This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, Jan. 5, 2011 - UPDATE: Cable TV comedian Jon Stewart and his "Daily Show'' built an entire segment Tuesday night that focused, in part, on Missouri GOP activist Ann Wagner's well-armed status among the five contenders to be the new chair of the Republican National Committee. The show highlighted her performance during Monday's candidate debate in Washington, with Stewart displaying shock and awe. Stewart also gave Wagner a Palinesque makeover.
As our original story explained Monday:
Sixteen guns and what do you get? For Missouri's Ann Wagner, perhaps a win in the verbal shootout for the Republican National Committee's top post.
Regardless of who wins the five-way contest later this month to be the RNC's new chair, today's debate in Washington -- held at the National Press Club and co-sponsored by The Daily Caller and Americans for Tax Reform -- highlighted that Wagner is the best armed activist gunning for the job. (The debate was streamed on the web.)
During a query on firearms, Wagner allowed that she has 16 guns in her west St. Louis County home -- giving her a sizable edge over her rivals.
Incumbent RNC chairman Michael Steele, for example, reported that he owned none, as did candidate Maria Cino. The perceived frontrunner in the campaign to oust Steele -- Wisconsin GOP chairman Reince Priebus -- said he owned five guns.
Missouri Tea Party activists swiftly took note of Wagner's armed advantage and Tweeted approval.
The forum's focus on firearms was just one of several examples during the 90-minute faceoff that made clear that some GOP activists want to ensure that their national chair embraces the socially conservative planks in the party's platform.
At least a third of the questions focused on guns, gays and abortion -- which prompted all the contenders, including Wagner, to emphasize their commitment to traditional marriage and the Second Amendment, plus their opposition to legal abortion.
Ironically, none of the questions dealt directly with the federal health-care changes now underway, even though new GOP House leaders have declared that a push for repeal could be their first major move after taking over the chamber today.
For the most part, the five contenders for the top RNC post did promise to press the traditional GOP priorities of less federal spending and lower taxes. Wagner, for example, was among several who said that overspending was the party's biggest failing when it controlled the White House and Congress from 2001-2007.
All five sidestepped a question about what specific federal programs they would cut, although Wagner praised the congressional push to end earmarks -- in which a lawmaker uses his or her clout to designate money for a particular project.
But Steele, under fire for much of his two-year term, warned his rivals and the audience that the RNC job is "about politics ... you don't do policy."
Wagner, 48, has been active in state and national Republican politics for 20 years. She headed the Missouri Republican Party for six years, much of that time while also holding the RNC's No. 2 spot as co-chair. She most recently spent almost four years as the U.S. ambassador to Luxembourg.
When asked to name a political hero, Wagner singled out former U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft, saying he had been her mentor while he was Missouri governor.
Today's forum offered Wagner her best chance of overtaking Priebus, who by all accounts has a sizable lead among the 168 voting members of the RNC's board who will make their selection Jan. 14. According to the National Journal Hotline's latest count, Wagner has 12 for-sure votes, while Priebus has 30 RNC supporters.
Steele is in second place, with 15 endorsements.
Wagner's ally, John Hancock, a St. Louis-based political consultant, was swift to praise her performance. "Ann Wagner set the tone, adeptly made the case for a new direction, and clearly won this forum," he said.
Priebus also appeared to impress the audience, as he cited the strong GOP performance in his home state on Nov. 2 -- notably the defeat of Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wisc. -- as an example of how he would direct the RNC.
Priebus, Wagner and the other anti-Steele contenders also pledged to focus more on raising money to put the RNC in a stronger position in 2012 to help state Republican organizations. Wagner was the most outspoken in blasting Steele's tenure at the RNC, and in emphasizing her commitment to ousting President Barack Obama.
Wagner called for an independent audit of the RNC's finances.
Wagner and others contended that the GOP could have made even more gains on Nov. 2 if the RNC had been in a stronger financial position to help the state operations. Left unsaid was the rise of independent conservative groups, bankrolled largely by former GOP donors, who picked their own election targets.
The beneficiaries of that independent spending included new U.S. Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., who handily defeated Democrat Robin Carnahan, Missouri's current secretary of state.
Wagner was an active chairwoman of Blunt's Senate campaign, and allies say that her election to the RNC's top spot could ensure that Missouri would get more national resources in 2012 as the GOP takes aim at U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo.
During the forum, Wagner did take a stand that could put her at odds with Republicans back home. She came out against open primaries, long used in Missouri, which don't require voter registration by party and allow anybody to vote in any party's primary.
Wagner said she preferred "closed primaries,'' which would require potential voters to show that they are members of the particular party. Such a move would bar independents and "crossover voting,'' in which a person generally aligned with one party votes in another party's primary.
Still, Wagner made a point of singling out the impact that previously non-aligned voters had in boosting Republicans to victory. "The Tea Party, Patriot and grassroots movements are why we had such victories in 2010,'' she said.