Democrat Bob Holden projects an almost canine-like loyalty to public schools while the GOP's Jim Talent is looking at more novel approaches, even school vouchers.

The candidates' backgrounds diverge as much as their policies. Holden is the product of small, rural schools, while Talent attended immense and wealthy Kirkwood High School in suburban St. Louis.

The plans hinge on the option of investing money in tax-deferred savings accounts.

MoDOT officials, however, said they currently do not have a funding source for the $2.5 to $3 billion project.

The spokesman, Daryl Duwe, told the Associated Press he stepped down because he didn't want to take the spotlight away from the issues in the election.

The "cheap hooker" characterization, originally posted on Duwe's missourigrapevine.com on Sept. 22, caused an uproar from Democratic leaders and politicians who called on their GOP counterparts to fire the spokesman.

The marker was put together by the state's historian and is one of several of its kind throughout Missouri.

This comes just months after South Carolina stopped flying the Confederate flag atop its Capitol because of protests from the NAACP.

But the opponents, led by Missouri's Outdoor Advertising Association, argue that the proposition is worded in such a way that it would require the removal of almost 3,500 existing signs, at a great cost to taxpayers.

In anticipation of the possible ban, some billboard companies have stepped up construction of new billboards along major highways such as I-70, drawing even more criticism from the conservationists.