Hah! I beat Chris to the punch! This time it's Sarah Steelman, Missouri State Treasurer, who is running for Governor there. She seems to be in a pretty tight primary race, and the Republican Party establishment is pretty ticked at her for being a fiscal conservative and for upsetting some pretty powerful political families.
Kimberley Strassel has a great article about her in today's Wall Streeet Journal. She has even fought ethanol subsidies!
There was also Ms. Steelman's attempted cleanup of an ethanol program. The treasurer announced her office would no longer provide below-market interest rates for ethanol plants that counted state officials or their relatives among investors.
Among companies barred was Show Me Ethanol, whose shareholders included Mr. Blunt's son Andy – one of the state's top lobbyists – as well as Republican state Rep. John Quinn and his wife, not to mention the wife of Republican U.S. Rep. Sam Graves. Instead of thanking Ms. Steelman for ridding it of this conflict, in May the Missouri state senate voted to overturn her policy. It did so with a head-count vote, so as to avoid a written record.
I'll drink to cutting those ethanol subsidies!
Steelman's website is here.
