanch Lincoln in the senate, had to go to.
The tea party folks , for all their angst, delivered their message. The democrats have an oppertunity to UNITE in principle, to stand tall for our core beliefs and NOT let these DINOS stall and stand in the way of progress.
The tea partiers will splinter like mad as they can't deliver their radical agenda. This is a great chance, people. America didn't move to the right...THEY STAYED HOME!!
I, for one , am glad he's gone...and the other blue dogs like him!!
Stuart & Robert Wyman-Cahall
Las Vegas, NV 89142

[John51]

04:58 AM on 11/03/2010

Blanch Lincoln, #1 to go, Poetic justice at work........

I agree, maybe this will put the Republicans on a level field with the Dems now that they have opposing members on their team as well. We have our Blue Dogs (DINOs) and Dems; now the Republicans have Baggers and Rethugs.

As food for thought, we may come out on top here as we have been dealing with the Dogs for about 15 years now and this may be new to the Republicans. We are also a few Dogs shy after this evening.

[jsrl317]

12:58 PM on 11/03/2010

Love you boys, F&F!

[Chloe33]

03:02 AM on 11/03/2010

Missouri didn't like Ike....

[ragtag]

04:36 PM on 11/03/2010

Yeah, but did they "like Schweich" ?

primebuzz.kcstar.com/entries/if-you-schweich-youll-love-ad/

[AnimalLover6]

02:55 AM on 11/03/2010

A Home Ec teacher who wants to ban gay marriage?

Southerners just love ignorance and hate, don't they?

[The Upper East Side]

03:46 AM on 11/03/2010

inbreeding has a way of making you think crazy things...

[ragtag]

04:37 PM on 11/03/2010

Go rent the movie "Winter's Bone"

There's a lot of reality in it...scary as it is.

[Fretchen]

04:47 AM on 11/03/2010

I am sure that comments like that will help win southern votes in 2012.

[JessCostello]

02:54 AM on 11/03/2010

30 years is way too damn long. Maybe Hartzler will expose herself as incompetent and in 2012 the Dems will have someone to beat her.

[Otherday]

02:53 AM on 11/03/2010

Follow the money. Those who pay the piper call the tune.

[Geffel]

02:53 AM on 11/03/2010

Nice to know hate and bigotry won over human decency, hard work and devotion. Nice work, Missouri.

Voting against your own self interests seems to be the theme of this mid-term election.

Fixing a broken country isn't like ordering booze from the local drive-through liquor mart. It's easy to break something. There was an out of control frat party in the white house for eight years. Clearing up after that will take a decade, not a few months.

But the ADHD folk of Redneck, USA can't stand to wait.

Way to go. You've given the keys to the kingdom to the corporations.

[KrugnacTheMagnificent]

03:13 AM on 11/03/2010

Thomas Jefferson once suggested that a great way to take over Native American lands would be to sell them all sorts of Western trinkets and goods on credit. After a few years of living the high life and running up a tab, the tribes would be forced to sell off their lands to the White Man to pay off the debts.

So, if you think that taking government handouts that we have to borrow from China is looking out for your own "self interests", I think you've got a very skewed, myopic view of what's good for us as individuals and as a group.

[Geffel]

11:38 AM on 11/03/2010

Sounds a leeeetle like the pot calling the kettle black. Bush senior & baby Bush set us down the path to Chinese debt, end of.

A return to the Bush years will see this country owned lock stock & barrel by China. You might as well move there as there'll be nothing left of the USA once your corporate masters move all their business to China.

No social security, no medicare, no healthcare but for the very wealthy, no welfare safety net, no public education, house prices falling even further & a new crash to make the current Bush-recession look like a holiday in shangri-la.Corporations will be deregulated to the point of anarchy. Oxygen will probably be privatised. Once these vermin are free to pollute at will (talibagers hate the EPA) the air will be unbreathable. If you think you're getting a tax break, forget it. All tax breaks are going to those who bought & paid for the talibagger bigots to bleat, screech and invent boogeymen to scare the hell out of the paranoid. Anything left over will go to the military.

You people have no clue what your self-interests are. You'll vote for anything with an 'R' next to it, rather than consider what's best for the country as a whole. Two years of Beck telling you Manchurian candidate lemmings what to think has brought this tragic election result about.

Obama needs to veto all rep1g legislation or we might as well start packing our bags.

[Impaler]

02:52 AM on 11/03/2010

Running at 78, Democrats new they were going to pay a price for ramming Obama Care down our throats you can blame Pelosi, and no one else.

[Ioan Lightoller]

03:26 PM on 11/03/2010

Why is it that baggers tend not to be able to spell? It's "knew", not "new".

[wadda]

02:34 AM on 11/03/2010

"But Hartzler linked Skelton to President Barack Obama and Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi"

He was 78 years old.

[prettyinpink]

02:42 AM on 11/03/2010

Living in a conservative district..

[freethinking moderate]

02:47 AM on 11/03/2010

Not a place full of deep thinkers.