FORMER ASSISTANT PROSECUTOR IN CAPE COUNTY GETS HOUSE BID

Kenny Hulshof went from defeat to victory in a matter of hours early Wednesday.

The Columbia man, whose roots are in Southeast Missouri, narrowly won the 9th District GOP primary. He will oppose incumbent Democrat Harold Volkmer for the Northeast Missouri congressional seat in November.

This will be Hulshof's second race against Volkmer. Hulshof lost to the congressman in the 1994 general election.

"It was like consolations a couple of hours ago, but now it is congratulations," said the former special prosecutor who likened his situation to Truman defeating Dewey.

Early reports Tuesday night indicated that Hulshof lost the primary. It wasn't until 1 a.m. or later Wednesday before a reporting error was uncovered that showed Hulshof had edged out millionaire eye doctor Harry Eggleston of St. Charles by 173 votes.

Hulshof's parents, Paul and Geri Hulshof, live on a farm near Bertrand.

Kenny Hulshof was assistant public defender and then assistant prosecuting attorney in Cape Girardeau County in the 1980s.

The secretary of state's office, which provides vote totals to The Associated Press and other news organizations, initially had reported that Eggleston was the winner by 827 votes.

But the vote totals didn't add up.

"When we finally got the secretary of state's office on line around 1 this morning, we asked them to go down county by county," Hulshof said.

"The results were accurate all the way down to Montgomery County and then there was a thousand-vote discrepancy."

It was discovered that the vote total in that county had been recorded incorrectly at the secretary of state's office.

Jim Grebing, communications director for the secretary of state's office, said county clerks and election officials throughout the state phoned in their vote totals Tuesday night.

Grebing said the secretary of state's office quickly spotted the discrepancy. "We picked up on it before it was called to our attention," he said.

Secretary of State Bekki Cook called Hulshof Wednesday morning to apologize for the error. She also spoke to a member of Eggleston's staff.

"We have a lot of numbers. It is a matter of reading numbers back and forth," Grebing said.

"It is just unfortunate it happened to be in this big race where it was close," he said.