Chris Koster won the election for AG, and my colleague, Michael Bersin, is happy to accept that and move on.
I’m not that far along. I have one more bone to pick, and it’s with Robert McCulloch, the St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney.
Not only did McCulloch endorse Chris Koster, he produced a robocall for him on the day before the election. I got one.
The point of his call–the same point Koster himself made in ad after robocall after ad–is that Koster was the only candidate with prosecutorial experience. Right. So? Since the Attorney General does no actual prosecuting himself, and since the duties have mainly to do with setting policy and administrating, Koster’s prosecutorial experience is worth … more than a tinker’s damn, but not a whole lot.
So Robert McCulloch could be said to have cost Margaret Donnelly the election. She lost by an eyelash, and that robocall that McCulloch produced easily added enough votes to Koster’s column to make the difference.
And yet, McCulloch did not consult grass roots leaders in the metropolitan area before coming out in favor of a candidate without any actual Democratic street cred. Approving of a candidate simply because he is in your club, the club of prosecuting attorneys, is insufficient reason to endorse.
I’ve said before and repeat it now, that I’m glad to see a Republican come to our side, but Koster’s votes as a Republican were often heinous. My personal (un)favorite was his attempt last year to introduce a bill revoking what little local control over CAFOs Missourians had. The Senate leadership didn’t force him to carry water for the Farm Bureau like that. Working on behalf of corporate agriculture over small farmers was his own idea.
So, without taking time to see whether a man with that kind of history is actually going to start sharing our values, McCulloch acted on his own. He dumped a fine local candidate with impeccable Democratic credentials.
What’s done, unfortunately, is done. But if I were Donnelly, I might just consider challenging McCulloch in the next primary. Not that I can see Margaret as a prosecutor, but still, there would be poetic justice in it if she won.
is that any decision in ads (in placing ads in a market, or not doing so) or endorsements can have some weight in tipping this election. I haven’t completely confirmed that this was the closest statewide primary in history (or in a long time). But less than 1000 votes seems hard to beat for closeness.
Also, from what i’ve noticed in primaries for state house seats. I think if this primary ended in a tie, they would have just had the top two finishers face off in anoter election. But they might have changed that law sometime recently.
Time and again I keep hearing how in some situations (primaries?) Republicans will cross over and pretend to be Democrats for a particular vote. It always sounds unlikely to me, but in this case??? If Donnelly wants to go after McCullough’s job next round, I’d be glad to work for her election. I adore poetic justice…and payback.
but I’ve never seen McCullough as a person who cares about grass roots activists so it doesn’t surprise me that he wouldn’t consult grassroots leaders.
Personally, I think Molly Williams handed Koster this election. 23,000 people voted for her and she didn’t even campaign. Take her out of the mix and I believe Donnelly would have won even with McCullough’s robocalls. It will be interesting to see what kind of political favors she receives over the next couple of years from people and groups that supported Koster.
[emphasis added]
The odd part is that I checked my spelling before posting by typing the name the way I thought it was spelled into Google (along with “prosecuting attorney”) and got a bunch of hits, spelled McCullough. Anyway, I got it wrong. Now it’s fixed.