Claire McCaskill

Claire McCaskill (born July 24, 1953) is an American Democratic politician, currently the junior United States Senator from the state of Missouri and former State Auditor of Missouri. She defeated Republican Senator Jim Talent in the United States general elections, 2006 by a margin of 50% to 47%. Along with Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, she is one of two female senators in the 110th United States Congress freshman class. She is the first woman elected to the Senate from Missouri in her own right.

Biography

McCaskill was born in Rolla, Missouri. McCaskill's father, William Y. McCaskill, served as a state Insurance Commissioner during the administration of Governor Warren E. Hearnes. Her mother Betty Anne was the first woman elected to the Columbia City Council. Interestingly, Betty Anne McCaskill lost a race for a seat in the state House of Representatives to Leroy Blunt, Governor Matt Blunt's grandfather. McCaskill spent her early childhood in the small Missouri towns of Houston, later moving to the town of Lebanon, and eventually Columbia. McCaskill attended David H. Hickman High School in Columbia, where she was a cheerleader, Pep Club president, and was elected homecoming queen. McCaskill earned a B.S. in political science from the University of Missouri-Columbia in 1975 and later graduated from law school at the same institution in 1978.

Early career

Except for three years spent in private practice as an attorney at the firm of a leading Kansas City trial lawyer (1989 to 1991), McCaskill has worked in the public sector continuously since graduating from law school in 1978. Claire, following her graduation from law school, spent one year as a law clerk on the Missouri Court of Appeals for the Western District, which sits in Kansas City. Thereafter, McCaskill joined the Jackson County prosecutor's office where she specialized in arson cases. In 1982, McCaskill was elected to represent the Brookside neighborhood of Kansas City in the Missouri House of Representatives, where she became the first female attorney to serve in that body in some 40 years. During her time in the House, McCaskill became the first Missouri state lawmaker to give birth while in office. McCaskill left the state House to run for Jackson County Prosecutor in 1988, but withdrew when the Democratic primary field became too crowded. In 1990 McCaskill was elected to the Jackson County Legislature (the equivalent of a county commission or county council), but left when she captured the Jackson County Prosecutor's office in 1992. McCaskill was the first woman to serve as Jackson County Prosecutor, and was re-elected to that office in 1996. During her tenure as prosecutor, people in her office were the subject of a four-year long federal drug investigation; McCaskill was not implicated in the investigation.^{[citation needed]} In 1998 McCaskill was elected to the position of State Auditor, and was the second woman State Auditor after her predecessor, Margaret B. Kelly.

2004 gubernatorial campaign

On August 3, 2004, McCaskill defeated Governor Bob Holden in the Democratic primary race, becoming the first person to defeat an incumbent governor in state history.^[1] McCaskill also was the first primary challenger to defeat an incumbent Governor in the United States since 1994,^[2] when Bill Janklow defeated Walter Dale Miller in South Dakota, and Myrth York defeated Bruce Sundlun in Rhode Island. On November 2, 2004, McCaskill lost to then-Secretary of State Matt Blunt in the general election by a margin of 51% to 48%. Key to Blunt's victory were large margins in the rural parts of the state. McCaskill's loss to Blunt was the first defeat in her 20-year political career.^[3]

2006 United States Senate race

Main article: Missouri United States Senate election, 2006

McCaskill did not step down from her position as State Auditor during her 2004 campaign for governor. She therefore had the option of seeking re-election as State Auditor in 2006. Instead, on August 30, 2005 McCaskill announced that she would challenge Republican Jim Talent, who was running for re-election to the U.S. Senate in 2006. Both Talent and McCaskill easily defeated their opponents in their respective primaries on August 8, 2006.

McCaskill and Talent debated each other on Meet the Press on October 8, 2006^[4].

On November 8, 2006, McCaskill narrowly defeated Talent. While Talent received more votes in many of the more rural areas of the state, McCaskill ran stronger there than she had in the 2004 Governor's race. Also, she again had a large majority over Talent in the St. Louis and Kansas City metropolitan areas.

Senator

On November 15, 2006, Senate Majority Leader in waiting Harry Reid assigned McCaskill to five committees:

1. United States Senate Committee on Armed Services,
2. United States Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation,
3. United States Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs,
4. United States Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, and the
5. United States Senate Special Committee on Aging

Personal life

McCaskill was married to David Exposito, with whom she had three children - a son and two daughters. The couple divorced in 1995. The divorce occurred while McCaskill was Jackson County Prosecutor. Exposito's body was found murdered in Kansas City, Kansas on December 12, 2005 - less than a year before her senatorial election.^[5]

In April 2002, McCaskill married St. Louis businessman Joseph Shepard. From her marriage to Shepard, she has four stepchildren. Shepard loaned $1.6 million to McCaskill's 2004 gubernatorial campaign, and also had business interests in the nursing home industry. Because as state auditor McCaskill was responsible for auditing the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services, which regulates the state's nursing home system, Shepard's financial interests in the industry became an issue during the 2004 gubernatorial campaign.^[6]

Notes

• McCaskill was the only incoming Senator who skipped Freshman Orientation due to a promised vacation to her family following her strenuous campaign.
• McCaskill is a parishioner at St. Joseph Catholic Church in Jefferson City and St. Gerard Majella Catholic Church in St. Louis.
• McCaskill, taking over the seat once held by Harry Truman, has vowed to question the Executive Branch and root out corruption, much as Truman questioned wartime contracts awarded by officials in the Franklin Roosevelt administration during World War II.
• McCaskill is the first elected woman to represent Missouri in the U.S. Senate. Jean Carnahan was appointed to the U.S. Senate, following her husband's death, but was defeated in a close election by Jim Talent.
• McCaskill is the third woman to defeat an incumbent Senator in an election, the other two were Debbie Stabenow (D-Michigan) and Maria Cantwell (D-Washington), both defeated incumbents in 2000. McCaskill's victory, however, was larger than the other two.
• McCaskill was widely heralded for her political savviness when she bought 100 St.Louis Rams tickets so that the game could be broadcast. She donated the tickets to charity^[7]

Electoral history

• 2006 Race for U.S. Senate [1]
  • Claire McCaskill (D), 50%
  • Jim Talent (R) (inc.), 47%
  • Frank Gilmour (L), 2%
• 2004 Race for Governor [2]
  • Matt Blunt (R), 51%
  • Claire McCaskill (D), 48%
  • John M. Swenson (Lib), 1%
  • Robert Wells (Cst), 0%
  • Kenneth J. Johnson (Ind), 0%
• 2004 Race for Governor (Democratic Primary) [3]
  • Claire McCaskill (D), 52%
  • Bob Holden (D) (inc.), 45%
  • Jim LePage (D), 2%
  • Jeffery A Emrick (D), 1%
• 2002 Race for State Auditor [4]
  • Claire McCaskill (D) (inc.), 60%
  • Al Hanson (R), 36%
  • Arnold Trembley (Lib), 2%
  • Fred Kennell (Green), 1%
  • Theo (Ted) Brown, Sr. (Ind), 0%
• 1998 Race for State Auditor [5]
  • Claire McCaskill (D), 50%
  • Charles Pierce (R), 46%
  • Gerald Geier (Lib), 1%
  • George D. Weber (Ref), 1%

References

• Official Senate Website
• Missouri State Auditor Website
• Senate Campaign Website
• DSCC Biography

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