MO: Blunt Announces Candidacy

As expected, Rep. Roy Blunt (R-MO)announced today that he will be running for Missouri's open Senate seat in 2010.

Blunt was until recently the House minority whip and is from one of Missouri's most prominent political families. He has the support of the GOP establishment in Missouri and Washington and will start out as the front-runner for the Republican nomination.

He faces the prospect of a tough primary challenge from former state Treasurer Sarah Steelman, who has long been critical of the Republican establishment and ran a reform-minded campaign for governor in 2008, losing in the primary. If she jumped in the race, things could easily turn ugly as she would paint herself as the "outsider" while depicting Blunt as the "ultra-partisan-Washington-loving-insider."

The primary will end in mid-August of 2010, so if it is bruising, as expected, the nominee will only have less than three months to recover in time for the general election.

Whoever comes out on top in the primary will likely face Missouri's Democratic Secretary of State Robin Carnahan--also a member of a prominent Missouri political family--in the general election, who announced her candidacy at the end of January. She is expected to face little competition in the Democratic primary.

Early head-to-head polls show that Blunt does better than Steelman when matched up against Carnahan, but that could be attributed to Blunt's superior name recognition.

We should know for sure whether Steelman will jump in the race this weekend, as she is expected to make an announcement at the annual Missouri Lincoln Day event in Kansas City this weekend. Stay tuned.

UPDATE: In an interview with Politico, Steelman said that she is "in the process of laying the groundwork that I need to get done before making an official announcement," and that she is "definitely strongly leaning towards doing this."