FRONTENAC, Mo. - Sen. Jim Talent, R-Mo., moved to shore up his support among women voters on Thursday, talking to supporters about the influence of his late mother and his efforts to promote family health care and combat meth abuse.

 

Facing a strong re-election challenge from Democrat Claire McCaskill, the Missouri state auditor, Talent told a mostly female audience in the St. Louis suburb of Frontenac how his mother left the family dairy farm in Missouri to join the World War II effort in Washington.

 

The first-term senator said he's "past the point" of savoring the trappings of public office, "except that it allows me to do the things I was brought up to believe in."

 

Talent, speaking at a hotel luncheon attended by dozens of women, emphasized national security, health care for families and especially seniors, and the threat to families posed by methamphetamine.

 

Talent touted his efforts to work with Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein to pass anti-meth legislation in Congress, and to be a part of a bipartisan effort to pass the Medicare prescription drug bill.