Hot Contender: If looks count, Sarah Steelman may be your next governor

Steelman, 49, married into a well-connected south-central Missouri political clan. The patriarch, Dorman L. Steelman, was a legislator, a state Republican Party chairman and a judge. His name adorns the lodge at Montauk. While Sarah circulates quietly, her silver-haired husband, David — an ex-lawmaker himself — meets and greets with a booming voice. Yet it is Sarah who brought the family name to statewide office. Says David Steelman: "My dad, who passed away, said he never thought he'd say the gutsiest politician he knew was his daughter-in-law."

Sarah Steelman launched her political career in 1998 when she unseated an entrenched incumbent state senator. She arrived in the Senate the youngest of five women. It did not take long for her colleagues to find out that the soft-spoken mother of three wouldn't necessarily toe the party line. As a freshman, she came out against lawmaker pensions. Then in 2002, she threatened to filibuster a Republican-sponsored plan to finance stadiums, including one for the St. Louis Cardinals. There's an ambitious streak to Steelman, too. She wanted to run for secretary of state in 2004. Losing out in the intra-party jockeying to former House Speaker Catherine Hanaway, Steelman tacked over to a crowded treasurer's race and emerged victorious.

As treasurer, Steelman gained national recognition as a pioneer in "anti-terrorism" investing. A Wall Street Journal article last June noted that she contacted 49 other state treasurers and urged them to promote laws that would compel public pension funds to divest from companies doing business with state sponsors of terror. Appearing on CNN and FOX News, the woman who guards Missouri's piggy bank cut a striking figure, with her bright blue eyes and long blond hair, which cascaded in soft waves down her shoulders.

The national exposure prompted reporters back home to wonder whether, come 2008, Steelman might dare challenge fellow Republican, Governor Matt Blunt. Steelman readily admits she wanted the top job, but balked at taking on an incumbent, however unpopular. "I've always said, 'If [Blunt] wasn't going to run, I was going to run.'" After raising more than $6 million to fend off Democrat Jay Nixon, Blunt announced in the late afternoon of January 22 that he wouldn't seek re-election.

Blunt's revelation was a shocker. Steelman had no idea it was coming when, earlier that same day, she held her own press conference in Jefferson City, saying she planned to seek another four years as treasurer. A few hours later, she was driving to Rolla for a campaign kickoff when she heard word about Blunt. She promptly cancelled the Rolla event and began weighing her chances in an open governor's race. Four days later, she announced her candidacy at her brother's home in Springfield.

Why run for governor? "I thought this was a good opportunity for me to help make a difference in Missouri, with some of the ideas I'd like to pursue." She adds simply, "I thought I'd do it."

Steelman wasn't the only one rushing onto the field. Lieutenant Governor Peter Kinder announced his bid first, but quickly pulled out, presumably to make way for Congressman Kenny Hulshof. A former prosecutor from Columbia, Hulshof had first expressed an interest in the governor's mansion in 2004. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported that Republicans wanted Steelman to step aside for Hulshof, too, but she refused.

Steelman says no one ever contacted her directly. "I never have gotten into the games, and the closed-door meetings, and picking who's gonna do what," she says. "I'm not part of the good ol' boys network, and I don't want to be."

Steelman is pro-gun and anti-abortion. As a state senator in 2004, she sponsored the bill that created a ballot question on gay marriage. Voters responded to that question — whether to create a constitutional amendment defining marriage as between one man and one woman — with a resounding yes. Still, Steelman's conservative pedigree contains at least one flaw — an affiliation with trial attorneys. Like the former Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards, her husband makes his living on personal-injury and product-liability cases. And in 2004, Steelman was the only Republican senator to vote against tort reform. The bill in question would have limited damage awards in medical malpractice suits, among other restrictions.

Some Republicans thought David Steelman's law practice had a dubious influence on her vote. Steelman counters the bill went too far because it would have shielded drunk drivers from liability. But party insiders have not forgotten Steelman's opposing role in the struggle over tort reform. That's one reason they like Hulshof, or as Ladue Republican Betty Sims put it: "This is Mr. Clean. He's a hard-working farm boy. He doesn't have baggage."

These days, GOP leaders play down the idea that Hulshof is the anointed candidate. "There are supporters for both candidates on the state committee," says party chairman Doug Russell. "There are some that feel it would be better not to have a primary. Primaries are not always bad things. It's important to keep it on a positive level."

Since announcing her candidacy on January 26, Steelman has been on a tight and disciplined schedule, attending Republican events and cold-calling for dollars. At the end of 2007, her campaign committee had $296,773 in the bank. She's retained a consultant, Jeff Roe, a former Republican operative and author of the blog The Source. Roe had been working on her campaign for treasurer. When she entered the race for governor, his Kansas City-based firm, Axiom Strategies, quickly switched gears. Her deputy treasurer, Doug Gaston, took a leave from his official duties and began work on her gubernatorial campaign from Jefferson City. But as of the official candidate filing date on February 26, Steelman had yet to hire an experienced campaign manager.

It's too early to count Steelman out, says pollster and Saint Louis University professor Ken Warren. "Kenny Hulshof is popular in Republican circles, but to tell the truth, Sarah Steelman has more name recognition with the voters at large."

Dave Robertson, a University of Missouri-St. Louis political science professor, is less optimistic about Steelman's chances in the August 5 primary, mainly because he believes Hulshof will raise far more money. But, he adds, her youthful looks just might prove to be a valuable asset.

"In the battle of images, she can hold her own," he says. "Especially with Jay Nixon, who looks like this typical Missouri politician, upper-middle-aged white guy."

The Steelmans linger at Montauk's opening-day scene long enough to see a fisherman haul in a lunker. David and Sarah had only a few hours of sleep after attending a Republican dinner the night before in St. Charles, and David forgot to pack the tackle box. "I've fouled up the fishing," he proclaims. The couple, their son Michael, and David's mother, Maxine, climb into a black Chevy Suburban and head for breakfast at the lodge.

Sarah notices that the car rolling ahead of them belongs to Frank Barnitz, the Democrat who won the 16th District Senate seat that Steelman abandoned in her 2004 bid for treasurer. The Oldsmobile Aurora bears a Jay Nixon campaign sticker on the back window and a personalized license plate, number S-16. "I never used that plate," she says, almost under her breath. It's a modest-sounding but pointed observation.

To Steelman, whether a state official uses reserved license plates is an important distinction. "I just don't think elected officials should be treated any differently than regular citizens," she says. "It just doesn't seem right to me to have a special plate because you're elected by the people." (Her Suburban's plates say "LIVFRE.")

Steelman has built her career around such righteous assertions. And in the year of John McCain's presidential nomination, Steelman, a longtime supporter of the Arizona maverick, plays up her own independent streak. "That's why the 'establishment' doesn't always rally behind me," she says. "I'm interested in standing up for taxpayers and voters."