JEFFERSON CITY – Last week, much discussion surrounded Claire McCaskill’s role in the internal Democratic Party efforts to muscle State Senator Maida Coleman out of the State Auditor’s race as a favor to her self-financed, deep pocketed primary opponent, trial lawyer Susan Montee. Despite the controversy surrounding McCaskill’s role in reported backroom dealings, a critical element has been excluded from the debate—the money factor.

The Missouri Republican Party has analyzed campaign contributions from both Coleman and her primary competitor for State Auditor, St. Joseph trial lawyer Susan Montee. According to Missouri Ethics Commission records over the past four years and more recent Federal Election Commission records, the wealthy Montee, her family and her trial lawyer associates have contributed over $90,000 to McCaskill’s state and federal committees while Coleman has contributed a much more modest $2,200. (See attached spreadsheet for contributions breakdowns.)

“McCaskill is an advocate of the ‘pay-to-play’ school of politics,” said Missouri Republican Party spokesman John Hancock. “If you don’t show her the money, she’ll show you the door even if it means breaking the Missouri Democratic Party’s perpetually broken promise of running an African-American on the statewide ballot.”

McCaskill’s role in the deal to get Coleman out of the State Auditor primary first broke in a St. Louis Post-Dispatch article last Tuesday that disclosed that certain party “activists” were concerned that McCaskill was muscling Coleman out of the primary against Montee.¹ In a subsequent story that Thursday, McCaskill’s allies admitted trepidation concerning the effect the attempted coup of the Coleman candidacy could have on the state’s African-American voting bloc, which McCaskill must have if she is to be competitive.² Coleman’s fledgling campaign for State Auditor marked the first time an African-American had sought statewide office in Missouri in 12 years, despite repeated promises from the state’s Democratic Party that they would field such candidates on a regular basis.

“The attempted coup of Coleman’s statewide candidacy is just the latest indication that McCaskill and the Missouri Democratic Party are living up to the low expectations that they have created over the past 12 years with African-American voters here in Missouri,” said Hancock.

¹ St. Louis Post-Dispatch, January 17, 2006
² St. Louis Post-Dispatch, January 19, 2006