By Sylvia Maria Gross
Kansas City, MO – Missouri Senator Jim Talent campaigned in Kansas City this week, specifically reaching out to black voters in the metro area. About 200 business and community leaders went to a Republican campaign reception at the Marriot by the Plaza on Monday, which was also attended by Senator Kit Bond and US Housing and Urban Development Secretary Alphonso Jackson. African Americans in Missouri, and around the country, have traditionally voted along Democratic lines. But Talent maintains a certain visibility in Kansas City's black community, and some voters are giving him serious consideration. Earlier on Monday evening, Talent and Bond addressed about 30 people brought together by the local Black Agenda Group in the basement of the Metropolitan Missionary Baptist Church on Linwood.
Across the state in St. Louis, black voters are considering similar issues. St. Louis Post-Dispatch columnist Sylvester Brown Jr. wrote in September that McCaskill, and the Democratic party in general, have not done much to engage African American communities. Soon after the column came out, McCaskill's campaign approached him for a meeting.