Claire McCaskill (b. 1953) is currently (as of April, 2005) State Auditor of Missouri.

Claire McCaskill was born in Rolla, Missouri and spent her early childhood in the small Missouri towns of Houston, later moving to Lebanon, and eventually Columbia where her father served as a state insurance commissioner and her mother became the first woman to serve on the city council. She earned a B.S. in political science from the University of Missouri-Columbia in 1975 and later graduated from law school at the same institution.

After graduating from law school, she became a law clerk at the Missouri Court of Appeals in Kansas City. She later joined the Jackson County prosecutor's office where she specialized in arson cases. From 1983 to 1988, she represented the Kansas City area in the Missouri House of Representatives. She became the first Missouri state lawmaker to give birth while in office. In 1993, she became the first woman elected Jackson County Prosecutor serving in that office until her election as State Auditor in 1998.

On August 3, 2004, she defeated Governor Bob Holden in the Democratic primary race, becoming the first person to defeat an incumbent Governor in Missouri, and the first primary challenger in the nation to defeat an incumbent Governor in the United States, since 1994, when Bill Janklow defeated Walter Dale Miller in South Dakota.

On November 2, 2004, she was defeated by Matt Blunt in the general election. Despite her loss in the gubernatorial race, she will remain State Auditor until her current term expires in January, 2007. She has announced that she will seek a third term as State Auditor in 2006, rejecting calls from state Democratic Party leaders urging her to run against U.S. Senator Jim Talent.

External links

• Missouri State Auditor Website
• Campaign Website