Another Ashcroft enters politics, spurs GOP face-off for Missouri Senate seat

July 14--ST. LOUIS COUNTY -- Jay Ashcroft grew up in the Governor's Mansion in Jefferson City, calling it home from age 11 to 19.

He is the middle child of John D. Ashcroft, who served as Missouri's governor from 1985 to 1992 and held a string of other state and federal offices -- including U.S. attorney general -- over three decades.

Through it all, Jay Ashcroft, 41, didn't catch the political bug. He became an engineer, a community college teacher and a lawyer. He married, had three children, made his home in an unincorporated area of St. Louis County and steered clear of the limelight.

Then last March, Ashcroft suddenly joined the race for an open state Senate seat in the county's 24th District. He said several Republican leaders, including party chief Ed Martin, encouraged him. After initially balking, he said yes.

"I was looking at the potential people that were running for the seat and felt like I had a better view of the role of government, and that's why I jumped in," Ashcroft said. In his view, "the purpose of government is to protect your right to live your life the way you'd like to."

Ashcroft instantly became the frontrunner in the three-way Republican primary, drawing luminaries to his side. Auditor Tom Schweich and five members of Congress, including Rep. Ann Wagner, R-Ballwin, headlined a recent Ashcroft fundraiser.

But his candidacy also raised a question in GOP circles. The district leans Democratic and Rep. Jill Schupp, D-Creve Coeur, promises to run a well-funded race as the Democrats' nominee in November. Could Ashcroft attract crucial swing voters in the general election, given his father's image as a gospel-singing conservative and architect of the U.S. Patriot Act?

"That's a good question," said former Sen. Jim Lembke, an Ashcroft supporter. Ashcroft's name is a benefit "in the primary, and then, you have to work through that name association in the general."

The lesser-known Republicans in the race, attorney Jack Spooner and physician Robb Hicks, both of Creve Coeur, argue that they're more in tune with the district.

Spooner, a product of Ladue schools, said he is "part of the fabric of the community" rather than a "professional politician." Hicks, who moved to Missouri after attending medical school in California, said he could work on health care issues without having Ashcroft's ties to "the government establishment."

Ashcroft declined to discuss his primary opponents' jabs. But he readily admitted that some Republicans have questioned whether his political brand fits the 24th District.

"Several people said, 'Move west'" to a more Republican district, Ashcroft quips. "I said, 'Wait a minute. I love this district. It's a great district. It has great diversity.'"

The 24th District has seesawed between Republican and Democratic representation in the Senate. The seat is currently held by John Lamping, a Republican who edged Democrat Barbara Fraser by 126 votes out of 61,112 cast in 2010.

Since then, redistricting has shifted the boundary lines north and west, removing part of University City, Clayton and Richmond Heights.

The new boundaries reach as far as I-70 on the north, Woods Mill Road on the west, I-170 on the east and Manchester Road on the south. Cities in the district include part or all of Creve Coeur, Maryland Heights, Ladue, Frontenac, Ballwin, Olivette, Overland, Bridgeton and St. Ann.

A chart prepared for the redistricting commission put the Democratic majority in the redrawn district at 54 percent. Democrats hope they can pick up the seat, though they say turning out the base could be difficult in a nonpresidential year when few hot issues are on the ballot.

"That's the wild card of this election: who shows up," said Roy Temple, the Missouri Democratic Party chairman.

Lamping, the incumbent, said he had trouble finding a Republican to run when he decided last year against seeking re-election. He tried to recruit John Brunner and Bill Corrigan, who lost races for U.S. Senate and St. Louis County executive, respectively, but neither was interested.

Then Spooner emerged, and Lamping thought the race was set. Spooner, 53, has a civil law practice in Clayton, where a "Don't Tread on Me" flag from his college days adorns his office wall. He was recruited to run by his old college friend from Southeast Missouri State University, political consultant David Barklage.

After meeting with Senate leaders, Spooner said he wasn't "expecting any primary opposition." While Ashcroft's entrance upset that plan, Spooner said he still believes he has a good shot.

"You need people like myself who've lived in the district their entire lives," he said.

Spooner's campaign and office websites tout his background, from scrubbing floors at a neighborhood gas station as a youth to winning a million-dollar verdict as the lawyer for a woman injured in a gruesome bridge accident. He estimated that about 20 percent of his caseload involves personal injury cases and the rest stems from business, employment and contract disputes.

