Bob Priddy: election history this week as 5 statewide officials run for their jobs for the first time

Bob Priddy, special to Missourinet

Missourians are voting in a unique election this year because five statewide officeholders are trying to keep a job nobody elected them to hold four years ago.

Missouri historian Bob Priddy explains that Governor Mike Parson, Lt. Governor Mike Kehoe, Attorney General Eric Schmitt, and Treasurer Scott Fitzpatrick were not elected to their present offices in 2016.

The resignation of Governor Eric Greitens created a jobs shuffle at the top of state government.

In 2016, Parson was elected Lieutenant Governor. Schmitt was elected State treasurer. Kehoe was headed back to private life as a term-limited senator and Fitzpatrick was facing ouster from the House because of term limits. Parson moved up with the resignation of Governor Eric Greitens and promptly appointed Kehoe as Lieutenant Governor. Schmitt was elected State Treasurer then was appointed Attorney General when Josh Hawley ended Claire McCaskill’s U.S. Senate career.  Fitzpatrick, House Budget Committee chair, was appointed by Parson as Schmitt’s successor as Treasurer.

The only statewide officeholder who is running for reelection, not just election this year, is Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft, who has stayed where voters put him four years ago.

They all have opponents who hope to short-circuit their historic bids on election day.