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Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens addresses attendees to his meet and greet event as part of Lincoln Days at the University Plaza Hotel in Springfield, Mo. on Feb. 25, 2017.(Photo: Guillermo Hernandez Martinez/News-Leader)Buy Photo

Signs for about two dozen successful Republican campaigns greeted crowds of conservatives assembling for the 2017 Missouri Lincoln Days inside the University Plaza Hotel on Saturday.

The annual Republican celebration was expected to draw more than 1,000 attendees, and state lawmakers, local party officials and private citizens were among those gathered to catch up with old friends and to hear what their leaders had to say.

Though speakers such as Sen. Roy Blunt, Gov. Eric Greitens and Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft hit serious notes at times, the mood of the day was celebratory.

"We have these events in good years and bad years," said Todd Graves, chairman of the Missouri Republican Party. "Some of them are like funerals, and some of them are like weddings. This one's more like a wedding."

Protesters lining the street, demanding to inquire directly of Blunt and calling their gathering a "street town hall,"were visible from outside the door to the hotel's Kansas Room. Inside, the recently re-elected Missouri senator spoke at a breakfast co-hosted with the Missouri Pachyderms.

The News-Leader was not allowed to enter the Kansas Room during Blunts speech. A spokeswoman for the senator, Burson Snyder, said the breakfasts closed doors were not related to the chanting protesters outside.

Danette Proctor, chair of the Greene County Republican Central Committee, and her husband, Darrell Proctor, heard Blunt speak and told the News-Leader the gist of his message.

They characterized the speech as upbeat, fitting for a Republican Party that asserted political dominance in November. Blunt talked about fixing the Affordable Care Act (without echoing calls to repeal and replace Obamacare), needing to undo former President Barack Obamas executive orders and scaling back regulations set by the Environmental Protection Agency.

In a brief interview later, Blunt said he didnt think the protest constituted a real town hall event. He said he didnt have a problem with peaceful protesting but didnt feel like the gathering outside the hotel was a good venue for conversation.

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Asked whether he would do a town hall in Missouri, Blunt demurred.

"I think there are so many better ways to communicate now than that," Blunt said, adding that he didn't do town halls during his first six years in the Senate but still "had lots of chances for lots of people to have input. And I think I'm going to continue to communicate the way that I have been."

"We're in constant communication every day with people however they want to communicate, and I think that's a better way to do that now," he continued. "We still answer all our phones with a person. Many senators don't do that."

As for what he was hearing from constituents, Blunt cited national security issues, improving mental health care(including a pilot program in Missouri), being cautious about new regulations, and upcoming confirmations for vacant positions in the federal judiciary.

"I feel like I've got a pretty full plateand look forward to the next six years," Blunt said.

While Blunt spoke behind closed doors, the Republican National Lawyers Association hosted several politically minded attorneys, including Jay Ashcroft, House Speaker Todd Richardson, R-Poplar Bluff, and several Springfieldians: Speaker Pro Tem Elijah Haahr, Assistant Majority Floor Leader Kevin Austin, and freshman Rep. Curtis Trent.

Ashcroft recalled attending former President Ronald Reagan's inauguration and not comprehending the meaning of Reagan's "Morning in America" tagline. After seeing his party's electoral successes in November, Ashcroft said he understands.

These wins filled Missouri's statewide offices with Republicans, and Ashcroft said this proved helpfulafter Missouri learned it would receive $10 million from Moody's Corp. as part of a nationwide settlement pertaining to inflated credit ratings.

But the night before the money was to go through, there was a "hiccup," Ashcroft said, an issue related to wording that led to a lack of agreement.

Ashcroft said he was able to call Attorney General Josh Hawley well after business hours, and the two newly elected officials were able to fix the problem.

The secretary of state fielded a question about Missouri's new voter identification law, and he downplayed concerns such as those raised by former Democratic Secretary of State Jason Kander that voter ID would hinder people from casting ballots.

"This is not about disenfranchising anyone, and frankly, for those people that don't have IDs, we're bringing them into society," Ashcroft said.

Ashcroft put the cost of implementing voter ID at about $1.5 million about five times what was allocated in Greitens' budget recommendations for the next fiscal year but lower than what Kander's office estimated.

