admin @ Wed, 2006-09-27 08:00
Rep. Roy Blunt does not mention his Democratic opponent in television ads he has been running since handily winning the Republican primary last month. Analysts say that means he is not worried about an underdog challenge to his sixth run for Missouri's 7th District congressional seat.
Blunt, the House majority whip, faces a little-known independent filmmaker with a famous last name but little else going for him in terms of a campaign.
Jack Truman, 41, hails from President Harry Truman's hometown of Lamar just outside the 7th District and claims to be a distant relative. He changed his name legally from John Kerney about 10 years ago, he says.
"All my life, my mother has told me I am distantly related to Harry. I am just telling what my mother has always told me. That's all I know," Truman said in an e-mail to the Associated Press.
Truman, who calls himself "a very liberal Democrat," is running for the second time for the 7th District seat after losing the Democratic primary in 2002. This year he won the primary with 45.9 percent of the vote, but since then has not advertised and has raised only about $200 in donations, he said.
Truman's main activity is producing independent films. His short film "Phone Sex Grandma" was described by the Slamdance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, where it ran in January, as "A 60-something Grandma working a phone sex line in a small Southern ghost town."
That grandmother is played by Truman's mother, Opal Dockery, who also is the author of a memoir called "Thoughts of a Stripper: A Mother's Story" about the life of a single mother raising children while working on the burlesque circuit in the 1970s.
Truman's MySpace entry says he is working on a full-length feature film version of "Phone Sex Grandma." He also is seeking producers for a script he wrote called "Son of A Stripper," he told The Associated Press.
On Truman's campaign Web site, he says he opposes the war in Iraq and wants to bring U.S. troops home. He backs abortion rights and the right to bear arms, and says he "believes in a health care system for every American."
"We need a Democratic majority to help bring back the changes needed to help change and protect America. These last four years, we have drifted away from the things that are important to Americans," Truman says on his Web site.
Blunt appears to be ignoring Truman and the Libertarian candidate, Kevin Craig, after taking the socially conservative district with 70 percent of the vote two years ago.
"A Democratic candidate who is not advertising, who's not fundraising, whose only claim to fame is his last name - this is not worth spending money on ads attacking your opponent," said Missouri State University political scientist George Connor.
"I think you will hear throughout the campaign U.S. Rep. Blunt talking about his record of accomplishments for the 7th District on everything from ensuring tax relief for families to what he believes is the first priority of the federal government, which is protecting the homeland," said Burson Snyder, Blunt's communications director.
As the majority whip, Blunt's job is know how GOP members will vote before they vote - and if they aren't voting his way, to convince them to change their mind.
While he never lost a vote during his first three years as whip, he couldn't muster enough votes in January 2006, when his own race to become House majority leader was in question.
Despite Blunt's repeated predictions that he had more than enough votes locked up to win the race, rival John Boehner of Ohio emerged the victor, 122-109, on the second round of voting among House Republicans. Blunt kept his job, his party's No. 3 post.
It was a blow to Blunt, who had been acting as both majority leader and majority whip for the four months after Tom DeLay was forced to quit the top post amid his Texas allegations of laundering campaign money.
He grew up on a farm and became a high school history teacher, but politics was a family business. Blunt's father was a state legislator, his grandfather was a county official and his son, Matt Blunt, is governor.
The American Conservative Union gave his 2005 legislative record a 96 out of 100 points. The liberal Americans for Democratic Action gave him a rating of zero.
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