This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, Nov. 3, 2010 -Republican John Lamping declared victory over Democrat Barbara Fraser Tuesday night in their hard-fought race to succeed term-limited state Sen. Joan Bray, a Democrat.
With all 124 precincts in the 24th District reporting, Lamping defeated Fraser, 29,963 to 29,724, 50.14 percent to 49.74 percent.
Lamping is a businessman with no prior government experience, a fact that he emphasized during the often-bitter campaign. Fraser has been chair of the St. Louis County Council and has also served in the Missouri House.
After the votes were counted, Lamping said:
"We're up by 240 votes, and we have all precincts reporting so we have declared victory and if there is a recount we are preparing for that right now. John Lamping is the senator-elect from the 24th district.
"We will go through the entire process from here on out. As far as a recount goes, we're confident that the process has served itself, and that we will do whatever we can that to make sure that the voters' will is carried out."
There was no immediate statement from the Fraser campaign.
Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder, a Republican, noted not only the Lamping victory but wins by two outstate Republicans over two incumbent Democrats in the state Senate: "You're going to be seeing majorities in Jefferson City that we've never had before."
Freelancer Puneet Kollipara contributed information for this story.