Jay Nixon wins Missouri governor race based on exit polls

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) _ Democrat Jay Nixon, Missouri's longest-serving attorney general, won election as governor Tuesday by turning back Republican Congressman Kenny Hulshof.

Nixon's win was based on an analysis of information from voters interviewed as they left the polling places. The interviews were conducted for The Associated Press by Edison Media Research and Mitofsky International.

Nixon fared well among all ages, races and income levels of voters and in both urban and rural parts of Missouri.

He ran on a dual platform of experience and change, referring to his record 16 years of service as attorney general and to his party's out-of-power status for the past four years. His blue, orange and white campaign banners proclaimed: "Jay Nixon. Independent. Experienced. The Change We Need."

"Loudly and clearly, the people of Missouri went to the polls and voted to take our state in a new direction, and that's exactly what they'll get," Nixon said Tuesday night in an interview with The Associated Press.

Change was guaranteed after Republican Gov. Matt Blunt unexpectedly announced in January that he would not seek a second term. Nixon will become Missouri's fifth governor in 10 years when he is sworn into office in January 2009.

Nixon and Hulshof focused their campaigns on the economy, education and health care while casting each other as big spenders incapable of changing Missouri's Capitol.

Among his priorities, Nixon called for a reversal of the 2005 Medicaid health care cuts enacted by Blunt and the Republican-led Legislature and the creation of a new scholarship program that would cover four years of free tuition for students who start at community colleges and keep up good grades.

Although Nixon had been campaigning for three years, Hulshof got into the race only after Blunt exited it. Whereas Nixon faced no significant intraparty opposition, Hulshof had to fend off a tough Republican primary challenge from Treasurer Sarah Steelman and entered the contest against Nixon with a disadvantage both in money and statewide name recognition.

Nixon's name is familiar to Missouri households not only because of his longevity in office, but because of his oversight of the state's telemarketing blacklist, which has more than 2.7 million Missouri phone lines.

"I think everybody knows him because of the No Call list," said Pat Dufur, 60, an insurance agent from Jefferson City who voted for Nixon while acknowledging she wasn't as familiar with Hulshof.

Democrats typically dominate Missouri's big cities. But Nixon used his lengthy campaign to also build support in traditionally Republican rural areas. He proclaimed his campaign "the largest grass-roots movement in the history of the state," touting 28,000 financial contributors and door-to-door canvassers reaching 1 million homes.

Nixon, 52, of Jefferson City, was practically born a politician. He grew up in the small eastern Missouri town of De Soto, where his father was the mayor and later the municipal judge and his mother served as the school board president and on the city park board. During stump speeches, Nixon commonly quipped that he got his political start answering constituent phone calls during family dinners.

After sports practices, a high-school-aged Nixon donned a coat to package the products of a local ice house. He got his union card working as the low man on construction crews, carrying pipes to build sewage plants, steel for iron workers and wood for carpenters.

A young attorney, Nixon won election to the state Senate in 1986 at the earliest age possible under law, then began his run as Missouri's longest-serving attorney general in 1993.

In the mid-1990s, Nixon relied on his assistant, Hulshof, to prosecute some of the state's highest-profile crimes. During lunch breaks at the office, they played pickup basketball games.

Hulshof, 50, of Columbia, first ran unsuccessfully for Congress in 1994. A year later, he left Nixon's office to try again for Missouri's 9th Congressional District. Hulshof unseated longtime Democratic Rep. Harold Volkmer and won re-election to five more terms.