Emerson beats primary opponent

There was no suspense Tuesday for six of the seven Missouri Congressional incumbents, who faced no opposition in their party primaries.

Republican JoAnn Emerson easily turned back a primary challenge from Richard Allen Kline, a 64-year-old retired Navy and Coast Guard veteran from Gipsy.

With 73 percent of the precincts reporting, Emerson had 89 percent, or 52,083 votes, to Kline's 6,112 votes, according to unofficial results.

Democrats Ike Skelton and William Lacy Clay, and Republicans Todd Akin, Roy Blunt, Kenny Hulshof and Sam Graves were unopposed in their primaries, but all will have opponents in November.

Emerson, 53, was elected in 1996 to serve out the term of her late husband, Bill Emerson, in Southeast Missouri's 8th District and has been handily re-elected since then.

Democrats seeking their party's nomination in the district are Jerry Cass, 49, from Hartville and Dean Henderson, 39, from Peace Valley. With 64 percent of the precincts reporting, Henderson had 57 percent of the vote to Cass's 43 percent.

Seeking Gephardt's seat

In the St. Louis area's 3rd District, 10 Democrats and two Republicans were seeking the nomination for the seat being vacated by Rep. Dick Gephardt.

On the Democratic side, with 34 percent of precincts in, Steve Stoll of Festus was leading with 17,625 votes, or 34 percent. Russ Carnahan, son of the late Gov. Mel Carnahan and former U.S. Sen. Jean Carnahan, followed with 14,717, or 22 percent, and Jeff Smith was in third with 11,275 votes. In the Republican primary, Bill Federer, loser to Gephardt in 1998 and 2000 general elections, was leading with 18,861 votes to Joan McGivney's 5,774.

And in the 5th District, encompassing Kansas City and some suburbs, seven people were vying for the nomination to the seat held by retiring Rep. Karen McCarthy.

With 58 percent of precincts reporting, former Kansas City mayor Emanuel Cleaver led Jamie Metzel in the Democratic primary 38,805 to 32,939. Jeanne Patterson led the five Republican candidates with 17,186.