MDN.ORG:
Missouri Digital News
MDN.ORG
Mo. Digital News
Missouri Digital News
MDN.ORG:
Mo. Digital News
MDN.ORG:
Missouri Digital News
MDN.ORG:
Missouri Digital News
MDN.ORG
Mo. Digital News
Missouri Digital News
MDN.ORG:
Mo. Digital News
MDN.ORG:
Missouri Digital News
JEFFERSON CITY - With the elections over, the staff for the losers in Missouri's contests are beginning to look at what went wrong -- and what to change.
"It was a good Republican year," said Norm Sterzenbach, the campaign manager and PIO for Bekki Cook, the Democratic hopeful for lieutenant governor. "But we managed to take the secretary of state's office back and hold on to attorney general's, so it wasn't a complete loss".
Winning by a slight margin, the Republican nominee Peter Kinder became the next lieutenant governor. And he'll watch over Missouri's Senate with a bigger Republican majority than last session, when he was the Senate president pro tem.
Asked about the plans for the future the Cook campaign, Sterzenbach said he had no idea whether Cook would try again in 2008 and she was the person to make that decision.
"At the moment, she is just focused on closing up the campaign," Sterzenbach said.
A campaign which made strong claims like Kinder "would take the state in wrong direction", and it was the feeling that "there were no other Democratic candidates that could take him on."
Despite some major statewide victories, it wasn't a clean sweep for the GOP.
Catherine Hanaway lost to Robin Carnahan in the race for Secretary of State by a margin of 4.5 percent.
"We ran a very good, very positive campaign," said Chuck Caisley, the Hanaway campaign manager. "Unfortunately, we ran against a brick wall of a very popular name," he added, bringing up the often cited fact Carnahan is the daughter of the late Gov. Mel Carnahan, who tragically died in a plane crash just days before the 2000 elections.
Hanaway said there were no immediate plans whether to think about the next elections.
"I am very disappointed of the election results," she said.
Her campaign manager restrained himself to any predictions whether Hanaway would run again in 2008.
"I don't want to speculate on the fact whether Speaker Hanaway will run again for the office or not," Caisley said. "But I know she has done a very good public service to Missouri, and I am sure she will try to find a way to continue positively impact the lives of Missourians."
Hanaway is the first woman to become speaker of Missouri's House. Had she not run for statewide office, she would have been forced out of the House afternoon 2006 because of term limits.
"I think the Speaker Hanaway got involved, because she felt passionately about two issues, first being the people's rights to vote and to protect such rights, and second - fostering a better economy and creating more jobs for Missourians," Caisley said.
Hanaway said nothing went wrong during the campaign. "It was a very good and very energetic campaign."
One of the most hard fought races in this year's elections was the gubernatorial race, where Matt Blunt won by a small margin.
"I want to congratulate Matt Blutt on his victory," read the message in McCaskill campaign website, "we've got a lot of problems in this state, and I want to continue doing everything that I can do to fix them."