This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, Nov. 3, 2010 - U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., said Wednesday that she's "absolutely" seeking another term in 2012 -- shooting down rampant rumors in Republican circles that she woudn't seek re-election and might even step down early.
"Anybody who thinks I'm not running in 2012 doesn't know me very well," McCaskill said in an interview Wednesday.
She added, "I love this state and I will fight to represent it. I understand the frustration of Missourians, and I'm going to work as hard as I know how to earn their trust and their confidence so that they will hire me again for another six years."
McCaskill called GOP talk to the contrary "wishful thinking."
McCaskill added that she recognized that she'll face a challenge. "Missouri is a tough state. Of course, I expect a significant amount of resources to be spent against my candidacy in 2012 and I'm sure that a candidate will emerge against me who is strong," the senator said. "But I've assumed that from Day One. There's nothing about this election that changes that assumption."
The Republican incumbent she defeated in 2006, Jim Talent, has acknowledged that he is considering whether to make a 2012 bid. Some state Republican leaders are encouraging him to do so.
Others on the GOP's short list of possible challengers may include Ann Wagner of St. Louis County. She's former co-chair of the Republican National Committee, former chairwoman of the Missouri Republican Party and most recently the U.S. ambassador to Luxembourg. She was campaign chairwoman for U.S. Sen.-elect Roy Blunt, R-Mo.
McCaskill currently is Missouri's most powerful Democrat in Washington. On a state level, she has a strong voice in the party's operations, although control of the state party's apparatus is up to Gov. Jay Nixon, a fellow Democrat and former rival. The two now are on good terms and talk regularly.
For the most part, though, Nixon and McCaskill played low-key public roles this election cycle. A rarity was last Sunday's joint appearance at a Democratic rally in Forest Park for U.S. Senate nominee Robin Carnahan, who lost badly Tuesday to Blunt.
McCaskill gave a fiery speech blasting Blunt, currently a congressman in southwest Missouri.
As she assessed her party's poor performance, and Carnahan's huge defeat, McCaskill said Wednesday that the statewide totals indicated that Republican turnout wasn't much greater than it was in the 2006 midterm.
Trouble was, far fewer Democrats showed up.
About 250,000 fewer Missourians cast ballots Tuesday, compared to 2006, and McCaskill believes most were Democrats. The official statewide tally put voter turnout at just under 47 percent -- significantly below the turnout in the midterm elections in 2002 and 2006.
In Greene County, Blunt's home turf, she continued, "Jim Talent actually got more votes in Greene County four years ago than Roy Blunt did yesterday."
McCaskill was particularly sorry to see the defeat of state Auditor Susan Montee, a personal friend, who lost to Republican Tom Schweich. McCaskill, who previously had been the auditor, praised Montee's record in office. Of Schweich, McCaskill said she hoped that he would be as politically independent as Montee -- and she took note of the $200,000 in campaign contributions that Schweich received from Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder.
Overall, said McCaskill, Tuesday's election "was not a large turnout. And a lot of the people who didn't vote, I think, are people who've gotten sick of the whole lot of us."
