Donnelly blames “stalking horse” in latest missive to allies
State Rep. Margaret Donnelly, who came within 786 votes of being the state’s Democratic nominee for attorney general, sent out an update Saturday to supporters.
She noted her bittersweet status of being on the losing end of an historic race — “we ended with the closest statewide vote total in Missouri history….”
Then Donnelly pointed out her roadblocks:
The victor, state Sen. Chris Koster “spent 3 times as much money on TV as I did in the last week of the campaign and that we had a ’stalking horse’ candidate who received 23,000 votes after not campaigning at all….”
(Donnelly was referring to Molly Williams of Kansas City, who did no campaigning but snagged about 23,000 votes. Koster has denied his rivals’ accusations that he engineered Williams’ candidacy.)
After thanking supporters and campaign workers, Donnelly explained the legal nitty-gritty:
Under Missouri law we are entitled to a recount if the vote total is less than 1%. Even though the state pays the cost of the official recount we would still have some expenses if the recount proceeds. We are weighing the costs and practical considerations before deciding the next step to take. The recount cannot begin until the vote totals are certified, approximately 2 weeks after the election.
“I will keep you posted on what we decide to do about the recount,” she continued. “Meanwhile, we can look ahead to the November elections and electing Democrats from the president down to the legislative seats.”
Dear Margaret,
YOU LOST!
Stalking horse candidate? C’mon, you oughtta be able to do better than that for sour grapes! Could you actually be saying that for the sole reason that this Molly Williams was on the ballot that those votes were somehow yours? Preposterous, but all too typical.
Again: you lost. There wouldn’t be any point in a recount other than for you to shoot one last poison arrow at Koster who beat ya fair and square. It’s one thing to keep antagonizing Koster, but you don’t have to antogonize everyone else too. If you hope for a Nixon or Obama appointment ya better keep Claire happy don’t ya think? And she won’t be happy if you drag the entire Democratic Party through a recount you have no chance of winning, keeping everything in limbo and damaging everyone on the ballot in the process.
Give it up Margaret. The race is finished. You’re done.
Well, did Koster have anything to do the decision of Williams to run?
I think we should all congratulate Margaret for coming close to winning. After doing so, we ought to remind Margaret that from the beginning, Jeff Harris spent all his time and money going after Koster. Soon, Margaret joined in the negative assault. Margaret and Harris then engineered those baseless ethics complaints, and at the end of the race, persuaded Koster’s ex-wife to use those baseless ethics complaints in a last minute TV blitz to hurt Koster. If someone could determine the total spent by Harris, Donnelly and Koster’s ex-wife on their negative assaults, I’m sure they spent more than $1,000,000 merely attacking Koster. All this is to say that this was a nasty, expensive race and instead of continuing to criticize Koster, Margaret should look in the mirror and recognize that she too engaged in dirty tricks.
It is amazing to all of us that Molly got as many votes as she did. Perhaps by the end of this nasty, expensive primary, the voters decided they did not like any of the three top candidates. Nevertheless, Jeff Harris took many more votes away from Margaret than Molly did. Why doesn’t Margaret recognize that the ever-whiny Jeff Harris was the real spoiler in this race?
Margaret could also point a finger at the Post, which did not help her or Koster by publishing a poll a couple of weeks before the race which had Harris getting 33% of the vote. Despite Shecky’s contention that the poll was “scientific,” their numbers were completely wrong. (Hopefully the Post will never again use that polling company for anything.)
Koster is much more moderate than Margaret, and therefore has the best chance of beating Gibbons in the general. Margaret could her party by conceding that Koster won, but chances are, she won’t. After all, she does not belong to an organized political party. She’s a Democrat!
Jeff Harris? I think I remember him. Wasn’t Jeff Harris the former minority leader of the House who was too stupid to realize that his pure partisanship would accomplish nothing in a House controlled by Republicans? Wasn’t Jeff Harris the candidate for Attorney General who promised his contributors that his “cutting edge” campaign on the blogosphere guaranteed victory? Wasn’t Jeff Harris the guy who spent most of his time and money on his army of anonymous bloggers and those cute little cartoons making fun of Koster? Harris should always be remembered as the guy who, claiming to be a real Democrat, instigated the nastiest, most expensive primary in the history of this state. I hope Jeff Harris rests in peace, and that we never see him and his child-like antics again. What a punk!
