Kinder drops out of governor's race

View Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder's speech to Republicans.

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. -- Republican Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder dropped out of the Missouri governor's race Friday night barely two weeks after he entered it, declaring he instead will seek re-election.

Kinder, of Cape Girardeau, announced his decision to hundreds of Republicans gathered for their annual Lincoln Days conference after first saying that he had received encouraging support from grassroots organizers, fundraisers, the business community and others.

"I will nonetheless stand down from the governor's race here tonight in the interest of the larger cause you and I share. I will run for re-election as lieutenant governor," said Kinder, receiving a standing ovation from fellow Republicans.

Kinder was the first candidate to enter the governor's race following Republican Gov. Matt Blunt's surprise announcement Jan. 22 that he will not seek re-election this year. At the time, Kinder declared there was no chance he would change his mind.

But after Kinder entered the race, so did Treasurer Sarah Steelman and U.S. Rep. Kenny Hulshof, suddenly creating a potential three-way Republican primary.

Some Republican Party insiders had been working to winnow down the gubernatorial field in order to avoid a potentially costly and contentious primary. Their intent is to try to clear the field for Hulshof.

Hulshof said Kinder informed him he would be dropping out of the race before officially making the announcement. Hulshof declined to say whether Kinder pledged to support his candidacy, but Hulshof added that he was supporting Kinder's lieutenant governor's candidacy.

"We're going to make a great team," Hulshof said.

Kinder left the room quickly and declined to comment after making his announcement.

A smiling but surprised Steelman said Kinder had not told her in advance that he was quitting the governor's race.

"It doesn't change my plans," Steelman said. "I'm in to stay."

But other Republicans quickly began speculating that Steelman, like Kinder, would change her resolute stance.

"I think the next thing you're going to see is Steelman pulling out" and instead running for re-election as treasurer, said Harvey Tettlebaum, of Jefferson City, a Republican Party lawyer.

The lone Democratic gubernatorial candidate is Attorney General Jay Nixon, who has been campaigning for the office already for several years.

Kinder's departure from the governor's race surprised some supporters who were in full force at the Republican conference, wearing green campaign T-shirts and passing out "Peter Kinder for Governor" stickers.

He built up to his announcement by first retracing, for 10 minutes, his political path from the time he stuffed envelopes for Barry Goldwater's 1964 gubernatorial campaign to the point when he led the Republican takeover of the Missouri Senate and eventually became lieutenant governor.

"The reason to mention all that is to say that since my earliest days of involvement, the reason for being involved has been larger than any one person," Kinder said. "It has been emphatically not about me. It's about the cause you and I share, and it's about preventing the fate that awaits Missouri if Jay Nixon ever becomes governor of this state."

Republican Party chairman Doug Russell said Friday that a gubernatorial primary wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing for the party.

But "obviously, I would prefer not to have a primary," Russell said.