Cook-Kinder race recalls '44 campaign

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Although it is rare for two people from the same rural Missouri city to be the major political party nominees for a single statewide office, this year's matchup between Cape Girardeau residents Bekki Cook and Peter Kinder in the race for lieutenant governor isn't unique.

It happened at least once before, when prominent Lebanon lawyers Phil Donnelly, a Democrat, and Jean Paul Bradshaw, a Republican, went head-to-head in the 1944 campaign for governor.

Like the two opponents in that contest, Cook, a Democrat and former secretary of state, and Kinder, a Republican and president pro tem of the Missouri Senate, are both lawyers and longtime community leaders whose families have known each other for decades.

Bradshaw's grandson, also named Jean Paul Bradshaw, said that according to family lore, Lebanon was a "divided community" during the battle between the local prospects. However, he said the discourse never turned negative.

"People picked sides, but I never heard it described that there was any harshness or meanness," Bradshaw said. "I think the community took a great deal of pride that both nominees for governor we're from their town."

David Donnelly, now a semi-retired lawyer in Lebanon, was a college student when his father ran for governor. He also said the campaign caused no bitterness around town.

"Some people were for one, and some people were for the other," Donnelly said simply. "It was an interesting race and an interesting outcome.

On Election Day, Lebanon voters literally split their loyalties between the two candidates in half, with the citywide results producing a tie. However, Bradshaw said his grandfather boasted of winning a majority in Laclede County as a whole, beating Donnelly by 682 votes.

Although there was no lingering animosity in the community, Bradshaw said his grandfather harbored some ill feelings following his narrow statewide loss to Donnelly. The Democrat won the election with 50.9 percent support.

"By all accounts, my grandfather and Gov. Donnelly, while civil to each other, were never close," Bradshaw said.

David Donnelly echoed that assessment.

"My dad and Jean Paul were competitors in the practice of law and always had been," Donnelly said. "But they were cordial with one another."

The spirit of competition, however, didn't extend to other members of the Bradshaw and Donnelly families. Bradshaw said his grandmother and Donnelly's wife remained good friends, and his father, who later became a state senator, was close to several members of the Donnelly clan.

Also, Robert True Donnelly, a nephew of the governor who served on the Missouri Supreme Court from 1965 to 1988, was a mentor of sorts to Bradshaw.

"Probably there was no one nicer to me in my early legal career than the Donnelly family," said Bradshaw, who served as U.S. attorney for the western district of Missouri under the first President George Bush from 1989 to 1993.

Gov. Donnelly, who died in 1961, was prohibited by the Missouri Constitution from seeking re-election in 1948. However, he regained the office following the 1952 election, becoming the first Missouri governor to serve two four-year terms. The state constitution didn't allow an incumbent governor to seek re-election until it was amended in the 1960s.

The elder Bradshaw made another run at high office in 1964 when he lost his bid to unseat Democratic U.S. Sen. Stuart Symington. Bradshaw died in 1970.

mpowers@semissourian.com

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