Chris Koster Announces for AG

OK, every blog in the state has already talked about Chris' announcement. However, I had lots of soccer games and Halloween parties with my kids this last weekend. In case you didn't get this email from Senator Koster, here it is.

Dear Stephen,

Last night in Harrisonville, I announced my intentions to seek the office of Attorney General of Missouri. After serving ten years as Cass County Prosecuting Attorney and three years in the state Senate, I am running for Attorney General because Missouri deserves an Attorney General who will put law enforcement front and center in their next administration.

Let me be clear: this candidacy is about law and order. It is about aggressive, innovative, clear thinking, and uncompromising law enforcement. And if experience matters in the state’s top law enforcement job, I am the only candidate—Republican or Democratic—who can say ‘I have been there.’

As Prosecuting Attorney of Cass County, I was honored to serve with Missouri’s law enforcement community in some of the toughest criminal cases facing our great state. Whether I was prosecuting drug peddlers, white collar criminals, or murderers, nothing made me prouder than making Missouri safer for our families and children. And that is what this race is about.

Our state faces unprecedented challenges. In recent years, Missouri has seen a rise in internet crimes, most notably in sexual predators who use the internet to lure their child victims. We have also seen the devastating effects of methamphetamine on our rural communities and the escalating crime rates within our urban centers.

That is why Missouri needs an Attorney General with real law enforcement credentials. I am the only candidate in this race who has ever walked the crime scenes, overseen the forensic investigations, interrogated the killers, trained the young lawyers, and made the closing arguments from rural courtrooms all the way up to our Supreme Court.

Over the coming months, I will put forth progressive and smart policies in Jefferson City and across Missouri that address the issues of crime in our cities, drugs in our communities, crimes committed on the internet, the irrefutable relationship between failing schools and rising crime rates, and clear but realistic thinking on the death penalty.

I will continue to fight for the same things I have held dear throughout my public service career. Whether it is defending the legality of lifesaving stem cell research, which offers our state the unprecedented ability to lift the disabled out of wheelchairs and cure previously terminal diseases; fighting on behalf of Missouri working families by combating efforts to abolish collective bargaining and make Missouri a right-to-work state; or standing up for Missourians in the mold of the greatest consumer advocate our state has ever seen, Jay Nixon. I will never rest until our Attorney General’s office stands up and gives a voice to every Missourian.

Missourians are frustrated with the current direction of our state, and it’s no wonder. The extreme right-wing has led us down a path that is anti-progress, anti-science, and anti-anything that does not benefit their corporate friends. That is why I became a Democrat and that is why I am running for Attorney General.

Fifteen years ago, my first job out of law school, before I was a prosecutor and before I was a Senator, was as Assistant Attorney General for the State of Missouri. 2008 is the opportunity for me to go back and turn that office into something extraordinary.

Our next attorney general will be the voice that stands in the courtrooms of this nation and makes the closing arguments on behalf of Missourians. All I have to offer you is the experience of someone who's been there.

I humbly ask you today to come aboard this effort and help me to be that voice.

Please visit my website at www.chriskoster.com and sign up to volunteer for my campaign. I look forward to talking with you and serving as your next Attorney General.

Sincerely,
Chris Koster