Claire McCaskill (b. 1953) is currently (as of October, 2004) State Auditor of Missouri and the Democratic nominee for Governor of Missouri in the 2004 election.
Claire McCaskill was born in Rolla, Missouri and spent her early childhood in Houston, later moving to Lebanon, and eventually Columbia where her father served as a state insurance commissioner and her mother became the first woman to serve on the city council. She earned a B.S. in political science from the University of Missouri-Columbia in 1975 and later graduated from law school at the same institution.
After graduating from law school, she became a law clerk at the Missouri Court of Appeals in Kansas City. She later joined the Jackson County prosecutor's office where she specialized in arson cases. From 1983 to 1993, she represented the Kansas City area in the Missouri House of Representatives. She became the first Missouri state lawmaker to give birth while in office. In 1993, she became the first woman elected Jackson County Prosecutor serving in that office until her election as State Auditor in 1998.
On August 3, 2004, she defeated Governor Bob Holden becoming the first person to defeat an incumbent Governor in Missouri, and the first primary challenger in the nation to defeat an incumbent Governor since 1994, when Bill Janklow defeated Walter Dale Miller in South Dakota.
External Links
Missouri State Auditor Website www.auditor.state.mo.us
2004 Campaign Website www.claireonline.com