This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, Oct. 9, 2012 - Although the Missouri governor is the state’s chief executive, the contest for the job is at times overshadowed by other posts on the statewide ballot.
This year's battle is one of those times.
With national attention focused on the race for the U.S. Senate, the candidates for Missouri governor are finding their race undercovered.
And Republican nominee Dave Spence contends that Gov. Jay Nixon, a Democrat, wants to keep it that way.
Spence alleges that Nixon, ahead in the polls, is avoiding any televised debates to make it more difficult for voters to see the two spar over their records and their plans for the state. “We have agreed to four,” Spence said, adding that Nixon had yet to agree to any.
Nixon's campaign manager Oren Shur says debates are still on the table. “Gov. Nixon values debates, and over the coming days, we’ll be reaching out to the different organizations that invited us and we’ll then determine how we move forward," he said.
The two have appeared together only once, for a Sept. 21 forum before the Missouri Press Association that was not televised, although it was aired on some radio stations. Spence went on the attack throughout much of their 90-minute encounter, while Nixon generally ignored him and declined to engage.
That event aside, most of what the public has heard about either man in recent weeks is contained in attack ads that both campaigns say are inaccurate.
"Jay Nixon is lying about me and about his record as governor,” Spence said in a statement Monday, which was accompanied by the release of a new attack ad against the governor.
“Dave Spence is down in the polls and running out of time, so he’s beginning to panic and resort to desperate measures,” said Oren Shur, Nixon’s campaign manager, who defended the governor’s latest attack ad against Spence.
Starkly different state portraits
The dueling over ads and debates hints at their larger, more significant divide: As their one forum demonstrated, Spence and Nixon disagree sharply on where the state is and where it is going.
In particular, the two view Missouri’s economic situation through sharply different lenses.
Nixon points to Missouri’s unemployment rate, now 7.2 percent, which has “been under the national average for 36 straight months.”
The governor cites 17,900 jobs created in August, including 4,900 manufacturing jobs. And he notes the state’s recent rise to 6th in the national Kauffman index of entrepreneurial activity.
While the state's economy is still struggling, "I'm optimistic," Nixon says.
Spence paints a starkly negative picture. Missouri has seen a drop of 106,000 in the number of people in the workforce since Nixon took office January 2009.
"There are 30,000 fewer construction jobs since 2009,” Spence said. “We’re not building office buildings. We’re not building factories.”
Compared to its neighboring states, said Spence, "Missouri is asleep at the switch."
The numbers that both men tout are accurate. At issue is how to interpret them. Spence says Missouri is a state in decline, while Nixon says the state is clawing its way back up.
Each claims to be the strong leader that Missouri needs to get ahead.
Differences on how to create jobs
Spence says he’s already talked to Republican legislative leaders and that all agree on the needed agenda.
Top on his list is revamping Missouri’s laws on lawsuits, to discourage “frivolous lawsuits,” and to transform Missouri into a “right-to-work” state that would bar closed union shops or the automatic collection of union dues from workers’ paychecks.
Spence calls it “a bunch of propaganda” that curbing labor rights would reduce wages. Factories, he said, are “going to Tennessee, they’re going to Arkansas” because both are right-to-work states.
“We need to rein in workman’s comp,” Spence said, asserting the General Assembly accepted “a water-downed version” to get Nixon’s approval.
In addition, he added, “We need to look at every regulation in the state and say, ‘Is it necessary?’ “
Nixon disputes Spence’s assertions about the state’s economic picture.
In a breakfast address at the Democratic National Convention last month, the governor declared, "Some of our opponents believe the way to grow our economy is to pay workers less, cut benefits, roll back workplace protections. You are not going to grow this economy by pushing down the workers.”
The governor reaffirmed in an interview that he's focused on education and job training as the best ways to develop and retain an attractive workforce.
The governor cites his efforts to keep increases in tuition down at the state’s universities and colleges and his “Show Me JOBS Initiative” that offers loans and tax incentives to retain and attract businesses.
The governor frequently points to the successful effort in 2010 to persuade Ford to expand its Claycomo facility instead of moving the plant elsewhere. If re-elected, Nixon says he plan to continue his focus on job creation.
Attacks focus on donations, vacation home
Spence contends that one of his aims is to “snap people back to reality about who Jay Nixon really is.” Spence asserts that Nixon is downplaying what Spence portrays as a too close relationship with “union bosses and personal-injury lawyers.”
Spence points to the millions of dollars that Nixon has collected in campaign donations from labor unions and lawyers and accuses the governor of “pay to play.”
Nixon replied during the forum, “People know how independent I am.”
Nixon’s allies also have countered by citing Spence’s use of $4 million in personal loans or donations to finance his campaign. Spence has yet to say if he will put in any more of his own money.
But Nixon's sharpest attacks have been directed at Spence's tenure on the bank board, and later the holding company, for Reliance Bancshares, which took $40 million in federal bailout money.
Nixon points to Spence's vote for delaying repayment, which the governor portrays as irresponsible. Spence says the board was taking the advice of bank regulators.
Both are getting some national attention – at least for their warchests. Spence has collected $2 million from the Republican Governors Association, while Nixon has received over $1 million from the Democratic Governors Association.
Although neither candidate has said much publicly about social issues, Spence’s campaign recently launched a targeted series of robocalls that accuse Nixon of being a “pro-abortion governor,” because he generally has backed reproductive rights.
Nixon has sought to counter any GOP assertions that he’s anti-gun with his well publicized hunting trips, most recently his success in bagging the limit for doves.
Spence campaign consultant Jared Craighead replied, “Just because you are a hunter doesn’t mean you are a strong advocate for the Second Amendment.” He cited Nixon’s comments years ago against the concealed-carry law that the General Assembly passed in 2003, four years after Missouri voters had narrowly rejected the idea.
But with no debates yet scheduled, most of the candidates’ sparring has gone unnoticed, unless they've been over ads. In the case of the latter, both have brought in lawyers.
Spence is particularly upset with Nixon’s attack ad that portrays Spence as a banker, rather than a member of the bank board. The ad also highlights a loan he obtained from Reliance for a vacation home. The two camps have fired off dueling letters from lawyers to TV stations around the state.
Spence wants the ad pulled for alleged inaccuracies while Nixon’s campaign says the ad is accurate and should stay on the air.
On Tuesday, Nixon launched a new ad -- making the same claims.
Meanwhile, Nixon has launched a new ad that seeks to counter Spence's latest TV attack.
In any case, their ads appear to be their only avenue, at least for now, to attract much public attention -- or to engage each other.
