PHOTO/MU COLLEGE REPUBLICANS
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – Jay Ashcroft’s campaign for secretary of state began as a slow burn. He trails his Republican primary opponent Senator Will Kraus in fundraising, but Ashcroft has always had golden name ID stemming from his father John Ashcroft. His father, of course, was a state auditor and attorney general before he became the governor from 1985 to 1993. Then he moved onto Washington to serve Missouri in the U.S. Senate before becoming the U.S. Attorney General in the George W. Bush administration.
The campaign is gaining steam and evidence is an event held last week featuring former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, who not only came to the event at the St. Louis Club in Clayton, but contributed to Ashcroft himself.
Ashcroft’s campaign has begun to hit its stride with the Lincoln Day season coming into full swing. He closed the year with $174,000 on hand with is just over a fourth of Kraus’ $667,ooo on hand. However, just after the reports were published in January the Humphreys family donated $150,000 over a three day span closing the gap to a two to one ratio.
It’s likely that Kraus maintains his fundraising lead as many interest groups will contribute to his campaign after session, as even if he were to lose, he would still serve as a senator for two more years.
Ashcroft will likely need less money to be competitive due to his name ID advantage, but he stresses that he’s not running to maintain a family legacy of policymakers. In fact, getting into politics was not a part of his plan for the longest time. His approach on the Republican speaking circuit has been a personal one with him often staying until well after the event ends to help put up the tables and chairs.
“I was the 16, 17-year-old kid that said, I’m not going to be an attorney, I’m not going to go into politics,” he said. “I just wanted to find a good wife and have kids and a family.”
As that family grew he realized that he could only do so much, he said. He and his wife Katie tried to get their kids into good schools and get them involved in church, but he said that was only a part of the battle.
“When I worried about how they did, I was only looking at half the picture because I also needed to be worried about what the world was going to be like when they went out into it, what sort of opportunity they’re going to have,” Ashcroft said. “When I was growing up, if you kept your nose pretty clean… and worked hard, you knew you’d have more opportunity than your parents did. When I started looking I realized my kids weren’t going to have that opportunity, their entire generation won’t if we have people that don’t understand that government is not the answer to all of our problems. A lot of times it’s the cause of our problems.”
Ashcroft’s anti-government stances are a major part of his campaign stump for Secretary of State, but he has relied on his fervor for a photo voter ID law that he said is a “common sense” safeguard designed to ensure the right to vote.
“We need to make sure every eligible voter has the right opportunity to vote, that they’re not disenfranchised by fraud or ineptitude,” Ashcroft said. “I live in St. Louis and I can tell you there’s plenty of fraud and ineptitude when it comes to elections. I find that abhorrent.”
While Kraus has been a leader in the Senate on passing a voter ID law for the past several sessions, Ashcroft has filed and begun collecting signatures on an initiative petition to make photo voter ID. Whoever emerges as the Republican candidate for secretary of state will make photo voter ID a top priority.
Ashcroft also cites two different hats, as an attorney and an engineer, with why he would best fit the office.
“It’s very helpful to have a lawyer in the Secretary of State’s Office who knows how to interpret the law and give answers to local election authorities to county clerks when they have trouble,” he said. “But I think my engineering background helps a lot. Lawyers are good at saying no and engineers are trained to find solutions to problems.”
The biggest problem to which Ashcroft wants to find a solution is the overreach of government. While he seems eager to prove that he is not running on just his family name, he and his father definitely share strong conservative views.
“I’m just concerned with the way government has grown and it’s trying to dictate all sorts of areas in people’s life,” he said. “As government grows, freedom decreases and so does opportunity.”
