BEKKI COOK WON'T SEEK RE-ELECTION

Missouri Secretary of State Bekki Cook won't seek re-election or run for any other public office next year.

The 48-year-old Democrat from Cape Girardeau said Thursday that she will leave public office when her term ends in January 2001.

But in a telephone interview from her Jefferson City office, Cook said she wouldn't rule out running for governor some day.

Her decision means that four of the five statewide offices to be filed by voters in 2000 will be open.

Less than an hour after Cook's announcement, House Speaker Steve Gaw said he would run for secretary of state. The Moberly Democrat said he wants to expand the public's access to the office through technology.

"Technology offers us the opportunity to bring government to the people," he said. "It creates a new town hall and offers greater opportunity for citizen participation and government accountability."

Gaw was elected speaker in 1996 after just three years in the Missouri House. In addition to his duties as speaker, he represents the 22nd Missouri House District in the northern part of the state.

Cook said that earlier this week she informed Gaw and other possible candidates for secretary of state about her decision.

Cook said she didn't want to go through a statewide campaign in 2000 that would take her away from her family, particularly since her 16-year-old daughter, Morgan, is still in high school. She plans to remain in Jefferson City through summer 2001 when Morgan will graduate from high school.

Her 18-year-old son, Hunter, is graduating this year and will attend the University of Missouri-Columbia.

Cook plans to return to her family home in Cape Girardeau where her husband, John, has a law practice.

John Cook regularly makes the long drive to Jefferson City to visit his family.

"Our family is close. It is happy. Maybe we even appreciate each other more because of the separations and stresses that have been put on us," Bekki Cook said.

She said Cape Girardeau remains home for the family. "The truth is we love Cape Girardeau," she said.

A former Cape Girardeau lawyer, Cook still has her law license. She could go back to work as a lawyer. So far she hasn't decided what she will do once she leaves public office.

Cook quit her law practice and was a stay-at-home mom before becoming secretary of state. She had considered running for governor.

"I had wonderful choices," she said. "There was a real potential I could have been the first woman governor of Missouri."

But Cook said she had no intention of running for governor in 2000. She has endorsed State Treasurer Bob Holden, who is running to succeed Gov. Mel Carnahan.

The next governor could occupy that position for eight years.

Realistically, she said, she wouldn't have an opportunity to run for governor until 2008 at the earliest.

Cook also welcomes the chance to return to private life.

"The fact remains there is something to be said for some of us going into public service for a period of time and coming back home," she said.

Cook said she has strived to be a good public servant. "We have followed three basic principles. One of them is we try to live by the Golden Rule," said Cook. The other two focus on being customer friendly.

Cook said she never felt uncomfortable in the political landscape of the Capitol where most elected offices are still held by men. "It was nothing that ever inhibited me in going after what I wanted to do," she said.

As a former lawyer, she said, she was used to operating in a male-dominated profession.

Cook, the second woman to hold the job, was appointed to the post by Carnahan on Dec. 16, 1994.

Missouri's 36th secretary of state was the first Cape Girardeau County resident to hold state office since James Monroe Seibert was state auditor at the turn of the century.

She succeeded Judi Moriarty, a Democrat who was impeached for misconduct for backdating her own son's filing paperwork for a Missouri House seat. The Missouri Supreme Court removed Moriarty from office.

Cook was elected to a four-year term in November 1996.

WON'T RUN

NAME -- Rebecca McDowell Cook.

AGE -- 48, born July 18, 1950.

EDUCATION -- Bachelor's degree in political science, University of Missouri-Columbia, 1972; law degree, University of Missouri-Columbia Law School, 1975.

EXPERIENCE -- Attorney with the Limbaugh, Limbaugh and Russell law firm, Cape Girardeau, 1975-79; vice president of the Oliver, Oliver, Waltz and Cook law firm, Cape Girardeau, 1979-92; Served on State Board of Elementary and Secondary Education; appointed secretary of state, 1994; elected secretary of state, 1996; serves on board of directors of the Southeast Missouri State University Foundation and Southeast Missouri Hospital Foundation.

FAMILY -- Husband John Larkin Cook; son Hunter, 18; daughter Morgan, 16.

WILL SEEK OFFICE

NAME -- Steve Gaw.

AGE -- 41, born July 7, 1957.

PARTY -- Democrat.

EDUCATION -- Bachelor's degree in physics, Truman State University, 1978; law degree, University of Missouri-Columbia School of Law, 1981.

EXPERIENCE -- Partner in Schirmer, Suter and Gaw law firm, Moberly; Moberly city prosecutor; elected state representative, 1992.

REPRESENTS -- District 22: Randolph County and parts of Howard, Chariton and Boone counties.

FAMILY -- Wife Fannie.