Missouri governor banks on public backing in not resigning

Jefferson City, Mo. — Accused of sexual and political misconduct, Republican Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens is defying calls to resign from top lawmakers in his own party while instead banking on steady support from the voters who backed his populist campaign against “corrupt insiders” and “career politicians.”

Greitens’ unwavering bravado toward state lawmakers who hold the power of impeachment may seem like a risky political strategy. But it also seems to be effective at shaping his image outside the Capitol, even as troubles keep mounting.

“I stand behind Governor Greitens ... 100%,” retired nurse practitioner Lesley Hughes recently wrote on Greitens’ Facebook page, where the governor sharply denounced a legislative report containing allegations that he threatened, slapped and restrained a woman during sexual encounters.

“I don’t care if the report says that he’s been accused of dancing naked on Kingshighway Boulevard at midnight with a llama, I don’t care,” Hughes, 70, of Farmington, told The Associated Press on Wednesday, referring to a busy St. Louis street. “It’s all about due process.”

That’s precisely the message that Greitens has sought to convey.

Greitens, 44, faces a felony invasion-of-privacy charge for allegedly taking and transmitting a nonconsensual photo of a partially nude woman who testified that she was bound and blindfolded by Greitens during a sexual encounter in the basement of his St. Louis home in 2015. Greitens contends their extramarital affair was consensual and that jurors will acquit him of the charge. In public, he counts down the days to his May 14 trial.

But Greitens soon could face a second felony charge. Attorney General Josh Hawley, a fellow Republican also elected as a political outsider in 2016, suggested Tuesday that the St. Louis prosecutor could charge Greitens for taking a donor list without permission from a St. Louis-based veterans’ charity Greitens founded and using it to raise money for his gubernatorial campaign.

Hawley’s investigation was the “critical turning point” for Republican Senate President Pro Tem Ron Richard, who added his name Tuesday evening to the ranks of those calling for Greitens’ resignation. That list now also includes Republican House Speaker Todd Richardson, who appointed the special House investigatory panel that could recommend impeachment proceeding against Greitens.

Greitens reaffirmed that he won’t resign — refusing to yield to the sort of public political pressure that has forced more than two dozen state and federal lawmakers out of office in the past 15 months after accusations of sexual misconduct.