Political Potpourri: It's (Kind Of) The End Of The Filing Period As We Know It

Now that the filing period to sign up for state legislative races is over, things are beginning to be a little clearer about what’s to come during the impending election cycle.

Locally the main event will most likely be the 1st Congressional District race that features ). Barring a Missouri Supreme Court ruling that chucks the redistricted congressional map, both candidates remain on the ballot to run in the district that includes all of St. Louis City and a portion of St. Louis County.

The battle between Clay and Carnahan is one notable primary set to occur during the 2012 election cycle. There is, after all, a dizzying eight-way Democratic race for lieutenant governor. There are five other challengers to Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Missouri) besides Rep. Todd Akin, former state Treasurer Sarah Steelman and Frontenac businessman John Brunner.

There’s even a Reynolds County Democrat named Clay Thunderhawk that’s running a most-likely hopeless race against Gov. Jay Nixon.  That's almost as unusual as Chief Wana Dube, a Dent County man who briefly ran for governor a few years ago as a Libertarian.

And then there are the candidates that got a little gun-shy, deciding either to skip this election cycle altogether or to try a different race. GOP Attorney General hopeful Ed Martin went through this phase before filing began, but others made some switcheroos before Tuesday’s deadline.

One example is Bill Haas, a member of the St. Louis School Board who had originally signed up to run for the 2nd Congressional District seat. The perennial candidate even went so far as to run radio ads for his bid. But since withdrawing from that race, Haas has changed course twice. He signed up to run for the 5th District Senate seat in St. Louis City and then decided to run for lieutenant governor.

As reported in the St. Louis Beacon, Rep. Scott Sifton decided to run for the 1st Senate District seat. That means that he withdrew from contention in the 93rd state House District. Sen. Jane Cunningham (R-Chesterfield) also decided against running for another term, as her seat was effectively moved to Kansas City. Two local aspirants for state House seats, Chuck Brodell of Imperial and David Knisley of Wentzville, also withdrew before the filing period.

While filing is over for most contests, there is still time in a select group of races for more candidates to emerge. That’s because state law stipulates that filing will remain open if a candidate withdraws from a race two days before the Tuesday deadline.

In the St. Louis area, that means more time for candidates to come forward in the races for 5th Senate District, 93rd House District and the 112th House District. The 5th Senate District covers part of St. Louis City, the 93rd House District includes portions of south St. Louis County and the 112th House District covers portions of Jefferson County.

Click here to see the full slate of candidates that filed for this year’s election cycle.