272 DAYS UNTIL ELECTION DAY… 181 DAYS UNTIL THE AUGUST PRIMARY

PRESIDENTIAL PRIMARY SELECTION DAY (Except not really) — ‘Missouri to vote in symbolic presidential primary,’ PoliticMo: “Missourians head to the polls Tuesday to cast their votes in the presidential primary, but for Republicans, the votes are nothing more than symbolic. … Many of the Republican presidential candidates chose to almost completely ignore Missouri. But not Sen. Rick Santorum, who is staking his political future in the race on an anticipated win in Missouri Tuesday night. … Monday, after campaigning in the west over the weekend, Santorum announced he will be in St. Charles, Mo., Tuesday evening for what his campaign called a ‘victory party,’ a sign of confidence from the campaign even before the first votes were cast. Last week, Santorum held six campaign events across Missouri, while neither of his competitors even made one stop. Mitt Romney’s campaign said they are likely to visit Missouri closer to the caucuses, when Missouri’s delegates are actually decided. … State election officials expect a 23 percent turnout. Polls were scheduled to be open on Tuesday from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m.” http://bit.ly/wNAaho

— About Santorum and Missouri, POLITICO: “There’s no reason that Santorum can’t win there. Gingrich isn’t a factor and Romney and Paul haven’t paid the state much attention. And the former Pennsylvania senator’s message should have great appeal to Republicans in a state with a high percentage of evangelicals. … If Santorum fails to win any state Tuesday, it’s a very different story, because if he can’t win in Missouri, where he has a clean shot at Romney and his rivals have mailed it in, where can he win?” 

— And Southwest Missouri?: “In 2008, the Missouri GOP primary was relatively close, with John McCain finishing on top, closely followed by Mike Huckabee and Romney. In southwest Missouri, however, Huckabee cleaned up. In the part of the state sometimes referred to as ‘the buckle of the Bible Belt,’ the former preacher and Arkansas governor won every county, including Springfield’s Greene County — home to the headquarters of the Assemblies of God, one of the largest Protestant denominations. So if you want to measure the depth of the Romney resistance among evangelicals, this is the place to look.” http://bit.ly/Av8NEN

OVERNIGHT POLLING shows Sen. Santorum leading the pack with 45 percent, followed by Mitt Romney at 32 percent, and Ron Paul at 19 percent. Crosstabs: http://bit.ly/wxMlrW 

MCCASKILL JOKES — Speaking with reporters after her post office event in Kansas City (read more on that below,) U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill dished on her voting experience ahead of today’s primary: “I voted on Friday in St. Louis… I was temped to pull a Republican ballot… but it would have been making mischief, and I decided I wanted to set an example and not make mischief. … I was looking around when they asked, there was nobody in the office when I was voting, and the guy said he had just started working there and didn’t act like he recognized me, and I thought, ‘I wonder if anybody would know if I pulled a Republican ballot and voted for someone who I think would be an easier opponent for the president.’ But, I didn’t.” 

— Missouri GOP didn’t think the joke was funny. Lloyd Smith, executive director of the Missouri Republican Party: “If there’s anyone who knows about confusing voters, it’s Claire McCaskill.  In fact, McCaskill has spent the past year trying to fool voters into forgetting her real record on everything from cap-and-trade to unemployment benefits to illegal immigration to her failure to pay her taxes and more.  Maybe McCaskill should spend less time thinking up ways to meddle in the Republican primary and more time explaining her record of rubberstamping Barack Obama’s failed policies to Missourians.”

SPENCE JOKED ABOUT — NBC’s Jay Leno featured Missour’s own Dave Spence during last night’s “Headlines” segment: “You know, nobody lies on their résumés like politicians. This is just a classic example. Missouri Gubernatorial candidate Dave Spence touts on his website he earned a degree in economics from the University of Missouri-Columbia. What his website doesn’t say: the degree was in Home Economics.” 

— Missouri Democratic Party’s Caitlin Legacki: “Last night, Jay Leno put a national spotlight on David Spence and his lies about majoring in economics on his weekly feature, ‘Headlines,’ which makes fun of news stories that are almost too ridiculous to be true. Unfortunately for Missourians, David Spence’s academic dishonesty is real and he’s turning himself into a national joke.” 

STAFFING UP — ‘McCaskill Hires Blue State Digital’s Alex Kellner As Digital Director,’ TechPresident.com: “Missouri’s senior Democratic Senator Claire McCaskill has hired Blue State Digital’s Alex Kellner as its digital director. Kellner, currently BSD’s client manager and senior communications strategist, made the announcement on his Twitter feed on Monday. He starts his new job in two weeks. … [John] Brunner has hired Connect Strategic Communications to manage his web presence. Connect briefly worked on former Governor of Utah John Huntsman’s presidential campaign web site at the beginning of the governor’s bid.” http://bit.ly/wunGxk

GOOD TUESDAY MORNING, and welcome to this edition of PoliticMo Rundown. Send your tips, comments, and scoops to eli@politicmo.com. 

SEN. RICK SANTORUM will be in St. Charles this evening for a “Victory Celebration” in St. Charles, at the St. Charles Convention Center. 

— Santorum will be back in Missouri on March 10, speaking at Cape Girardeau County Lincoln Days.  

GOV. JAY NIXON will be in Dexter and East Prairie today to recognize both high schools on receiving the state’s A+ Schools designation. 

