Politics & Government

GOP House Candidates Debate For The First Time; Chesterfield's Drury

Ed Martin and Ann Wagner traded light jabs on endorsements and disagreed over immigration policy in the first debate for Missouri's new second district U.S. House seat.

Ten months before the August 2012 primary, voters had their first chance over the weekend to hear two contenders for the Republican nomination in  Missouri's newly re-drawn second Congressional district in the St. Louis area.

Ed Martin and Ann Wagner, who were both in the audience in May when instead of another term in the House, were in Chesterfield and back together for a debate at the Drury Plaza Saturday afternoon.

Click here to read Patch's live blog of the debate

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While there were opportunities to see some differences between the two, Martin and Wagner directed most of their fire at the Obama administration and Congress.

The hour-long session gave candidates the chance to echo familiar themes from the campaign trail.

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Wagner, the former Republican National Committee Co-Chair, touted endorsements, including one from former Missouri governor, U.S. Senator and U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft, which she announced in her opening statement as evidence of conservative credentials in her first campaign for elected office.

Martin, who served as chief of staff for former Missouri Gov. Matt Blunt, and was narrowly defeated by current U.S. Rep. Russ Carnahan in 2010, consistently returned to a theme that "voting is not enough." It was not immediately clear what more was needed.

Questions were submitted by audience members and were posed by State Rep. Tim Jones (R-Eureka) and State Republican Committee Member Chris Howard, of Ballwin.

There were no real gaffes by the candidates. Questions ranged from issues regarding health care and government regulation to Social Security and immigration—topics which organizers said have tripped up the party's presidential candidates so far. Martin used the only rebuttal of the event to press Wagner on that.

Both candidates said they supported securing the borders and opposed amnesty for illegals, but then Martin asked Wagner about her support as a fundraiser and later as ambassador to Luxembourg, the idea of amnesty as part of a "path to citizenship." Wagner said immigration was one of "many things in (George W. Bush's) policies, that I did not agree with."

When asked if Social Security was a ponzi scheme, Wagner called it bankrupt, broken and in need of reform.

Martin's response was: "I don't want to take on Rick Perry here today...he hasn't endorsed you yet, has he, Ann?." Perry, the Republican Texas governor with presidential aspirations, described Social Security as a Ponzi scheme in a recent debate.

Wagner bounced back on the next exchange, when Martin talked about the achievements of Gov. Matt Blunt's administration (when Martin was Blunt's chief of staff) in creating the Missouri Accountability Portal as a way of creating government transparency on spending.

Wagner poked back: "You just teed yourself one too many times. Matt Blunt also had a great state party chairman (Wagner) who defeated Claire McCaskill and we'll defeat her again." She added that Matt Blunt's father, U.S. Senator Roy Blunt, had endorsed her campaign.

Afterward, Wagner told Patch that her first debate as a candidate for elective office was "exhilarating," and emphasized her ability to connect with grass root campaign efforts on top of the high-profile endorsements.

Martin described it as enjoyable, if not fun.


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