Dave Spence has not caught fire as a GOP candidate for governor in Missouri, but there may be some flames licking at his heels after a campaign staff member inadvertently sent a briefing memo to the news media instead of to Spence.

Spence has a business background and has found the transition to political campaigner a little tough. He has blurted out a few things he shouldn’t have said and failed to add anything useful on other topics upon which he should speak.

A campaign worker/adviser hoped to lead Spence through the mine field with a briefing paper on how to respond if the news media asked him about his previous comment that President Obama is probably a Muslim. Her advice was to say that Obama says he is a Christian and then add that Spence takes him at his word.

She also wrote a comment for Spence on the Missouri Senate budget debate. Then she recommended Spence turn the discussion to a lack of leadership by incumbent Gov. Jay Nixon, a Democrat.

All that might have worked better had the email not gone to members of the press who were supposed to get an advisory on where Spence would be campaigning.

For those who want more on this, long-time St. Louis political reporter Jo Mannies’ column on the topic is linked here.

Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon vetoed two pieces of legislation Friday that he said would turn the clock back on workplace rights, setting up a debate with Republicans who hold majorities in the Missouri House and Senate.

House Bill 1219 would have changed workplace discrimination rules. Business groups had argued that Missouri laws need to clearly state that in order to prove workplace discrimination, a plaintiff must prove that it was the motivating factor. At this point lawsuits can proceed if a court rules that discrimination is “a contributing factor.”

It also would have capped punitive damages at $300,000.

Nixon said the bill was “nearly identical to a bill I vetoed last year” and would make it easier to discriminate.

The other veto was on Senate Bill 572, which would have changed workers’ compensation laws to put co-employee liability and occupational disease coverage in the workers’ compensation system — as it was a few years ago. Business owners said they are open to frivolous lawsuits.

Republicans would have to muster a two-thirds vote to override Nixon’s vetoes. They hold a two-thirds majority in the Senate, but fall a few votes short of that level in the House.

U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill’s mother, Betty Anne McCaskill, wrote a letter to Democrats this week to raise money for her daughter’s campaign.

The fundraising email focuses on Rush Limbaugh’s controversial comments about Sandra Fluke, a Georgetown University student who had testified for contraceptive insurance coverage before Congress. Limbaugh called Fluke a prostitute — and worse — on last week’s radio shows. He gave what he called an apology after many of his show’s sponsors pulled their ads.

Limbaugh also called McCaskill a “commie babe liberal.”

In the campaign piece from McCaskill, Betty Ann McCaskill tells prospective donors she is mad about the attacks on women and wants help to counter them.

“Please don’t let the Republicans have their way on this. Don’t let them wage war on women. Show them that we know how to defeat them by making a contribution to Claire’s campaign today,” Betty Anne McCaskill wrote.

Huge numbers of people have criticized Limbaugh for his attacks. Some will criticize McCaskill for using the event to ramp up support and money for her re-election bid.

This kind of issue-driven item comes out in a different form every week, sometimes with Democrats looking to capitalize and other times with Republicans stoking the flames and begging for money.

In this case, Limbaugh might have done more to help McCaskill’s cause than a few weeks of minor campaign events could have done.

U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., got some attention on several state and national political sites in the past few days as Missouri is ranked as a “leans Republican” state for the 2012 general election.

Stuart Rothenberg said in a column linked here that “McCaskill looks like a very weak incumbent.”

McCaskill’s people did their best to portray her as an independent last week. She was ranked number 50 in the U.S. Senate for liberal/conservative tendencies in a National Journal story that McCaskill’s campaign staff trumpeted in press releases.

The big question for McCaskill is whether voters will care about her record in a state where Barack Obama is likely to be on the losing end of the election.

For Republicans, the question is whether the winner emerging from the primary — U.S. Rep. Todd Akin, former Missouri Treasurer Sarah Steelman or political newcomer John Brunner — can generate some enthusiasm, which so far has been lacking.

A Kansas City Star analysis does a good job of explaining the race.

Drivers will have another incentive to travel along the newly completed four-lane U.S. 36, if Missouri Department of Transportation Director Kevin Keith succeeds in turning I-70 into a toll road.

Keith told the Kansas City Star on Wednesday that charging tolls on the nation’s oldest interstate highway would generate the funds to repair it. I-70 crosses the state between St. Louis and Kansas City and is badly deteriorated and crowded in many areas.

“Tolling is a viable financing option for infrastructure. As we sit here today with the resources available to us, it may be the only option we have to pay for it,” Keith told the Star.

As noted before, Missouri’s transportation funding is now about $600 million — or about half what it was just a year or two ago. MoDOT moved forward with cost-cutting moves this year that are designed to save more than $500 million by 2015 and put those dollars into highway and bridge improvements.

U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., has joined a number of farm-state lawmakers in urging the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to abandon plans to regulate dust produced on farms.

“Dust in rural America is just a face of life, and unless we’re going to pave every road in the country, it’s going to stay that way,” McCaskill said.

McCaskill is joining U.S. Sen. Mike Johanns, R-Neb., in supporting the Farm Dust Regulation Prevention Act. She also sent a letter to EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson saying that “common sense dictates that the federal government should not regulate dust creation in farm fields and on rural roads.”

The legislation is aimed at halting regulations the EPA might impose after studying coarse particulate matter that is generated by field work or driving on gravel roads.