By Rick Rogers

Neosho Daily News

Thu Jul 30, 2009, 01:36 PM CDT

Neosho, Mo. -

Two Republican candidates for state auditor paid a visit to Neosho on Tuesday evening and spoke for three minutes each to a large gathering at the Newton County Republican watermelon feed at Big Spring Park.

GOP candidates Tom Schweich, a Washington University law professor, and State Rep. Allen Icet (R-Wildwood) were on hand at the GOP event to stump for their campaigns focused on the state auditor’s 2010 election. The GOP candidate will likely face incumbent state auditor Susan Montee, a Democrat from St. Joseph, who has said she will run for a second term. Former U.S. Ambassador Tom Schweich said, if elected, he would bring a fiscal conservative background and a history of dedicated public service to the role of state auditor.

“This is the most important state auditor’s race we have had in 40 or 50 years with the Obama stimulus money, with the economy in recession,” he said. “We need to make sure there is a very aggressive, tough and experienced watchdog to make sure that money is properly spent.”
Schweich said right now the stimulus money is coming from Democratic President Barack Obama, to Democratic U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill and through the watch of Democratic Gov. Jay Nixon in Missouri.

“How many of you think we need a Republican to audit that money?” Schweich asked the crowd at the GOP event. “I think we do. I think we need to keep them honest with a good, solid Republican to audit that money. It is a difficult thing to win against an incumbent in a down-ticket race. The state auditor race is going to be very, very tough. The way to do it is to get a candidate that has a lot of experience, is tough, energetic, aggressive and will take no prisoners on this Obama stimulus money and what is going down.”

State Rep. Allen Icet used his three minutes to discuss the economic woes the nation is currently facing.

“The crisis this nation is facing is the Barack Obama administration,” Icet said. “He will bankrupt this nation and place such debt on our children and grandchildren that they will never pay it off. It is important to have someone in the auditor’s office who is a fiscal hawk, and has a proven track record of serving the fiscal principles of our party.”

In 2005, Icet became the Chairman of the House Budget Committee after serving one year as vice chairman. In 2002, he was elected to the Missouri House of Representatives. His current Joint Committee membership includes the Capital Improvements and Leases Oversight, the Interim Committee on Oversight of Federal Stimulus and Stabilization Funds, Court Automation, Legislative Research, and Missouri Health Net.

“I have a proven conservative record when it comes to budgeting,” Icet said. “I know that the money comes from you, and it does not come from the state government or the federal government. I am for tax cuts, and against tax increases.”