MOPNS had this story 2 hours before the “mother ship”. Virginia Young doesn’t even confirm the story. You people are pathetic!
http://mopns.com/2007/07/31/breaking-sen-koster-switching-parties-plans-to-run-for-ag-as-a-democrat/

Koster is an opportunist. He knew he couldnt win the Republican primary, so he switches parties. He takes political positions based on which way the wind blows. he wont be an elected Democrat for long.

I disagree. I think Koster would have been favored to win the Republican primary, with Hanaway and Gibbons splitting the St Louis County vote, Koster getting a respectable share of the St Louis area vote because of fond recollections of his father, and outstate Missouri despising anything from St Louis. It would have depended on who else enters the contest.

But I believe the party switch weakens Koster. If he really switched because he got booed by people in his own party in his (adopted) home county, he sets himself up for the charge that he lacks the emotional toughness necessary to be AG.

I wonder whether Koster will honor refund requests from Republican contributors.

You’d think Democrats would be crowing about this battlefield conversion. But the reaction among blue-oriented bloggers seems to be negative. I don’t know Koster’s voting record, but I suspect that his stands on issues other than stem cell research might be incompatible with most rank and file Democrats. Nevertheless, if Koster can gain traction among KC and other western MO Democrats, he would strip away much of the non-StL vote from Columbia’s Jeff Harris. That would greatly benefit Margaret Donnelly of Richmond Heights.

Will Koster, who may well have switched because not only his likely Republican opponent, but much of the Republican base, opposes fetal and embryonic stem cell research, accuse them of being “single issue voters.” If so, it would be a case of the pot calling the kettle black.

The Republican Party is better off without people like Chris Koster. Good riddance.

Koster may well be an opportunist, but he learned it well from the master, or should I say masters, Busch and Rove. How many times has Busch made a public pronouncemnet about anything besides the need to fight the terrorist over there rather than here? Of course there is little concern about what our fight over there might be doing to the people that actually live there and aren’t part of the “movement”. But then again, they aren’t “real Americans”, are they? They’re “just Moslems”.
Most Republicans I know are single issue voters. They are negative voters, they vote against issues rather than for them.

I beg of you Margaret Donnelly. You are a wonderful and honorable person. Do not split the vote with Jeff Harris which may throw the primary to Koster. Then we have two republicans running in the general election. Harris is already there and has raised a ton of money. Koster is nothing but a charlatan who has supported Blunt on the medicaid cuts and on MOHELA. Please do the right the right thing. Please.

After reading Koster’s senate bio, which is full of accomplishments which would make anyone proud, I must believe he’s an intelligent guy. So the explanation that he switched parties because he was booed at a Republican event can’t be right. Since he served as chairman of the Senate Republican Caucus, I must assume he’s no liberal, as Missouri Republicans would never put a liberal in such a position. So, I can only conclude that he feels that in the Republican primary, he’d place third of three. I think he’s right about that.

Sadly for him, he will probably find that he’s in the same boat in the Democratic primary. But on the bright side, he’ll be able to devote more time to his lucrative law practice when he loses.

In response to No. 1, Virginia Young had the story online LONG before I posted the Political Fix item. (I did so at the request of several callers, who wanted to comment on the story.)
Actually, we had the basics around lunchtime, but were trying to get more before posting anything.

I know many other bloggers may have been in the same situation, so I’m not going to get into a fight over who knew/posted what first.

Let’s see…Koster now seeks to run in a Democratic primary, where left-leaning candidates have the greatest advantage? How will his vote to cut 100,000 poor Missourians off Medicaid appeal to Democratic primary voters? How about his vote to invoke the previous question and pass the anti-choice bill this past year? How about his vote to raid MOHELA for Blunt’s building spree? Or the rest of the countless string of Republican party line votes he’s cast?

Is he serious?

It is not a sad day for the Republican Party, it is a sad day for the Koster Family. Chris’ Dad, the late Rich Koster, a well known and well spoken conservative, is turning over tonight as tomorrow his son leaves Rich’s party and joins the ranks with those who believe in gay marriage and late term abortions. Very sad.