On the evening of Nov. 2, 2004, when it became apparent that Republican Matt Blunt had defeated Democrat Claire McCaskill in the race for Missouri governor, Jeremiah W. “Jay” Nixon began laying claim to the Democratic nomination for governor in 2008.

He had just been elected to a fourth term as the state’s attorney general, but he immediately began raising money for the Democratic nomination for governor and scared off potential challengers. As a result, he faces token opposition from a virtual unknown, Daniel Carroll of Shelbina, in the Aug. 5 Democratic primary.

The primary will be Mr. Nixon’s 13th statewide race. Democratic voters know him well. There is no need to say more at this point.

But in the Republican primary, the plot thickens. Mr. Blunt’s announcement in January that he would not seek a second term stunned his party. At least half a dozen well-known Republicans considered the race, and two stayed in: U.S. Rep. Kenny Hulshof of Columbia and state Treasurer Sarah Steelman of Rolla. Two minor candidates also filed.

Ms. Steelman and Mr. Hulshof are attractive candidates who are far more alike than different. Both are native Missourians born 19 days apart in May 1958. Neither is a household name statewide. Ms. Steelman served six years in the Missouri Senate before she was elected to the relatively obscure post of treasurer in 2004. Mr. Hulshof has represented the 9th Congressional district in north central Missouri since 1996.

The candidates’ positions are alike on all but a few issues. They are pro-business, pro-life, anti-embryonic-stem-cell-research conservatives. The differences are more in style than substance.

Although he emphasizes his rural roots as a Bootheel farmer, Mr. Hulshof is a polished lawyer and litigator whose 12 years in Congress give him deep familiarity with national issues. Ms. Steelman, who holds a master’s degree in economics, is rougher around the edges, a woman with the heart of a populist and the soul of a supply-side economist.

In a conversation with the Post-Dispatch editorial board, Ms. Steelman emphasized that she wants to be the “people’s governor,” mentioning that she’d been touched by meeting a woman in Dexter who worked as a janitor “and can’t make ends meet because she has day-care expenses.”

But when pressed about what solutions she might offer her — help with health insurance, perhaps, or subsidized day care — Ms. Steelman said she might work to increase the personal tax exemption (something that would make little difference to a woman on a janitor’s salary). Mostly, she said, she’d work to create jobs, relying on the expanding economy to create wealth that eventually would work its way down to a janitor in Dexter.

She stresses her work as treasurer in ending state investments in funds that “support terrorist states,” but she was unable to say how much money that represents. She repeated her call to eliminate the earnings tax in St. Louis and Kansas City but offered no specifics on how those cities would replace the lost revenue and continue to provide essential services. She wants to eliminate the mandate that gasoline contain 10 percent ethanol and reduce state tax breaks for ethanol producers.

She has criticized Mr. Hulshof as a Washington insider who supported congressional earmarks. She asserts that Mr. Hulshof’s support for ethanol producers proves that he’s the candidate of the monied interests while she is the “people’s candidate.”

We admire Ms. Steelman’s words but doubt their substance. Mr. Hulshof clearly would be a more comfortable choice for those attuned to business and agriculture interests. He says he believes in limited government, one that encourages business to create jobs and expand the economy.

In Congress, his was a reliable vote for the components of the so-called “Republican Revolution” of the mid- and late-1990s, although he courageously broke from former Majority Leader Tom DeLay of Texas over Mr. DeLay’s ethical lapses. In Missouri, Mr. Hulshof promises to end the age-old embarrassment of parceling out license fee offices as political plums.

In a meeting with the Post-Dispatch editorial board, Mr. Hulshof dodged the question of how he might handle anticipated shortfalls in state revenue, saying only, “I do not intend to raise taxes on Missourians.”

Sarah Steelman would be the less conventional choice for Republican voters Aug. 5, particularly if she comes to realize what being the “people’s governor” really would entail. But Kenny Hulshof is better prepared and better qualified overall. It’s close, but we give him the edge.

Editor’s note: The Post-Dispatch will publish its primary election endorsements for attorney general, state treasurer and Congressional District 9 on Sunday, July 27.