Americans for Prosperity Slimes Its Way into the Missouri Senate Race

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

Americans for Prosperity, a right-wing political action committee founded by the billionaire Koch brothers of Wichita, Kansas, in 2004, and currently headquartered in Virginia, has the ability to throw huge sums of unregulated money into any political race that catches its fancy, and this year the libertarian-leaning reactionary fund has chosen to help the Missouri Republican Party select its nominee to replace Roy Blunt in the US Senate.

An open senate seat being vacated by a Republican and situated in a Republican-leaning state ought to be a fairly automatic pickup for the right GOP candidate, but this year there is a fly in the GOP ointment.  A former governor of Missouri, Eric Greitens, is one of twenty-one candidates vying for the open senate seat, and by most accounts he is the leading candidate.  The problem for The Missouri Republican Party is that Greitens was forced to resign as governor over sexual abuse and blackmail allegations, and he is reviled by many in the state - including some Republicans - making him less than a shoo-in for a victory against the eventual Democratic candidate in November.

Greitens could lose a senate seat that currently belongs to the GOP.

There are two other candidates among the twenty-one Republican hopefuls who stand a chance of beating Greitens in the primary.  One is Congresswoman Vickie Hartzler of central Missouri.  She claims to be a loyal Trump bootlicker and is being supported in her campaign by fleet-footed Josh Hawley, Missouri's other US Senator.  But although Hartzler genuflects to Trump, the old orange bigot does not care for her and some believe he may even go so far as to endorse Greitens in the primary.  (Oddly, Donald Trump has no apparent problems with sexual abusers!)

The other GOP Senate hopeful with a chance of defeating Greitens in the primary is Eric Schmitt, the state's Attorney General.   Schmitt, who in rare moments when he isn't focused on the Senate campaign, uses his current state office to stir controversy and launch attacks on immigration and women's reproductive health issues.  Doing the actual day-to-day legal business of the state of Missouri does not seem to be one of his priorities.

One of those three - Eric Greitens, Vickie Hartzler, or Eric Schmitt - will be the Republican nominee for the US Senate on Missouri's general election ballot in November.  

The Democrats have eleven candidates on their senate primary ballot, and of those, two are frontrunners.   Lucas Kunce is a former Marine who has built a strong internet campaign, energetically works the campaign trail, and accepts no corporate or PAC donations - but has built a massive campaign war-chest off of small, personal donations.  The other Democratic frontrunner is Trudy Busch Valentine, a multi-millionaire beer heiress and nurse who campaigns in a more subdued style than Kunce.

Having three frontrunners has put Missouri (and national) Republicans in a real bind.  Josh Hawley is supporting Vickie Hartzler, Donald Trump may jump in on the side of Eric Greitens, and now American for Prosperity has entered the effort in support of Eric Schmitt.  Clearly the eventual nominee may emerge from this political hairball with a winning plurality of less than thirty-five percent of the vote, and the more the Republican Party fragments in this important race, the greater the opportunity for a Democratic win in a critically important senate contest.

I'm not sure who gave my name and mailing address to Americans for Prosperity, but I'm old and I enjoy getting mail.  I have received four large campaign postcards supporting Eric Schmitt, all sent by AFP with a Jefferson City return address, in the past three weeks, and two within the past two days.  One was an attack on Greitens, and the other three have been more generic attacks on Joe Biden.  Tearing up those postcards on the way back from the mailbox gives me a warm fuzzy feeling that stays with me the rest of the day!

The more money you spend on me, AFP, the less you have to slather on someone who might actually vote for your hand puppet!   Keep those cards coming!