Missouri’s junior Senator says she’s still in debt from her two most recent campaigns. In fact, she says, she’s in debt in a campaign that’s five years away.

She lost a race for Governor in 2004. She won a race for the Senate last year. And the fund Claire McCaskill uses for political travel during her term is in the hole. She despises dialing for dollars. “I’m so sick of raising money,” she says.

McCaskill says she doesn’t want to focus on raising hundreds of thousands of dollars to get out of debt—and start piling up money money for a re-election campaign—because she wants to focus on being a Senator, serving on five committees and 15 subcommittees, developing public policy.

She says her 2004 governor campaign is still more than one-million dollars. Her Senatorial campaign debt is about 35-thousand and she expects to have that paid off by the end of the year. Her 20-12 committee is about 100-thousand dollars in the hole, paying for those political trips. That account is likely to fill up quickly as re-election time nears.

 

Download Bob Priddy’s story