Later in the morning, Greitens held a campaign-style rally to give supporters an update and to shake hands and take photos with members of the audience.

"We are in a fantastic position, my friends," Greitens said. "...Because of you, because of strong conservative leaders throughout this state, we have the opportunity to put in place a strong, common-sense conservative agenda here in Missouri."

Greitens spoke about his time with Vice President Mike Pence, who visited Missouri last week to attenda business roundtable and to help the hundreds of volunteers, including Greitens, who cleaned up a vandalized Jewish cemetery in St. Louis.

President Donald Trump called while Greitens and Pence were in a car together and asked the governor to thank Missourians, Greitens said to an appreciative crowd. Trump and Greitens are expected to meet soonin Washington, D.C.

Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens visits with Janice and James Nolan after his speech during his meet and greet event as part of Lincoln Days at the University Plaza Hotel in Springfield, Mo. on Feb. 25, 2017.(Photo: Guillermo Hernandez Martinez/News-Leader)

Greitens also said Pence was committed to repealing and replacing Obamacare and to spurring economic activity in Missouri. He thanked his supporters for their work and implored them to continue their efforts.

"When we start getting attacked, you are going to be our first line of defense," said Greitens, a former Navy SEAL.

He said conservatives would have more success when they spread the Republican message themselves than when the job was left to"members of the media."

"We're going to bring strong conservative change to the state of Missouri, and we're going to make Missouri a shining light, a fantastic beacon for what is possible in this fantastic country, the United States of America," Greitens said to cheers.

True to his commitment to speak directly to the people of Missouri, Greitens met with a lengthy line of fans and avoided reporters who wanted to ask him questions. He also walked past Rep. Nate Walker, R-Kirksville, who could be heard expressing his displeasure to one of Greitens' staffers.

Later, there was an open discussion featuring four of Greitens cabinet members:

Graves, the state party chair, served as the moderator, and he pointed out an obvious but important fact: All four officials are women.

"This is a step forward," Steelman said. "To see more Republican, conservative women taking an active role in government that's one of the big things that I'd like to see change, and I think Gov. Greitens is taking a great step in the right direction to make that happen."

(On the topic of whether Greitens is making a concerted effort to hire women, senior adviser Austin Chambers said on Twitter earlier this month that the governor "is focused on finding the best & brightest to help take MO in a new direction. And he's proven that with fantastic hires.")

Graves later asked the panel for their thoughts on how Republicans could do better with women voters.

Chinn suggested getting young people involved by reaching out through social media. Comer, who previously worked for Pence in Indiana, praised the state's Lugar Series as a valuable networking tool for women in politics.

Also during the discussion, Precythe acknowledged that the state prison system had been the focus of bad press in recent days. In November, Kansas City's The Pitch magazine described a vulgar culture of harassment in the Department of Corrections that led to $7.6 million in settlement payouts to employees.

"There is no place for sexual harassment, workplace harassment or retaliation in today's society, and we are not going to tolerate that," said Precythe, who previously held a leadership role in North Carolina's prison system. "I have no problem saying that that is a zero-tolerance (policy) for not reporting and a zero-tolerance for not responding. ... It is not going to go unaddressed any longer."

The four cabinet members addressed several other issues including:

Before breaking to enjoy treats at an ice cream social, members of the Pachyderm club listened to Missouri Republican Party vice chair Kay Hoflander give an update on the state party's efforts.

"All eyes forward" was Hoflander's theme. She meant that Republicans should focus their energy on their goals and not be deterred by distractions, such as disruptive protests at town halls.

In 2018, Hoflander predicted there would be a "loaded" primary among conservatives jockeying to challenge DemocraticSen. Claire McCaskill. Republicans also will have a chance that year to unseat Democratic Auditor Nicole Galloway.

Hoflander urged her small audience of about a dozen to listen to criticism but to disregard disinformation. She said media coverage at the state level had seemed fair to her since Greitens was elected, but she could not say the same for national coverage of Trump.

"Republicans aren't really how they are portrayed," Hoflander said.

Saturday's events were bookended by keynote speeches by Oklahoma Sen. James Lankford on Friday and North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis on Saturday. The last scheduled event was a prayer service Sunday morning.

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With 'all eyes forward,' Missouri Republicans converge in Springfield for Lincoln Days - Springfield News-Leader