Politics & Government

Attorney General Republican Race Sends 'Easterner' to November

In an East (Ed Martin) versus West (Adam Warren) Missouri Republican candidacy bid for attorney general, Martin pulled ahead early Tuesday evening and stayed the frontrunner.

Ed Martin, a South St. Louis attorney, would like to be the next lawyer to represent Missouri's legal interests. He won the Republican bid Tuesday night by a resounding 72-28 percent victory over his Republican opponent, Adam Warren. KSDK-TV declared Martin the winner with 96 percent of the precincts reported.

Just last month, Martin unveiled a "smaller government plan" and embarked on a statewide tour.

One of Martin's supporters, Cary Spiegel from Oakville, was at Martin's Valley Park campaign headquarters toward the 10 p.m. hour to watch the results keep coming in. "I support Ed due to his integrity and honesty. He's the real deal," said Spiegel.

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Martin made a quick appearance at his campaign party Tuesday evening, but had to get his three children home before the evening got too late.

Adam Warren, an eighth generation Missourian, was born and raised in Meadville. He attended Missouri State in Springfield and earned a law degree at the University of Missouri–Columbia. In the past seven years of his practice, Warren served as city attorney for Chillicothe, county prosecutor for Livingston County and a JAG Officer for the Missouri National Guard.

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Warren said he saw rhetoric from two politicians—Martin and Democrat Attorney General candidate Chris Koster—and decided there needed to be a third voice in the race: A candidate who really was a political outsider.

Gabe Jones, communications director for Martin, said they focused on knocking on 25,000 doors recently. "It was the final push for the primary, and we had about 60 representatives at the polls today."

Jones said Martin believed Warren ran a good campaign, and that they had run for the Attorney General office for the same reasons:  corruption in Jefferson City. "Ed told supporters tonight he believed Adam's head was the in the right place," said Jones.

The Office of the Missouri Attorney General was created in 1806 when Missouri was part of the Louisiana Territory. Missouri's first Constitution in 1820 provided for an appointed Attorney General, but since the 1865 Constitution, the Attorney General has been elected. To date there have been 41 attorneys general in Missouri.

By law, the attorney general is a member of:

  • the Board of Fund Commissioners,
  • Board of Public Buildings,
  • the Governor's Committee on Interstate Cooperation,
  • the Missouri Highway Reciprocity Commission and
  • the Missouri Housing Development Commission.


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