Gov. Jay Nixon’s commitment to U.S. Rep. Wm. Lacy Clay was announced on Tuesday, but it was formed long before. Russ Carnahan’s brazen, foolish announcement that he was running (in which district, he didn’t say, though no one expected him to forge into the Republican-heavy 2nd District) long before filing opened for the August 7 primary gave Clay ample time to lock down his endorsements. Clay and Nixon have a long-standing personal relationship, and Nixon has keen political antennae. Nixon’s support of the incumbent in Missouri’s first African-American congressional district – the son of the political giant, Congressman Bill Clay, who did the most to create and maintain that district and is the only other person to represent it – has never been seriously in doubt to those who understand the dynamics of the situation.
While it may seem irrelevant to commend someone for helping a friend and himself to succeed, since these are basic human instincts, we commend Nixon. A governor known to go his own way and let other Democrats fend for themselves has shown clear and firm leadership in this contested primary and in so doing bolstered his standing in his party’s most dependable voting bloc.
Rare for Jay Nixon in an election cycle, he is spending some political capital to benefit others in addition to himself. Carnahan’s quixotic quest to hold onto an address at the U.S. Capitol has delivered an aggravating distraction in an election cycle that should be focused on protecting one of President Barack Obama’s most important allies in the U.S. Senate, Claire McCaskill. It always has been our impression that the Missouri Democratic Party’s powerful de facto woman’s caucus is lining up strongly and unequivocally behind Clay as the only antidote to the Carnahan distraction – which could be much more damaging than distracting in the unlikely event that Carnahan actually unseats Clay just three months before the 2012 General Election. But Nixon speaks up for a very male, very conservative faction in the Missouri Democratic Party, which counts for plenty of votes in what is now the southern and southwestern margins of the 1st Congressional District.
Nixon’s reelection we put beyond doubt, and most of the other Democrat statewide aspirants are more impressive than their potential Republican rivals, but are really dispensable. But we strongly want to see Claire McCaskill returned to the U.S. Senate. Although her stance against appropriations does Missouri agencies and taxpayers more disservice in the short run than it will transform spending in the long run, McCaskill is as reasoned, compassionate and progressive a voice as we can imagine Missouri sending to the U.S. Senate in the current political climate. To win in 2012, with an onslaught of government-hating, racially provocative attacks on her from the right based on her support for many of Obama’s policies, McCaskill will need an extraordinarily high turnout by minority voters. She also will need every one of those voters energized by President Obama’s candidacy to vote for her, rather than choose to carry out a vendetta against all Missouri Democrats by ignoring them on the ballot in November, should Clay fall in August. Nixon and McCaskill both know they need Clay with them on the ballot in November.
So, in helping himself and a friend, Nixon has helped McCaskill and the many citizens in the state who want her leadership and her vote in the Senate. Perhaps Nixon also has done Russ Carnahan a favor. Maybe now Russ finally will stop tilting at well-entrenched political windmills and embark on the next chapter of his career while so many of his friends still wish him well.
