Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., once attacked an opponent for taking taxpayer-funded trips on a private plane.
The Washington Free Beacon reported this week on an ad from McCaskill’s 2004 primary campaign against Missouri’s then-Gov. Bob Holden, depicting him as a big spender. The ad highlighted two points: the cost of Holden’s “lavish” inauguration party and the cost of his taxpayer-funded trips on a private jet.
While McCaskill would beat Holden in the Democratic primary that year, she went on to lose the general election by 3 percentage points.
As the Free Beacon’s Brent Scher noted, “McCaskill would end up defending herself from a similar charge ahead of her 2012 Senate reelection fight. She wound up reimbursing the $88,000 billed to taxpayers for flights on her plane and ended up selling the plane, though she bought a new one in 2013 after winning reelection.”
Now, McCaskill is defending herself against a fresh wave of controversy over the plane after Scher reported earlier this month that she used it in between stops on what was billed by her campaign as an “RV tour.”
Though her net worth is just shy of $27 million, and she ranks as the 24th wealthiest member of Congress, McCaskill at times does a good job playing the part of an authentically in-touch, centrist Midwestern politician, looking out for the working class, bucking politics-as-usual. And that’s what she was trying to do in 2004 against Holden — except years later, she turned out to act like the same kind of politician she was campaigning against, using taxpayer money to fund private air travel.
Yes, it’s just a mediocre 15-second campaign ad from 2004. But amid her charm offensive in one of the tightest Senate races this cycle, it’s another reminder that McCaskill is very much a political animal.
