State Democrats without clear leader

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- They met privately at party headquarters -- the two surviving Democratic statewide officeholders and the lone new one after the Nov. 2 elections.

The topic: The future of the Missouri Democratic Party, particularly because the present is very Republican.

The meeting last week of Attorney General Jay Nixon, State Auditor Claire McCaskill and Secretary of State-elect Robin Carnahan produced no immediate master plan, no public announcement about their party's course after some humbling defeats.

In fact, the message may have been in the meeting itself.

A state Democratic Party that for more than a decade has had a clearly defined leader no longer does. At best, it has a triumvirate of middle-level leaders.

Through two terms and much of a decade, Gov. Mel Carnahan was the state Democratic Party's leader, working with veteran Democratic state legislators who held a firm majority under the likes of House Speaker Bob Griffin and Senate President Pro Tem Jim Mathewson. In Congress, Democratic Rep. Dick Gephardt was the state's power broker.

Through a series of events from January 2001 through January 2004, Democrats lost the state legislature and Gephardt left politics after a failed presidential bid. Yet state Democrats still had Gov. Bob Holden, whose image was imprinted on party letterhead alongside that of former President Harry Truman.

When McCaskill defeated Holden in the August gubernatorial primary, she became the party's new leader and installed her own loyalists at party headquarters.

But then McCaskill lost, too, in the Nov. 2 gubernatorial election to Republican Matt Blunt, relinquishing a clear claim to the party's reins. Democrats also lost the lieutenant governor's office, treasurer's office and additional seats in state House and Senate. Nixon and Carnahan -- the daughter of the late governor -- were the only Democrats to win statewide. Although she lost the gubernatorial race, McCaskill's term as auditor lasts another two years.

Missouri Republicans, meanwhile, find themselves in the strong leadership position once enjoyed by Democrats. Gov.-elect Blunt will assume more control at the state level, and in Washington the Republicans have Blunt's father, third-ranking GOP Rep. Roy Blunt, and the recently re-elected Sen. Kit Bond.

Who will provide the Democrats' response to these Republican leaders? Who now is the leader of the Democratic Party?

There is no clear answer.

Party spokesman Jack Cardetti, a former Holden staffer recruited by McCaskill's team after the primary, pauses just a moment, then responds: "Our three statewide officials are our leaders in the Missouri Democratic Party."

Leadership by committee can work when all participants act as a team. But seldom is it the preferred model -- just look at most businesses or sports teams, which have one chief executive officer, one manager or head coach.

McCaskill campaign spokesman Glenn Campbell, who already has returned to his role in the auditor's office, described the Democratic Party's new leadership situation as "more of a collective."

"They're trying to get reorganized and regrouped, and I think everybody wants to be on the same page," he said.

Adds Democratic consultant Roy Temple: "There is a fair amount of introspection going on among Democrats."

"I think there is always some ambiguity about how things will be [when a party doesn't have a governor or president]. It takes a while for things to shake out after a major election in which you don't win," said Temple, who was on the winning side with Mel Carnahan but most recently was aligned with Holden and Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry.

By 2006, when Republican Sen. Jim Talent faces re-election, Democrats likely will have found a new leader. That person will most probably be their candidate against Talent. It could be former Gov. Roger Wilson, tapped by McCaskill after her primary victory to serve as party chairman. It could be Lt. Gov. Joe Maxwell, who considered a Senate run this year but ultimately took a break from politics because of family health reasons. It could be Robin Carnahan, or any number of people.

But "probably for the next year-and-a-half, we'll be dealing with a pluralistic leadership" in the state Democratic Party, said Candace Young, a political science professor at Truman State University.

"I think probably they are pretty demoralized," Young said. "But the great thing about our political system is it's never over. It means going back to the drawing board and regrouping and finding great candidates for two years from now."