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Claire McCaskill

From dKosopedia

Claire McCaskill
U.S. Junior Senator, Missouri
image:ClaireMcCaskill.jpg
Party Democratic
Assumed office (class 1)

January 7, 2007
Serving with Christopher Bond

Preceded by James Talent
Committees
Born July 24, 1953
Spouse Frank Snellings
Religion Roman Catholic


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Claire McCaskill is a U.S. Senator from Missouri. She defeated incumbent Republican James Talent, see Missouri U.S. Senate election, 2006.

Because McCaskill did not step down from her position as State Auditor during her 2004 campaign for governor, she had the option of seeking re-election as State Auditor in the 2006 or running for higher office. On August 30, 2005 McCaskill announced that she would challenge Republican incumbent James Talent for 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 agreed to debate each other on Meet the Press on October 8, 2006. News Report

Contents

Background

McCaskill was born on July 24, 1953 in Rolla, Missouri and spent her early childhood in the small Missouri towns of Houston, Missouri, later moving to the town of Lebanon, Missouri, eventually moving to Columbia, Missouri. She attended Hickman High School in Columbia, where she was a cheerleader, Pep Club president, and was elected homecoming queen.

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 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. During her college years she worked as a waitress at Lake of the Ozarks.

Firsts

Following graduation from law school, McCaskill spent one year as a law clerk on the Missouri Court of Appeals for the Western District in Kansas City. After that she joined the Jackson County, Missouri 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 service in the Missouri 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, she was the subject of a four-year long federal drug investigation. [1] [2] 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. McCaskill also was the first primary challenger to defeat an incumbent Governor in the United States since 1994, when Bill Janklow defeated Walter Dale Miller in South Dakota, and Myrth York defeated Bruce Sundlun in Rhode Island. She then lost the 2004 general election to then-Secretary of State Matt Blunt in the general election by a margin of 50.8% to 47.9%. McCaskill's loss to Blunt was the first defeat in her 20-year political career.

Affilaition

McCaskill is a parishioner at St. Joseph Catholic Church in Jefferson City and St. Gerard Majella Catholic Church in St. Louis.

Electoral history

Committees

Contact Information

GovTrack link

External links

Related areas

Retrieved from "http://localhost../../../c/l/a/Claire_McCaskill_64be.html"

This page was last modified 16:11, 24 February 2008 by dKosopedia user DrDebug. Based on work by Chad Lupkes and dKosopedia user(s) Harkov311, Corncam and BartFraden. Content is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.


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