OSAGE BEACH, MO. — The patriotic bunting was waiting and the floors were scattered with star-shaped glitter when hundreds of Republicans filed into Elks Lodge No. 2517 here in the northern Ozarks.
They came this month to give a boost to U.S. Rep. Kenny Hulshof, who is locked in a tight race to succeed Missouri's outgoing Republican governor, Matt Blunt. The stakes were big -- and about to get bigger.
More than 500 miles away in Michigan, Republican presidential nominee John McCain's campaign was closing up its operations, in effect ceding the key state to Democratic rival Barack Obama.
The decision suggested that McCain was going to make his push in some of the country's other battleground states -- including Missouri, which President Bush won in 2004 and is renowned for reflecting the outcome of national contests.
While the presidential election has overshadowed most state races, some of this year's 11 gubernatorial contests have been fierce and heavily financed. Officials from the national Republican and Democratic governors associations say they broke fundraising records in the first three quarters of this year.
Missouri has picked the winner in all but one presidential election since 1904. In 1956, voters in the Show Me State backed Democrat Adlai E. Stevenson instead of the Republican incumbent, President Eisenhower.
Recent polls show McCain and Obama running neck and neck in the state. So when the GOP faithful gathered at the Elks Lodge -- even if the event was billed as a celebration of local Republican candidates -- few were surprised that the talk was all about the White House.
One of McCain's fellow prisoners of war extolled his friend's sense of duty and honor. A Sarah Palin impersonator cracked jokes about Obama's promises to revive the economy. A bluegrass band sang praises of McCain's faith. Even Hulshof, the rally's headliner, spent his energy pumping up McCain.
"He's the only reason we got to go back to the table on this bailout," Hulshof said of the role the Arizona senator played in congressional passage of the $700-billion Wall Street rescue. "He's the reason we were able to say no to Wall Street and not give them a blank check."
Lingering economic woes are a key issue in the governor's race, politicians and political analysts say, citing Missouri's troubled manufacturing and auto industries.
