Chuck Purgason
It's anyone guess whether Missouri Rep.
Roy Blunt will receive opposition for the Republican Senate nomination in next year's primary election.
Less than a week after one potential Blunt challenger declined to enter the Senate race, Republican state Sen. Chuck Purgason late Tuesday announced an "exploratory" committee to gauge interest in a Senate campaign that would pit him against Blunt, a former GOP Whip who has the backing of party establishment figures.
Purgason was first elected in 2004 to a state Senate district in southern Missouri that abuts Blunt's congressional district. Purgason was re-elected in 2008 with more than two-thirds of the vote. He previously served eight years in the Missouri House.
Purgason's announcement comes a few days after Republican Thomas Schweich, who was President George W. Bush's ambassador for counternarcotics and justice reform in Afghanistan, said he would not run for the Senate despite encouragement from former Missouri Republican Sen. John C. Danforth.
Still weighing a Senate bid is Sarah Steelman, a former Missouri Treasurer who lost a Republican primary for governor in 2008. She's also thinking about a campaign for the southwestern 7th District that Blunt is giving up.
The Democratic primary has not experienced any such intraparty maneuvering. The presumptive Democratic nominee is Robin Carnahan, the Missouri Secretary of State.
The senator Missouri voters elect in November 2010 will succeed four-term Republican Christopher S. Bond, who is not seeking re-election.
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