Missouri Delegates Stress Unity, Despite Divisive Primary

As Missouri's 88 delegates to the Democratic National Convention meet to plot a winning strategy for the party's nominee John Kerry, the state party is facing a divisive primary that pits its embattled governor against the state auditor.

It is an uncomfortable topic for the delegates, who prefer to focus on the key issues of the economy and the war in Iraq that have largely unified their efforts, but Aug. 3, the party members will cast their votes in a bitter primary that may oust the state's sitting governor.

"It doesn't help the party when you have Democrats attacking Democrats in a nasty campaign," Kenneth Warren, professor of political science and polling expert at Saint Louis University, said Tuesday.

But state and national party officials at the convention this week in Boston stressed the primary between Gov. Bob Holden and State Auditor Claire McCaskill would not leave the party splintered.

"I hate to see incumbent Democrats have to go through a primary, but there is nothing we can do about that... But let the voters of Missouri decide and the day after that on the morning of Aug. 4 we will all be one unified [party]," Democratic National Chairman Terry McAuliffe said Monday.

Missouri Attorney General Jay Nixon, a Democrat who is running for re-election this year, called on delegates to the convention to end the political fight on Aug. 3 and focus on the fall campaign.

"As we look at the various primaries around our state and we have some, we see people -- friends -- in very difficult, not bitter, but very difficult challenges against each other," Nixon told delegates Wednesday. "And there will be winners and there will be losers, but if we spend a week or two weeks ... still continuing the differences, all we will do is set the table for the Republicans to continue their march in Missouri and that, my friends, is intolerable."

Nixon stressed the state party should follow the example set forward by the contentious Democratic presidential primary.

"Missouri is a microcosm of the national race where you had a lot of good candidates fighting each other," he said following his speech to the state delegation. "So it's going to be very important for us to quickly close ranks as the national party has done, so that Missouri can be competitive and [we can] win the races and the seats that are very important to us."

But Warren cautioned it may not be easy to recover from the fight.

"This is nasty... Claire was begged by Democratic Party insiders not to run, but she insisted," he said late Tuesday. "She just wants to beat [Gov. Holden]."

And if history is a lesson, Missouri Democrats are right to worry. Twelve years ago, Republicans, who at the time controlled much of the state leadership, largely tore their party to pieces in a bitterly contested primary. In that bruising primary, Roy Blunt -- now U.S. House Majority Whip and father of this year's GOP gubernatorial nominee Matt Blunt -- savaged presumptive nominee William Webster. Although Webster survived the primary, he, along with almost every other statewide Republican candidate, went down to defeat in the fall.

But Nixon, who was elected attorney general that year, stressed the state party leaders were committed to not repeating the party infighting that persisted with the Republican Party.

"I think we have learned a lot from that lesson both what can happen if you mess it up and what can happen if you work together and consequently I think there is a lot of personal politics involved and that's why in speaking with the delegates this morning, I talked about the responsibility we as Democratic delegates have and leaders of the Democratic Party to make sure that we bury the hatchet quickly and move forward," Nixon said.

McAuliffe has said the primary fight "hasn't hurt us at all", but did stress the two gubernatorial candidates.

"Let the voters of Missouri decide… once we get through it Aug. 3, the day after that on the morning of Aug. 4 we are going to all be one unified [party]," McAuliffe said. "I met privately with both of them and they both committed to me that the days it's over we are going to come out united."

In addition to the two candidates emerging from the contest united, state officials are urging the party activists to move beyond the primary fighting. During his comments to the state delegation, Nixon urged the delegates to use the convention to return to the state with a single goal, electing Democrats this fall.

"You have been elected to go back home with the message ... and we will know what the phrases are, we will know what the issues are, we will know what we can rally our troops with but the most important rallying cry for Democrats in the United States this year and Democrats in Missouri is unity," Nixon said.

Although the fight may leave the party split, Warren said it is difficult to say whether it would hurt national efforts to garner Missouri's 11 electoral votes for Senator Kerry.

"Practically speaking, in a Republican year [in the governor's race], it does not bode well for the national Democrats in Missouri," Warren said. "How could it help? You could argue it increases attention to the Democrats, but it is all negative attention."

Delegates were unanimous in pledging to put the primary behind them, and most sought to focus on how Kerry's message and the appeal of Sen. John Edwards would increase the Democrat's appeal throughout the state.

The state party chairwoman, May Sheave Reardon, said she feels that the party will focus on the national issues and themes and is committed to presenting a united message in support of Sen. Kerry.

"I think the three issues we are really focusing on in the battleground state of Missouri are healthcare, jobs, and education," Reardon said as the convention meetings opened. "Those are the issues that really confront families everyday when they wake up and they sit around the kitchen table and those are the issues we are going to hear more about here in Boston and that we are going to take back to Missouri and we make sure that get door-to-door and tell everybody about."

Both national and state Democrats acknowledge the primary fight has delayed some of their efforts to win the state for Kerry, but McAuliffe said it has not "hurt us at all."

"We have plenty of time to do what we need to do. We've got our convention and everyone is focused on the Democratic convention," the party's national chairman said following an address to the delegation.

Despite the across-the-board support for the national ticket, Democrats still see a hard-fought race ahead.

"It is going to be a very, very tight race, because we look at ourselves as a 50-50 state and it is all going to hinge on turnout and which party is more successful in getting their voters to the polls," Missouri State Democratic Party Director of Communication Jim Gardner said.

-- By Lee Banville, Online NewsHour