Ashcroft, who has lived in St. Louis County since 1998, works in Clayton at the Ashcroft Law Firm, a national firm founded by his father. Jay Ashcroft's specialty is helping corporations comply with government regulation. He has represented financial services and pharmaceutical companies, among others.

Before becoming a lawyer, Ashcroft taught engineering at St. Louis Community College. He said his engineering background shapes his decision-making style, leading him to break down problems "to make sure you're really looking at what is the root of the problem."

Hicks, meanwhile, said he got interested in the race after serving as the Senate's "Doctor of the Day," a ceremonial role for physicians visiting the Capitol. He said his experience as a former emergency room doctor and urgent care center owner in Cape Girardeau, Mo., gives him insight into fixing the health care system.

Hicks, 54, said he is a recovered alcoholic and works as a physician career consultant and fill-in doctor for physicians who need temporary help. Hicks is largely funding his own campaign with a $50,000 donation.

Schupp, the Democratic candidate, is unopposed in the Aug. 5 primary, as is Libertarian candidate Jim Higgins.

The three Republican candidates talk largely in generalities about creating jobs, improving health care and eliminating waste, fraud and abuse in government. As for how they differ, it's hard to tell.

For example, all say they would have supported the gradual $620 million income tax cut that the Legislature enacted this year over the governor's veto. Spooner said it should have included a bigger break for the middle class and elderly.

The largest single campaign donation that Ashcroft has received so far -- $25,000 -- came from Rex Sinquefield, the retired financier who has been pushing to eliminate the state income tax. Ashcroft said he has never talked with Sinquefield at length, though he has talked to Sinquefield's lobbyist, Travis Brown, and held a fundraiser at Brown's lobbying firm, Pelopidas.

Medicaid expansion is another hot topic, particularly since Schupp, the Democrat, strongly supports broadening the public health insurance program to cover the working poor. All three Republican candidates say they oppose expanding Medicaid in its current form. They want to examine ways to fix the program's flaws first.

"My analogy is to the government cheese program," Hicks said."It's a great idea, it's desperately needed, but if the government cheese was contaminated, was infected with E. coli, then you wouldn't just make more of it and give it out to more people, hoping it would benefit them. You'd stop and sterilize the equipment, find out where the infection came from, clean it all up and then spread it out to the needy."

Ashcroft questioned whether the state could afford to expand Medicaid, as called for in the Affordable Care Act, to cover 300,000 additional Missourians. The federal government would pay the full tab for two years, with the state's share of the cost phasing up to 10 percent.

"After that, they can change that amount and Missouri's on the hook for what they change it to," Ashcroft said.

His skeptical stance contrasts with a position being pushed by his campaign co-chairman, former Sen. Christopher "Kit" Bond. Bond was hired by business groups to lobby for Medicaid expansion and plans to advocate for a complicated expansion and overhaul bill again next year.

Noting Bond's lobbying role, Tea Party leader Bill Hennessy alleged in a recent column that Ashcroft has already committed "to help push Obamacare in the Missouri Senate."

Ashcroft laughed at that accusation.

"I haven't agreed to anything with regard to Medicaid expansion," he said.

If helping people get quality medical care is the goal, "Medicaid expansion is one way to do that, and I'm open to talking about that. But I'm afraid we're focusing on one of the potential solutions instead of saying, 'Here's the problem, what are the whole myriad of solutions we could use?'"

Jay Ashcroft noted that his father, while known for his conservative principles, also reached across the aisle when he was governor to a Missouri Legislature that was controlled by Democrats.

"One thing my father did teach me was, 'You can't let the perfect be the enemy of the good,'" Ashcroft said.

Jay Ashcroft's name will appear on the ballot as "John R. Ashcroft," but that wasn't an attempt to make voters think they were voting for his dad, the younger Ashcroft said. John is his real name and that's how he signs legal documents, he said.

He got into the race so late that when he filed for office, he hadn't even considered how his name should read on the ballot. "I'm sure I should've polled it or something."

<p>Virginia Young is the Jefferson City bureau chief of the Post-Dispatch. Follow her on twitter at @virginiayoung.

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