NEWS RELEASE

For Immediate Release: For more information contact:
September 15, 2008 David Harper at (417) 449 0090

Richard Monroe quietly (41%)
closes gap on Blunt (47%)

Approaching 7 weeks left in the campaign for the 7th Congressional District in Missouri, it has turned into a horserace. By this time, it is normally a foregone conclusion that the Republican Blunt would win again with a 70% margin. With Congressional approval near single digits, southwest Missourians agree with the rest of the country that there needs to be a change in Washington, especially with Congress. Richard Monroe stands for the same change that Sarah Steelman had stood for. Steelman bucked the Republican system with her reformer ideals, her standing against Blunt and the machine cost her, their money and the party votes. Many of Steelman’s voters were so outraged by Blunt’s bullying of the party that they are crossing over to support Democrat Richard Monroe.

The Richard Monroe campaign has stated all along that this would be a grassroots campaign, fueled by the enthusiasm of the voters not by money. Monroe’s ground game has been able to reduce Blunt’s support to only 47% and Richard Monroe has reached 41%. Campaign worker Shelly Peavler said, “We have accomplished this without a lot of fanfare and just hard work, knocking on doors phone calling, and a lot of emails”, she went on to say, “our email campaign has been probably the most intense of any of the other campaigns that I have seen”.
When asked how will, you close the other 6%, Monroe says that they will keep up the hard work and maybe throw in some more radio and television ads. Monroe stated that when he started he heard about the 70% for Blunt, but I’ve been out on the doors and at fairs since March but I can’t find his 70%. I have seen a majority saying that they are ready for a change. I stand for the change that the folks in Southwest Missouri want.

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