We got a news release this morning from Caitlin Legacki, who bills herself as the “senior spokeswoman” of the Missouri Democratic Party that’s a little puzzling. It seems to us in the Missourinet newsroom as something close to “damning by faint praise.”

Ms. Legacki wants us to know that GOVERNING Magazine thinks Governor Nixon is extremely likely to win a second term and that Republican Peter Kinder is pretty much a dead duck before he even announces he has taken flight.

It seemed odd to us that the Democrats’ senior spokeswoman would circulate a magazine piece that disses her employer to a more or less degree. Here’s the part of the article she sent us from GOVERNING:

Governing Magazine ranks the 2012 Governor’s races:
10. Missouri (D-held; previous rating: 11). Democratic Gov. Jay Nixon continues to retain the upper hand in his quest for a second term — impressive, given the difficulties that Democrats have had in the Show Me State in recent election cycles. Nixon has been such a centrist that it sometimes seems as if he has stronger support from Republicans than Democrats. He only burnished his credentials with his response to a series of natural disasters, including the devastating tornado in Joplin. By contrast, Republican Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder’s support within his own party is soft, following a run of gaffes and a controversy over questionable expenses he billed to the state.. Missouri voters aren’t enamored with Democrats these days, but Nixon seems to have placed enough distance between himself and his party to be able to survive even a challenging political environment.

So the senior spokesman for the Missouri Democratic Committee is circulating an article suggesting it “sometimes seems as if he has stronger support form Republicans than Democrats,” and that Governor Nixon “seems to have placed enough distance between himself and his party to be able to survive.” The article also notes that “Missouri voters aren’t enamored of Democrats these days.”

It’s one thing for a party to toot the horn that its governor seems firmly in control of his re-election. But an analysis indicating the governor’s party might not support the governor as strongly as some Republicans seem to and that part of his rosy outlook is because he has “placed enough distance between himself and his party” certainly seems to us to be an odd thing for the senior spokeswoman to be tooting a horn about.