Indictment of Missouri governor could have political ripples in state
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — It didn’t take long after Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens was indicted for alleged invasion of privacy for Missouri Democrats to tie him to Attorney General Josh Hawley, the presumed GOP front runner in Missouri’s hotly contested U.S. Senate race. Nor did it take long for Republicans to link the prosecutor who announced the charges to a prominent national Democratic financier.
The quick injection of politics was a strong sign that Greitens’ potentially prolonged legal battle stemming from an extramarital affair could have implications for the 2018 elections — especially for fellow Republicans whom history suggests have a disadvantage as the party in power during the midterm of Donald Trump’s presidency.
So far, Greitens, 43, has remained defiant against growing but not-yetoverwhelming calls to resign from some fellow Republicans, while instead portraying the felony charge against him as nothing more than a political jab by a “reckless liberal prosecutor.”
The Missouri Republican Party noted St. Louis circuit attorney Kim Gardner had received more than $200,000 from wealthy liberal financier George Soros during her campaign — casting the indictment as part of a broader Democratic attack on Republicans.
The Thursday indictment came just five days ahead of Tuesday’s start of the candidacy filing period for Missouri residents wanting to run for U.S. Senate, Congress, and state and local offices. Hawley is challenging Missouri Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill.
An incumbent governor typically is a help to his party in races such as the Senate, but an indicted one could be a detriment.
“It doesn’t help the image of the Republican Party, so in that sense it helps McCaskill and hurts Hawley” in the Senate race, said Ken Warren, a longtime political scientist at Saint Louis University.
The Missouri Senate race is being closely watched as one that could determine control of the chamber, where Republicans now have a bare majority of 51 seats. McCaskill is one of only two state wide elected Democrats in Missouri, which Donald Trump carried by nearly 20 percentage points in 2016. Republicans got behind Hawley early after a disastrous 2012 campaign when McCaskill defeated Todd Akin following his comments about “legitimate rape.”
Whether Democrats can effectively tie Greitens to Hawley remains to be seen. But indications are that they will try.
On Friday, The Missouri Democratic Party noted Hawley had accepted nearly $50,000 in contributions from Greitens in 2016 and has not called on Greitens to resign. The attorney general is conducting an investigation over Greitens’ use of a secretive app that deletes messages once they’ve been read. It’s unclear when the investigation will conclude.