Well, when the results are certified for Koster I will be the first to sign onto Democrats for Mike Gibbons! And I’m not kidding. Koster will never get my vote!
Dear blog community at Political Fix,
I have been doing a lot of soul searching about the attorney general’s primary. I was a strong supporter of Margaret Donnelly. I am a rural retiree in central Missouri. Over the course of several years I became familiar with Margaret’s work as a guardian ad litem because we share an interest in the well being of children that transcends urban or rural (or “country folks,” as I affectionately call myself and my neighbors, a term for which I have been taunted here and accused of phoniness). I will also admit to a long commitment to being supportive of strong women candidates (so shoot me =) I still am a strong supporter of Margaret Donnelly. I put more than 600 miles on my car distributing signs and door hangers for Margaret the weekend before the election. My country friends and I did this joyfully and I told many of you about it at the time. Margaret will keep doing good work, whether it is in elected office or another public role or the private sector.
Perhaps Margaret will seek a recount. Perhaps not. I personally hope she does seek a recount, if only to stymie the inevitable backbiting and second-guessing that will come her way if she does not seek a recount and Koster loses to Gibbons and people begin assigning blame. I do recognize that the time spent waiting for a recount would mean some donors would stay on the sidelines until there is a disposition. That would not help the ultimate Democratic nominee. So be it. With unlimited campaign contributions, either Margaret or Koster would make up ground.
As a Democrat, I have a decision to make if the nominee is not Margaret Donnelly, my favorite candidate. The decision is as follows:
(1) Do I support Chris Koster, even though he has only been a professed Democrat for about a year and now seeks one of our state’s highest offices carrying my party’s nomination?
OR
(2) Do I register a protest vote against Koster by supporting Republican Mike Gibbons?
OR
(3) Do I not vote at all for attorney general, which abdicates my right to complain about the outcome?
OR
(4) Do I throw away my vote on a third-party candidate, if there is such a choice in this race?
OR
(5) Do I focus on helping other Democrats and just make my choice on AG when I walk into my country voting booth and walk out without regrets, having gone with my instincts?
OR
(6) Some combination of (5) and one of the above?
I must tell you that if Margaret does seek a recount but does not prevail, one thing is certain. I will be looking to Chris Koster to make the case why I, as a Democrat, should cast my vote for him in November.
I am not interested in looking back. I do believe Jeff Harris was the spoiler. I also believe the lady from Kansas City, who I know nothing about, drained some indifferent voters from Margaret and the others. Rehashing all of that does not help me in sorting my options as outlined above.
To Mr. Koster: Convince me, please.
Ziggy, are you kidding?
Please tell me you are kidding. That’s too much. You’ve got to be kidding.
WHO CARES ABOUT YOU AND YOUR FICKLE VOTE!!?
alert to all Koster bloggers. you better humble yourselves and do it quick. Arrogance after winning by less than 1 percentage point is not a good strategy. Remember, 65% of all voters rejected you. Nearly 2 out of 3 voters voted for someone else. And if you think what Jeff Harris did was nasty, get ready for what Gibbons will do. Jeff Roe will strip you naked and expose wwwwaaaaaaaayyyyyyy more than Harris ever even considered.
Hey Folks,
I’m not in love with Koster BUT…
Gibbons is one of the most evil people to serve in the MO Senate in years. He used his position as majority leader to infuse little things into bills that will damage different types of Districts (schools cities, counties and fire) for years to come. It was a hidden agenda that you will all be reading about in the next year but after the election. He did this many times over the past 4 years.
Koster may be many things but he is nowhere near as bad as Gibbons. On the other hand I pray for Margaret to with the recount, if she does it!
Tell It, Rich! Tell It!