2006 New Member Profiles
Missouri Senate: Claire McCaskill (D)
The Almanac of American Politics
© National Journal Group Inc.
| Claire McCaskill |
| Born: |
July 24, 1953 |
| Family: |
Husband, Joseph; seven children |
| Religion: |
Catholic |
| Education: |
University of Missouri, B.S. 1975, J.D. 1978 |
| Career: |
Clerk, Missouri Court of Appeals; assistant prosecutor; lawyer |
Elected
Office: |
Missouri House, 1982-88; Jackson County Legislature, 1990-92; Jackson County prosecutor, 1992-98; Missouri auditor, 1998-2006
|
Two years after narrowly losing a gubernatorial bid,
Claire McCaskill bounced back to defeat Republican Sen.
Jim Talent.
McCaskill, a two-term state auditor, announced her Senate candidacy in August 2005 on the steps of the feed mill where her father once worked -- a backdrop that telegraphed her heightened focus on the rural counties that cost her the governorship. Touting her country upbringing, McCaskill promised to "never forget rural Missouri."
With three previous statewide races under her belt, McCaskill was a prize recruit for national Democrats. Elected to the Missouri House at 29, she was the first woman to give birth while actively serving in the state Legislature. In 2004, she ousted then-Gov. Bob Holden in the Democratic primary before losing to Republican Matt Blunt, 51 percent to 48 percent, in the general election. McCaskill easily carried the Kansas City and St. Louis metropolitan areas, but Blunt crushed her in outstate Missouri, winning 90 of 97 counties.
In her Senate campaign this year, McCaskill handily won the August 8 Democratic primary. She traveled in a 31-foot recreational vehicle through the rural region she once called "Ashcroftland" for its religious conservatism. McCaskill denounced tax breaks for oil companies while calling for an increase in the minimum wage and for tax credits for first-time home purchases, child care, and college tuition. She also consistently linked Talent to the unpopular Bush administration, quipping, "He agrees with President Bush more than I agree with my husband."
But it was another issue -- a proposed constitutional amendment on the Missouri ballot to safeguard embryonic-stem-cell research -- that generated the most attention. McCaskill supported the measure while Talent did not. His opposition, in fact, exposed a rift among Missouri Republicans: Business leaders backed the initiative for its potential to attract biomedical research to the state, while religious conservatives opposed it, considering the destruction of embryos tantamount to the destruction of human life.
In October, Talent flayed McCaskill over her family's personal finances and demanded that she release the tax returns of her husband, a millionaire developer who filed his taxes separately from her's. Talent also suggested that the couple hadn't paid all of their taxes, and he accused McCaskill's husband of operating an offshore tax shelter. His attacks briefly stalled her momentum, but McCaskill's rebuttals were effective enough to overcome any lingering questions.
