Gov. Bob Holden (D) Elected 2000, 1st term up Jan. 2005
Born:	Aug. 8, 1949, Kansas City
Home:	Jefferson City
Education:	S.W. MO St. U., B.S. 1973.
Religion:	Disciples of Christ
Marital Status:	married (Lori)
Elected  Office:	MO House of Reps., 1982-88; MO Treasurer, 1992-00.
Military Career:	MO Natl. Guard, 1971-77.
Professional Career:	Asst., MO Treasurer James Spainhower, 1976-81; St. Louis A.A., U.S. Rep. Richard Gephardt, 1989-91.
Additional Info
Recent Articles · Office Election Results
More On Missouri
At A Glance · State Profile Almanac Home

Bob Holden, elected governor of Missouri in 2000, was born in Kansas City but grew up outside of Birch Tree in rural Shannon County, where his home was more than a mile from a paved road. Holden graduated from Southwest Missouri State, the first in his father's family to graduate from college, and worked as an assistant to state Treasurer Jim Spainhower. In 1982, at 33, Holden was elected to the state House, beating a Republican incumbent in heavily Republican Springfield. He served for six years and ran for state treasurer in 1988, and lost. For three years he worked for Congressman Dick Gephardt in St. Louis, then ran for treasurer again in 1992, and won. He was reelected in 1996 and soon became a candidate for governor. He avoided primary opposition in March 1998 when Lieutenant Governor Roger Wilson announced that he wouldn't run. The Republican nominee, not seriously challenged in his primary, was suburban St. Louis Congressman Jim Talent, who had also served eight years in the legislature and announced in February 1999. This was the most expensive gubernatorial race in Missouri history, by far; the candidates took advantage of a court ruling overturning the limit on individual contributions to raise some $3 million in over-limit money, until the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the Missouri law in January 2000.

In many ways this race was a referendum on the eight-year governorship of Democrat Mel Carnahan, who was not eligible for a third term and was running against his predecessor, Senator John Ashcroft. Back in 1993, Carnahan passed a $315 million tax increase to pay for a new school funding plan; he pushed through a children's health plan; he helped to defeat a proposal to allow law-abiding citizens to get permits to carry concealed weapons in 1998; his 1999 veto of a partial-birth abortion ban was overturned. Holden promised to use tobacco settlement money to provide prescription drugs for the elderly and health insurance to more low-income people; he said he would raise education spending, provide more accountability and reduce class sizes. Talent called for resuscitating a 1992 rural highway-building program that had been abandoned in 1998; he promised to deliver all gambling revenue to education, and called for school vouchers for parents of children in failing schools.

The race took a tragic turn when Mel Carnahan was killed in a plane crash October 16, the night before the third presidential debate in St. Louis. All candidates agreed to pull negative ads, though some Talent spots still ran--despite his efforts, he said. Carnahan's eulogies naturally recalled his service in positive terms, and probably made Talent's anti-status quo theme less appealing. This was one of the closest races in the country, and one of three top-of-the-ticket races that turned out to be very close in Missouri. On election night, St. Louis Democrats got a state judge to order the polls remain open three extra hours because of alleged shortages of ballots and booths; 45 minutes later the order was reversed on appeal, but Republicans from Senator Christopher Bond on down argued that Democrats got illegitimate votes, and no one defended the competence of St. Louis's election procedures. Holden won by 21,000 votes, 49%-48%. Talent ran ahead of other Republicans in his native St. Louis area, but ran farther behind in the Kansas City area and did not carry rural Missouri by a wide margin.

Holden started off on the wrong foot, holding a $1 million inaugural, the largest in state history, and then confessing that the committee was $417,000 in debt. Then in January 2001 he discovered he needed to cut state spending by $200 million and, thanks to Republican victories in special elections, he had to deal with a Republican state Senate, which killed his plan for a $500 million tax increase for roads. He was criticized for granting collective bargaining rights to 30,000 state employees. He did better with a September special session of the legislature, which agreed on a prescription drugs for low-income seniors program, though by year's end it attracted fewer participants than expected. He got a compromise on a livestock pricing law and a one-time exemption from income tax of federal tax rebates. In the 2002 regular session the legislature resisted his proposal to dip into the rainy day fund and found enough revenue, but for the first time since 1997 did not provide full school funding. A $511 million roads proposal was put on the ballot in August 2002 and defeated 73%-27%. But Holden's proposals for state aid for new stadiums in St. Louis and Kansas City were rejected. In November 2002 Republicans gained seats in the state Senate and had a 20-14 majority and gained control of the state House for the first time since 1948, with a 90-73 margin. Term limits meant that most state House members were freshmen; much power was in the hands of Senate President Peter Kinder and House Speaker Catherine Hanaway.

By midterm Holden had cut state spending by $900 million and in early 2003 seemed likely to cut it more. Holden called for closing what he called business tax loopholes to bring in an extra $100 million and to increase taxes on cigarettes and casinos by $710 million, plus a 5% surcharge on households with incomes over $200,000. He proposed to use money from securitization of tobacco settlement payments; Republicans wanted to limit that tobacco settlement spending to $100 million and to cut spending by $85 million and delay building a $30 million pharmacy building for the University of Missouri at Kansas City.

In early 2003 Holden's prospects for reelection in 2004 looked iffy. The liberal St. Louis Post-Dispatch called him "a luckless politician who has encountered one problem after another since taking office." Auditor Claire McCaskill, a Democrat who was reelected 60%-37% in 2002, had in 2001 said, "I would never run against Bob Holden in a Democratic primary and I don't think anyone would be wise to do that." But in November 2002 she was sidestepping questions about a primary challenge. In February 2003 she said, "A lot of people are talking to me, and I'm talking to a lot of people." She said she would not announce a decision until after the legislative session ended in May.

Meanwhile, Republicans seemed to develop consensus on a candidate. In fall 2002 possible candidates included Senate President Peter Kinder, Congressman Kenny Hulshof and Secretary of State Matt Blunt. Kinder decided early on to run for another, unspecified statewide office. Hulshof decided to run the day after the 2002 election, but his father died later that month, leaving his mother to run the family farm, and in January 2003 Hulshof announced he would not run for governor. That left Matt Blunt, the one successful statewide candidate on the 2000 ballot, when he was elected secretary of state at age 29. Blunt is the son of 7th District Congressman Roy Blunt, who was elected secretary of state himself in 1984 (at 34) and 1988 and narrowly lost a primary for governor in 1992. Matt Blunt served as an officer in the Navy from 1993 to 1998 and as a naval reservist was called up for six months active duty in the United Kingdom after September 11. By late 2002 he was busy canvassing for support and raising money and seemed certain to be the Republican nominee. He does not appear to consider his age a problem; he points out that if elected in November 2004 he will be several months older than Senator Christopher Bond was when he was first elected governor in 1972 and that he will have had more experience in elective office.

Recent News Coverage
Search the CongressDaily, Hotline, National Journal and Technology Daily archives using the form below:

Office
State Capitol Bldg., Rm. 216, Jefferson City 65102, 573-751-3222; Fax: 573-751-1495; Web: www.gov.state.mo.us.

Election Results (More Info)
	Candidate	Total Votes	Percent
2000 general	Bob Holden (D)	1,152,752	49%
	Jim Talent (R)	1,131,307	48%
	Other	62,771	3%
2000 primary	Bob Holden (D)	unopposed
1996 general	Mel Carnahan (D)	1,224,801	57%
	Margaret Kelly (R)	866,268	40%
	Other	51,449	2%