Jay Nixon wins governor’s office

November 04, 2008 11:34 pm

— The Associated Press
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — Democrat Jay Nixon, Missouri’s longest-serving attorney general, won election as governor Tuesday by turning back Republican U.S. Rep. Kenny Hulshof.
With about two-thirds of the precincts reporting statewide, Nixon had 57 percent of the vote, compared with a little more than 40 percent for Hulshof, who told supporters that he had conceded to Nixon.
Nixon fared well among all ages, races and income levels of voters and in both urban and rural parts of Missouri, according to an analysis of information from voters interviewed as they left the polling places. The interviews were conducted for The Associated Press by Edison Media Research and Mitofsky International.
He ran on a dual platform of experience and change, referring to his record 16 years of service as attorney general and to his party’s out-of-power status for the past four years. His blue, orange and white campaign banners proclaimed: “Jay Nixon. Independent. Experienced. The Change We Need.”
“Loudly and clearly, the people of Missouri went to the polls and voted to take our state in a new direction, and that’s exactly what they’ll get,” Nixon said Tuesday night in an interview with The Associated Press.
Change was guaranteed after Republican Gov. Matt Blunt unexpectedly announced in January that he would not seek a second term. Nixon will become Missouri’s fifth governor in 10 years when he is sworn into office in January 2009.
Hulshof sought to patch over hard feelings from a race in which he implied that Nixon was corrupt and in which Nixon repeatedly referred to him as a Washington politician while highlighting Missouri’s economic troubles.
“You have to accentuate the negative” in a campaign, Hulshof told supporters in Columbia, “but now is the time I think that we really focus on what is good with our state — how we can move our state forward.”
Nixon and Hulshof focused their campaigns on the economy, education and health care while casting each other as big spenders incapable of changing Missouri’s Capitol.
Among his priorities, Nixon called for a reversal of the 2005 Medicaid health care cuts enacted by Blunt and the Republican-led Legislature and the creation of a new scholarship program that would cover four years of free tuition for students who start at community colleges and keep up good grades.
Although Nixon had been campaigning for three years, Hulshof got into the race only after Blunt exited it. Whereas Nixon faced no significant intraparty opposition, Hulshof had to fend off a tough Republican primary challenge from Treasurer Sarah Steelman and entered the contest against Nixon with a disadvantage both in money and statewide name recognition.
Nixon’s name is familiar to Missouri households not only because of his longevity in office, but because of his oversight of the state’s telemarketing blacklist, which has more than 2.7 million Missouri phone lines.
“I think everybody knows him because of the No Call list,” said Pat Dufur, 60, an insurance agent from Jefferson City who voted for Nixon while acknowledging she wasn’t as familiar with Hulshof.
Democrats typically dominate Missouri’s big cities. But Nixon used his lengthy campaign to also build support in traditionally Republican rural areas. He proclaimed his campaign “the largest grass-roots movement in the history of the state,” touting 28,000 financial contributors and door-to-door canvassers reaching 1 million homes.