For months, Missourians have watched the candidates for the Republican nomination for governor slug it out in televised debates, in their commercials and in the media. With four well-funded, politically viable campaigns in play, it is the state’s marquee race for the Aug. 2 primary election.

There also are four candidates for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination — a fact that might surprise those who, when they hear anything at all about the Democratic primary, hear that state Attorney General Chris Koster is the party’s presumptive nominee.

That’s because Democratic Party organizations at the local, state and national levels have already coalesced around Koster’s bid with money and support, something that hasn’t happened in the GOP primary.

The main reason for the difference is that, while any one of the four Republicans stands a realistic chance of winning the nomination, the same can’t be said of three of the four Democrats.

In the shadow of Koster’s $13 million in fundraising (nearly a third of it from organized labor), his three fellow Democrats have reported raising no money at all. Only one of them, an octogenarian former mayor, has any previous elective experience.