MO. LT. GOV — ‘Slay to headline Montee’s sendoff, as part of her bid for local support,’ St. Louis Beacon: “Former state Auditor Susan Montee has tapped St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay — who endorsed her in November — to introduce her at Tuesday’s kickoff event at City Hall for her bid for Missouri lieutenant governor. Slay’s presence, as well as other local offiicials, appears aimed at highlighting Montee’s effort to stake a political claim in the region. … Montee is from St. Joseph, although she also has residences in Jefferson City and in St. Louis. But the St. Louis area is the state’s largest bloc of Democratic votes. And Montee’s choice of the city for her kickoff is recognition of that fact and of her quest to lock in regional Democratic support. To that end, her invitation list for Tuesday’s kickoff is a who’s who of regional Democrats. They include St. Louis Board of Aldermen President Lewis Reed and, according to her release, ’20 elected officials.’” http://bit.ly/y3qTgM

POSTAL PLAN — ‘McCaskill: Postal plan would ‘sharpen’ competitive health,’ PoliticMo: “U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill visited the United States Post Office at Union Station Monday to announce her plan to maintain rural post offices and six day delivery. … Her plan, she said, would remove the requirement that mandates the postal service to pre-fund their pension programs for 75 years, and introduce a blue ribbon commission to look for ways to save costs by, among other things, relocating post offices to existing buildings or trimming the hours that post offices are open. … She contends that maintaining six day delivery and rural post offices, coupled with the other measures to refocus spending, would give the post office ‘sharpened competitive health.’ Late last year, McCaskill joined a handful of Democrats in calling for a five month moratorium on post office closures. She said her new plan would extend the moratorium to four years.” http://bit.ly/w88wDu

2012 LEGISLATING — ‘Shorter legislative sessions to be debated,’ MissouriNet: “State senate leaders hope to talk by the end of the week about making Missouri’s part-time legislature even more part-time. If Senator Mark Lamping’s proposed constitutional amendment already were in effect, this year’s debates would end on March 23rd, not May 18th.  And the veto session would be in June, not in September. Supporters say shortening the sessions would save a lot of money. His proposed amendment would give several days to properly edit and print final versions of the bills with April 6th the new adjournment date.” http://bit.ly/xc8hru

EARMARKS — ‘Congressional earmarks sometimes used to fund projects near lawmakers’ properties,’ The Washington Post: “Between 2005 and 2009, Rep. Todd Akin (R-Mo.) helped secure $3.3 million to upgrade part of Route 141 in his district west of St. Louis. Less than a half-mile east of Route 141, Akin and his family own nine acres. Akin’s family has applied to construct six homes on the land. His spokesman said Akin’s land had no bearing on his support for the earmarks. ‘It is going to be helpful as a connector but not helpful for residential property values whatsoever,’ he said.” http://wapo.st/Ala37x

— As earmarking increased, reporters and watchdog groups, including Taxpayers for Common Sense and Citizens Against Government Waste, publicized dubious earmarks. The public backlash eventually prompted Congress to make changes, beginning in 2007. For the first time, lawmakers were required to put their name next to earmarks they sought. Last year, as criticism and scrutiny mounted, Congress imposed a two-year moratorium on new earmarks. The Senate last week extended the ban another year. Some contend the moratorium has just driven the practice underground. Six months into the moratorium, Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) identified more than 100 special spending provisions in a House defense bill that she said were clearly earmarks. McCaskill’s efforts prompted lawmakers to strip the provisions from the final bill, but her attempts to turn the moratorium into a permanent ban have found little support on Capitol Hill. So far, only 12 lawmakers have signed onto her bill. Congress polices its own conflicts through House and Senate ethics committees. Under the 2007 reforms, members were required to certify that they had no financial interest in the earmarks they sought. Under Senate rules, a lawmaker is considered to have a financial interest only when the ‘principal purpose’ of the spending is to benefit a ‘limited class’ — themselves, their spouses or their immediate family. In other words, the spending is permitted unless lawmakers are guiding money to build such things as private roads or driveways, or directly funding their relatives’ salaries.” http://wapo.st/xJm8zo 

EDUCATION — Student groups organizing against budget cuts: “Missouri Students Association will be appealing to students in the MU Student Center this week to sign a petition protesting Gov. Jay Nixon’s proposed cuts to higher education funding. … MSA will have a tent set up in the student center to help students join the petition by signing letters to Nixon and to district representatives and senators. … The petition comes after the UM System Board of Curators’ meeting Thursday that addressed the looming issue of these higher education cuts within the UM System. … Within two hours of being set up in the student center on Monday, MSA had already collected about 1,000 letters. Dickherber said MSA’s main goal is to get 5,000 letters from MU alone. … For in-state students, MSA suggests sending a letter to Nixon as well as the senator and representative of their district. For out-of-state students, MSA suggests sending a letter to Nixon, Missouri Budget Committee Chairman Ryan Silvey and Mike Lair, chairman of the House Appropriations Education Committee.” http://bit.ly/yupAkb

SPORTZZ — ESPN Big 12 power rankings: “1. Missouri: The Tigers have played the two toughest teams in the league (Kansas and Baylor) and defeated them both. Guard Marcus Denmon had made just five of his previous 31 attempts from 3-point range before going 6-for-9 from beyond the arc in Saturday’s win against Kansas. … 2. Kansas… 3. Baylor… 4. Iowa State… 5. Kansas State… 6. Texas… 7. Texas A&M… 8. Oklahoma… 9. Oklahoma State… 10. Texas Tech.” http://es.pn/AqunnN