MATALIN PAINTS TALENT AS A MAN OF THE PEOPLE -- MEN AND WOMEN

The following piece by Jo Mannies appeared in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch on Wednesday, December 5, 2001.

Commentator and vice presidential adviser Mary Matalin headlined a number of prominent Republican women who declared Tuesday that Missouri's best candidate for the Senate is a man.

Specifically, former Congressman Jim Talent of Chesterfield.

Talent, said Matalin, holds the right stands on "education, a secure nation, national defense, a healthy economy."

"These aren't women's issues. These aren't men's issues. These are American issues," Matalin said.

Her audience was almost 600 women packed into a ballroom at the Radisson Hotel Clayton for a luncheon kicking off the Women for Talent coalition. The aim of the event was to attack the perceived pro-Democratic preference of suburban women -- a gender gap that Republicans believe helped swing last year's close race, putting Jean Carnahan in the Senate seat held then by John Ashcroft.

Almost 130,000 Missouri voters split their tickets last fall, voting for Republican George W. Bush for president and Democrat Mel Carnahan for Senate. Republicans and political analysts suspect that many of those ticket-splitters were moderate women swayed by sympathy over Gov. Mel Carnahan's death in a plane crash Oct. 16 - or the promise that his widow would serve in his place for two years as the state's first female senator.

Meanwhile, in Talent's losing bid for governor, various polls showed a preference among women for Bob Holden, the Democrat who narrowly beat Talent.

State House Minority Leader Catherine Hanaway, R-Warson Woods, joined a series of speakers who warned the crowd Tuesday that Democrats will appeal to women again next year to help Jean Carnahan win a four-year term.

"They are going to tell you that you should vote for the other Senate candidate just because she has a set of ovaries," Hanaway said. "It is no more right to vote for a woman than it is to vote for a man based on biology."

Carnahan spokesman Tony Wyche said the senator agreed that voters shouldn't consider gender.

"People should support officials who are effective in standing up for their concerns," he said. "Senator Carnahan has been a forceful advocate for bolstering our national security . . . as well as standing up for working families and those in need of assistance as a result of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks."

Matalin and others, including state Republican Party Chairwoman Ann Wagner, also pointed to Sept. 11 as a reason to back Talent. They said he had amassed more national security experience during his eight years in Congress, where he served on the Armed Services Committee. Carnahan is on the Senate Armed Services Committee.