MPN:

When attorney general candidate Chris Koster left the Cass County Prosecutor’s office to become the first Republican state senator in his district in half a century, he was replaced by Democrat Teresa Hensley.

In 2004 Koster defeated Democratic candidate Larry Snider by a 2-to-1 margin for the state senate seat, a stunning defeat in Democratic territory held by legendary Sen. Harold Caskey for 28 years before he was term limited out of the Senate. But the defeat of Snider and the turnover of the seat to a Republican left many Democrats in Cass County questioning just how such a defeat had been possible.

Since Koster’s party switch earlier this year, he has gained quite a bit of support from Democrats throughout the state, including some in Cass County. The one noticeable absence in support comes from the woman who replaced him. Hensley, a long time county resident and Democratic activist, was appointed by then Gov. Bob Holden to fill the vacancy when Koster was sworn into the Senate. She previously ran for a House seat in the historically Republican 123rd District in 2002, narrowly losing to Rep. Brian Baker, and has seen her name tossed around in recent months as a likely replacement for Koster’s Senate seat, which he is abandoning to run for attorney general. Read more…

Comments

comments