COLUMBIA, Mo. – For much of her life, Democrat Claire McCaskill had one, simple goal: Becoming Missouri’s first female governor.

Four years ago during a speech to the Chicago Humanities Club McCaskill explained her unsuccessful campaign for the job in 2004.

“By the time I was 12 or 13 years old, I had some teachers tell me I should run for governor someday. My mother, of course, loved the idea as you might imagine, and so she reinforced it – my father did too – pushing me into speech contests, the debate squad, and law school. There was always this undercurrent that I was going to be the first woman governor of Missouri. I focused on this goal for a long, long time,” she said.

While she successfully challenged Democratic incumbent Bob Holden in a primary campaign, she later lost to Republican Matt Blunt in the General Election.

“The biggest risk I took was a complete disaster,” she said in her Chicago speech.

Two years later, McCaskill recovered, winning in the U.S. Senate race against Republican incumbent Jim Talent.

Despite her successful reelection to the post, a decade after that 2004 run to be the state’s chief executive the talk of another gubernatorial campaign for McCaskill has quietly reemerged. Some Democrats have grown wary of their candidate in waiting, Democratic Attorney General Chris Koster.

During an interview Friday, McCaskill was asked very simply, “are you on Team Koster for governor in 2016?”

Her response: “I think Chris Koster is a tremendous Attorney General and I am really happy in my job.”

When pressed, McCaskill gave another non-answer.

“I’m really happy with my job, I believe I am going to finish out this term. I’m blessed and challenged every day,” she said.

McCaskill’s Democratic roots run deeper those of Koster, a former Republican state Senator. Still, he has managed to earn support, some of which came after he raised more than $200,000 to help Democrats aiming to take back seats in the state Legislature (McCaskill recently matched that with a personal check).

Still, some grassroots Democrats have expressed concern over his cozy relationship with lawmakers, lobbyists, and donors associated with his former party. It was highlighted most recently by his support of the “right to farm” amendment to the state’s constitution, pushed by Republicans in the Legislature and backed by the state’s major farming groups, many of which endorse Republicans over Democrats statewide.

On the Republican side, former Missouri Speaker of the House Catherine Hanaway has already announced her campaign for the post. If she successfully beats out whichever Republican (likely a male) runs a primary campaign against her, she would be in line to beating McCaskill to the coveted spot of being the state’s first female governor.

After eyeing that distinction since her teenage years, doesn’t that bother her? When asked, she shrugged. “I was the first woman elected U.S. Senate from Missouri,” McCaskill said. “That’s pretty good, too.”

What McCaskill ultimately decides to do may rest on something essentially* out of her control: Which party ends up with control of the U.S. Senate after the midterm elections. McCaskill has a powerful subcommittee chairmanship that has launched her into the national spotlight. If Republicans take control of the upper chamber, that chairmanship goes away, leaving her with some spare time on her hands.

Whether she would actually challenge Koster (instead of finding a way for him to leave the race) is unclear. Last year, McCaskill hosted a private meeting at her home on the Lake of the Ozarks where she helped orchestrate a deal that removed Koster’s previously most viable possible primary challenger, State Treasurer Clint Zweifel, from the race.