AG Race Result to Be Decided Today
Robin Carnahan is expected to announce the results of the Attorney General recount today, and it sounds like Chris Koster will retain his victory over Margaret Donnelly for the Democratic nomination.
I was wrong on this election - way wrong, and I deeply regret it.
I thought Jeff Harris was the one who had the best chance to defeat Chris Koster. Bright, friendly, experienced, and endorsed by people from all over the state, he ran a good campaign, though he was heavily outspent. Polls showed him leading by double digits. (My first line in that post seems cruelly on-target today - "Only fools take polls very seriously, but I'm foolish enough to be blown away by AG candidate Jeff Harris' showing in the recent poll released by the St. Louis Post Dispatch.")
When I met Margaret Donnelly, I wrote "Margaret Donnelly seems like a fantastically dedicated and fine Democrat. She is not, however, a particularly good candidate for Attorney General." That "not particularly good candidate" defeated my candidate by more than 30,000 votes, and came with around 780 votes (we'll know the true number later today) of defeating Chris Koster.
Could my endorsement and enthusiastic support have made a difference? When the margin is that slight, every tiny facet plays a part. While I don't blame myself for supporting Jeff Harris, I do blame myself for dismissing Margaret Donnelly.
It appears that, later today, Chris Koster will finally grab AG nomination for the Democrats.
Will I support him? I need to ponder that one . . .
Labels: attorney general, donnelly, Jeff Harris, koster, Missouri, Molly Korth Williams
posted by Dan at 9/11/2008 06:37:00 AM
11 Comments:
Nice to see at least one pundit looking back at past decisions and wondering if they could possibly have been wrong. In your defense, you were fairly positive toward Margaret late in the campaign.
I'll have a post up later this week looking back at the Internet side of the AG campaign. From my point of view, of course.
dan, this is your friend who believes in transparency in government. i sat thru the debates today. i will vote for a republican for the second time in my life in one race. you can guess which one. i know who speaks the words i need to hear.
Get over it, people. Koster won, and he is the only candidate in the AG race who has a "D" next to his name. You don't like him? Fine. But the alternative is no alternative at all. Today, Gibbons explained why he believes judges should be elected through partisan politics. He believes judges should campaign and receive contributions from the same lawyers whose cases they preside over. Such a system guarantees a biased, partial court system. In this AG's race, the issues trump your personal feelings about the candidates.
We need to get behind Koster now!
Dan
Long time reader, first time poster.
I admire you for this post.
I was a Jeff Harris supporter also. I believe Jeff would have been a better attorney general than Margaret. I also believe he would have made a better general election candidate.
But it became clear about half way through this process that Koster represents everything we don't want in a candidate. He is little more than a political opportunnist with no core values. Somewhere along the way he will get us in big trouble. He is dangerous dangerous for our party.
Donnelly is good and if only I had known it was so close between Donnelly and Koster and that Harris was third I would have easily like most Harris supporters voted for Donnelly.
I have no illusions that Gibbons is worth anyting but I will very, very, very unhappily be voting for Gibbons in November.
10:20
This is exactly what I hate about Koster supporters. Any why I have become so anti-Koster. No explanation of why he supported all the boy Guv agenda only bull. Just lie your way through everything. Rercruit Molly Williams. Deny it. Plagarize. deny it. Launder campaign funds. Blame it on Jeff Harris. Little or noreasoned discussion.
This is what you said Gibbons "believes judges should campaign and receive contributions from the same lawyers whose cases they preside over."
This is straight from the Post Dispatch:
http://www.stltoday.com/blogzone/political-fix/political-fix/2008/09/missouri-plan-candidates-basically-agree/
Missouri Plan: Candidates basically agree
By Tony Messenger
For all the criticism of the Missouri Plan, that process by which Missouri picks its top judges, both candidates for attorney general support it.
Chris Koster’s support is unconditional: “It’s the least political way that we have found to select jurists in the state,” he said.
Gibbons would tweak the terms of the appellate judicial commission members who ultimately choose the finalists that are sent to the governor. He thinks the six-year terms are too long and should be shortened so the existing governor, whoever he or she may be, has more influence over the selection.
Go ahead come back with some stupid non-responsive point. I read it on the blogs all the time. fact is Koster went out and raised a bunch of money from Republicans and maybe illegally. He spent more money than the other candidates combined and he barely won with a third of the vote.
He will destroy our party.
Anonymous 10:20…
Public financing for judicial campaigns would make your argument against judicial elections moot, would it not?
The non-partisan plan just changed who the political bosses are. It used to be Pendergast, now it's the Missouri Supreme Court.
Who cares who controls the elections? The Court can permit or deny anything they want. It would take us twelve years to remove them, and they are the appointing authority for their replacements. (gov. must select on of the three that they tell him to, or they do it for him)
Only Missouri and Nebraska allow the state Supreme Court to have sole removal authority.
Do you want to count on our biased media to tell you about bad judges? Do you think the Missouri Bar Association, a committee of the Missouri Supreme Court itself, is going to tell you about bad judges?
What happened to the last judge the voters decided not to retain? -Answer- The Missouri Supreme Court had him serving full time for half pay as an Associate Circuit Court Judge in Camden County. (they didn’t tell anybody in Camden County that three bar associations gave him poor reviews) –SHAMEFUL
Put the bench in the control of the voters, with public campaign financing.
Koster is more of a Democrat than Jay Nixon is.
"I am not voting for Chris Koster because he beat Margaret Donnelly. And I am voting for McCain because he picked a woman and Obama didn't."
I actually heard that statement today from a woman behind me in the grocery line. How freaking ridiculous. Great - let's forget about the issues and the millions of people who will be hurt by Republicans winning, and instead, let's focus solely on the gender of the candidates. My kids' futures are too important for this type of petty, self-centered thinking.
Leaving the choice of Judges to elections?
How outrageous.
PRESIDENT, maybe, or a SENATOR, but a JUDGE?
Such find gentlemen and scholars? You can't let the masses choose that.
WE must keep POLIICS out, with the NON PARTISAN plan.
No damn POLITICS there, I ASSURE YOU!
Harris and Donnelly spent about the same amount, but Harris ran an awful campaign. Grassroots do not work in a down ballot statewide campaign. If he had been smarter and put more resources into television he might have had a chance, but at a minimum he would have taken votes away from Koster and Donnelly would have won.
I have known Chris Koster for 15 years and believe him to be far more qualified than Gibbons to be AG. His experience as a prosecutor gives him significantly more insight into the job, and what it does and does not entail.It is a complex job and requires judgment and understanding, both of which qualities, Koster has significant amounts. I understand that many Democrats are resentful of his party change. I know from many conversations that his political philosophy has always been more Democrat than Republican.I refused to suport him when he indicated that he wsould run as a Republican, as I won't do that. I was, and am now, enthusiastic to support him as a Democrat.I truly believe he will do the better job. I also believe that he is now where he always belonged, in the Democratic Party.
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