Nixon files paperwork to make run at governor

~ The attorney general has made no announcement, but filing suggests he'll take on Blunt in 2008.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Democratic Attorney General Jay Nixon indicated Thursday that he intends to challenge Republican Gov. Matt Blunt in 2008.

Nixon's campaign committee amended its paperwork with the Missouri Ethics Commission to state that he is seeking the governor's office rather than the office of attorney general.

Nixon, 49, was elected last year to his fourth term as attorney general. Blunt, 34, is in his first year as governor.

Although Nixon has not yet made a formal announcement, he said in August that he was "very interested" in running for governor.

His Ethics Commission filing gives a clear indication that the money he has been raising will go for the governor's race.

Already this year, Nixon has been at odds with Blunt on several occasions. Like other Democrats, Nixon has criticized Blunt's cuts to the state Medicaid health-care program for the poor and his administration's handling of an error that routed hot-line calls for some Medicaid recipients to a woman's home-based business in Montana.

The attorney general also is suing Blunt's Department of Natural Resources over its plans to relinquish to the state's interest in an old railroad bridge at Boonville that some historic preservationists want to restore as part of the Katy Trail State Park.

Nixon did not return telephone calls Thursday from The Associated Press. But he offered a scathing assessment about Blunt's administration during an interview with St. Louis Post-Dispatch editorial writers and reporters.

"It's a harder and more difficult question for me to answer about what they've done right, than what they've done wrong," Nixon said.

The state Democratic Party claimed Nixon already has a lead over Blunt, citing a recent poll by Zogby International.

The telephone poll of 602 likely voters conducted Oct. 21-22 for an insurance coalition focused on other issues but included the question: "If the election for governor were held today and the candidates were Democrat Jay Nixon and Republican Matt Blunt, for whom would you vote?" Fifty percent said Nixon while 40 percent chose Blunt, with a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.

Blunt's office referred questions about the governor's race to Missouri Republican Party spokesman John Hancock, who discounted the poll results because the election is so far off. Hancock said Nixon's early entry into gubernatorial fundraising shows he is dissatisfied with his current job and trying to scare off other potential Democratic gubernatorial candidates.

"He's going to find in the governor's race what he's found every time he's stepped outside the attorney general's office, and that is his values are in conflict with the people of Missouri," Hancock said.

Nixon first was elected attorney general in 1992 after serving six years in the state Senate. He easily defeated Republican challenger Chris Byrd last year, receiving 60 percent of the vote -- the highest amount of any statewide candidate on the ballot. Nixon has twice run unsuccessfully for U.S. Senate -- losing to Republican incumbents John Danforth in 1988 and Kit Bond in 1998.

Blunt served two years in the state House, then four as secretary of state before defeating Democratic State Auditor Claire McCaskill in the 2004 governor's race with 51 percent of the vote.

In their most recent campaign finance reports, covering a period through the end of September, Blunt reported $900,655 on hand for his 2008 governor's race. Nixon reported $180,922 on hand, which can be used for his gubernatorial campaign.