Well, another Lincoln Days has come and gone.  For those reading this who aren't familiar with the event, Lincoln Days is the closest thing that the Missouri Republican Party does to an annual statewide convention.  It rotates between St. Louis, Springfield, and Kansas City (in that order) each year, and this year was St. Louis' turn again.  Dinners on Friday and Saturday night and a luncheon on Saturday with a line-up of speakers, various organizational meetings (including a meeting of the State Central Committee), booths for various groups and causes, and, of course, a number of "hospitality suites" sponsored by candidates, organizations, etc.  Definitely puts the "party" in "political party".

This year I decided to go a lot more low-key than in previous years, when I've been in a more high-profile "candidate" mode.  The suits stayed in the closet, as I opted for comfort over fomality.  And, mostly, I just hung around the St. Louis City Central Committee suite and the various "meet and greet" sessions.

This year's event was held at the Hilton St. Louis Frontenac in the middle of St. Louis County, as opposed to downtown St. Louis, where the event has traditionally been held when in St. Louis.  It's an OK hotel, with good (but not great) convention facilities, but it's really laid out weird for a hotel.  A real maze to get from one place to another, all though the area where the suites were located was a very nice area - good for mingling in a large public space with the suites located around it.

Unlike previous years, I didn't go to any of the dinners or the luncheon, so I didn't hear any of the speeches.  The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported on both Gov. Blunt's speech on Friday night and Gov. Mitt Romney's on Saturday.  Of course, both articles were buried in the middle of the paper.  I almost missed the one on Romney's speech.

There was a lot of discussion about who the eventual GOP presidential candidate might be, with a wide variety of opinions for and against almost all of the declared and undeclared candidates.  It seems like the Missouri "heavyweights"  - Matt Blunt, Jim Talent,  and Sam Fox (an major GOP donor who is about to be confirmed as the new U. S. ambassador to Belgium), at least - are getting behind Romney, at least for now.  And, of course, discussions about who might get the Democrat nomination.  Personally, given the personalities involved and how really cut-throat the hard-core left of the Democratic Party is these days, I'm betting that, whoever it is, they'll be very beat up and broke - which is a good thing for the GOP.

Lots of folks already declaring as candidates for various races, a lot more than at this time (two years out) than in years past.  Looks like we're really going to get a two-year campaign season this time around, which is going to mean a lot of  work and a lot of fund-raising.

The City GOP had a pretty good weekend.  Their contribution to the silent auction fund-raiser (a gift basket with a bunch of different stuff, including a lot of St. Louis sports-related ticket packages) raised the most money for a single item, which earned them a $100 donation to the City GOP treasury.  I jokingly said that we just funded the beer and brats for our 4th of July Party!  And, it looks like we may have found a new Committeeman to represent the 10th Ward (the Hill and the neighborhoods just to the south and west of the Hill), a position which has been vacant for some time.

I also had several conversations about what went wrong with the elections last fall, including an interesting discussion with Jacob Turk, the GOP candidate who ran against Emmanuel Cleaver in the 5th Congressional District (Kansas City area) last year, comparing notes on the similarities of the 5th District and the 1st and 3rd Districts here in St. Louis.  One common point of agreement - both Lacy Clay and Russ Carnahan are vulnerable, if only we could get the party to put forth strong, well funded candidates with solid campaign organizations behind them.  But I'm not sure that the Missouri GOP is serious enough about winning the state and helping to take back the U. S. House of Representatives to make the effort to campaign hard in either district - which means that we'll probably lose a few more seats in the north and south parts of St. Louis County in 2008.

All in all, not a bad weekend.  Next year will be in Springfield, and, even though the various primaries won't be completely over by then, we'll be past the first "Super Tuesday", so we should know who the GOP nominee is probably going to be.  The mood this weekend overall was a bit apprehensive, but, hopefully, in the next year, folks will get energized, organized, and gear up for a big 2008.