By Mike Pound

mpound@joplinglobe.com

In the Missouri primary-election campaigns, the battle to choose a candidate to succeed longtime Attorney General Jay Nixon has largely been fought out in the Democratic Party.

Mike Gibbons, the Republican candidate, is unopposed and virtually assured of his party’s nomination.

On the Democratic side, with Nixon running for governor, four candidates are seeking the party’s nod for attorney general. Among them, Republican-turned-Democrat Chris Koster has caught the most heat from his opponents.

Koster, 43, was born in St. Louis and now lives in Harrisonville. He is a graduate of the University of Missouri Law School and was elected to the Missouri Senate in 2004. He served as the Cass County prosecuting attorney from 1994 through 2004. Koster is with the law offices of Tim Dollar in Kansas City.

In August 2007, Koster announced that he was leaving the Republican Party and becoming a Democrat. Koster said that over the past few years, he became increasingly uncomfortable with the direction the Republican Party was headed. Saying he is a politician who likes to govern from the “50-yard line,” Koster said he thought his former party had abandoned members who were in the middle.

Koster said criticism of his campaign is a sign that his opponents see him as the toughest opponent in both the primary and the general election.

“I think I’m a lighting rod for different people for different reasons,” he said. “I think the other Democrats recognize that I have the level of experience as a prosecutor that Missourians are looking for in an attorney general candidate.”

As attorney general, Koster said, he would crack down on Medicare fraud. He said it’s estimated that $600 million is lost every year to Medicare fraud in Missouri.

Margaret Donnelly is a resident of St. Louis. She is a graduate of the Saint Louis University Law School, and now specializes in family and juvenile law. She is a member of the Missouri Legislature, first being elected to the House in 2002. She served from 1986 to 1992 on the Ferguson-Florissant School Board.

Donnelly said she has spent the past 20 years, both in the courtroom and in politics, “fighting for families and children, and as attorney general would continue protecting and serving all Missouri families.”

Donnelly said she would work to establish a fugitive unit in the attorney general’s office to assist local law-enforcement agencies in tracking sexual offenders.

She said she would work to close loopholes in recent legislation. As an example, she pointed to a law requiring that all school bus drivers be fingerprinted. The legislation excludes anyone hired before 2005. Donnelly said she would work to see that the law was changed.

“I think I have shown that the issues I have fought for in the Legislature are the issues that are important to protecting Missouri families,” Donnelly said.