Eric Schmitt has disgraced the office of Missouri attorney general since his appointment by Gov. Mike Parson, and defeating him in November should be one of the main priorities in this election year for people who want to see criminal justice reform and simply good government in Missouri. Voters are blessed to have two eminently qualified and passionate progressive Democrats on the August 4 primary ballot. Elad Gross and Rich Finneran are indeed two of the best candidates for Missouri attorney general we have ever seen. While either would be a capable leader and progressive change agent in this important office, we have our eye on November 3 and who would be best equipped to defeat Schmitt. Both are equally qualified first-time candidates with no statewide name recognition, so electability is the deciding factor. Gross has an extremely youthful appearance compared to Finneran, who looks like an attorney general straight out of Central Casting, and superficial factors like physical appearance can be telling to voters. More importantly, Finneran has more than doubled Gross in fundraising though Gross announced his campaign nearly a year before Finneran did. While we believe Gross’ many grassroots donors would readily switch their allegiance to any Democrat battling Schmitt, we are less confident that the deeper pockets that support Finneran would have the same confidence in Gross’ ability to topple a Republican incumbent with the established name recognition that the Democrat will need to buy in advertising before November. We believe Elad Gross would be a dynamic attorney general and encourage him to maintain his inexhaustible commitment to the public good, but we strongly endorse RICH Finneran for attorney general.
