MCCASKILL: CPA NOT IMPORTANT, BUT LEADERSHIP IS

Missourians need someone in the state auditor's office with a background "that shows you can wrestle a bear," says Claire McCaskill.

In her second term as prosecuting attorney of Jackson County, where she presides over an budget larger than the state auditor's, McCaskill says she has wrestled some bears.

The Kansas Citian was the featured guest Saturday night at the 1998 Fall Festival held by the Cape County Democrats at the Drury Lodge. About 200 people were expected for the event, which is the county organization's major fund raiser.

In Kansas City, McCaskill supervises a staff of 70 attorneys. She is vice president of the National District Attorneys Association and is on the ABA's National Committee on Substance Abuse.

The mother of three served three terms as a state representative in the 1980s.

Chuck Pierce, her Republican opponent in the auditor's race, has criticized McCaskill's lack of being a certified public accountant. She says strong leadership in the auditor's office is much more important than a background in accounting, pointing out that the auditors of Illinois, Kansas and Nebraska aren't CPAs.

In the past, the auditor's office often has been used politically and has conducted audits that end up sitting on shelves and do not result in change, she said.

"Most Missourians don't know what the auditor does but they're pretty sure they don't care," she said.

Her position is that the auditor's reports should be understandable to average Missourians, not just CPAs.

The auditor's financial audits also should be expanded to include performance audits, which would evaluate the effectiveness of state programs, she said.

Financial audits are important, "but for every dime stolen in the state, $1 is being wasted," she said.

The auditor's office should be "much more of an active participant in funding decisions," McCaskill said.

"I think it would be helpful to think of the auditor as an evaluator of government."

McCaskill says she is very well-known in her part of the state because of her prosecution of criminals. She is leading the race with Pierce in statewide polls but says she doesn't pay much attention to them. "Harry Truman saw the evils of what polls were going to do to politics and he was right, she said.

One McCaskill campaign issue is her vow not to use the office politically. "Of all offices, this one should be independent," she said, which hasn't always been the case.

McCaskill pioneered the use of a drug court in Jackson County. She said Cape Girardeau County Prosecuting Attorney Morley Swingle has invited her to speak here on the subject after the election.

She doesn't think the scandal engulfing President Bill Clinton will hurt state Democratic candidates. "Everybody knows this is a huge personal shortcoming in the man," she says. "But I don't think it transfers to his party.

Rick Althaus, chairman of the Cape Girardeau County Democratic Central Committee, agrees but said, "It remains to be seen if it will affect our overall turnout."