The Missouri primary is a week from today. The Republican primary is a mess, with former front-runner/wife-beater/child-beater, disgraced ex-governor Eric Greitens fighting it out with other candidates who believe the same thing he does, just without all the scandals. The newest poll shows him in 3rd place, in the wake a brutal ad campaign to the tune of $6 million by a GOP establishment dark money SuperPAC, Show Me Values. Politico reported this morning that the content of the ads were based on testimony under oath by Greitens’ ex-wife, Sheena who swore that “Greitens had previously assaulted her and their 3-year-old son, leaving the child with visible injuries… That puts [state Attorney General Eric] Schmitt in an enviable position for an endorsement from Trump, who earlier this month publicly bashed [Rep. Vicky] Hartzler, declaring she would not receive his endorsement. Schmitt, meanwhile, has had allies continuing to lobby the former president to endorse him, including former Trump officials Pam Bondi and Matt Whitaker… Donald Trump Jr. and his fiancée Kimberly Guilfoyle, a Trump aide who serves as an adviser to Greitens’ campaign, have continued in the last week to push for Trump to endorse Greitens, according to two people with knowledge of their efforts. Their pitch, however, is complicated by Greitens’ declining poll numbers, which have made their way to the former president.”
Now let’s talk about the Democratic primary. That live interview with KMOV’s Cory Stark up top was followed by one Stark did with the laughably unprepared billionaire beer heiress trying to buy the nomination by smearing Lunce and by pumping millions of dollars of her family’s money into a TV campaign. Please watch it here; someone on her campaign was savvy enough to make sure that it isn't embeddable. Not only is it obvious that she would she have no chance against any of the Republicans, she is exactly the kind of nothing candidate who has killed the Democratic Party in Missouri and formerly blue states like Missouri. She’s nothing at all, just rich. Don’t take my word for it; watch her interview with Stark for yourself and compare her with Kunce. Stark asked them the same questions. As the St. Louis Post Dispatch <>wrote yesterday<>, there is no comparison. The editorial board of the biggest newspaper in the state:
The contest among the top Democratic Party primary contenders for U.S. Senate is really no contest at all. Voters heading to the polls next Tuesday should enthusiastically support attorney and Marine veteran Lucas Kunce, who is by far the most agile and well-prepared candidate to take on the uphill challenge of defeating the Republican nominee in the general election.
Kunce is smart, energetic and experienced in a broad level of military and foreign-policy fields. And his upbringing in a struggling blue-collar family gives him the ability to talk to rural as well as urban Missourians in ways that his Republican counterparts cannot. Kunce, 39, is a self-described populist who knows the needs of struggling families firsthand and offers realistic solutions instead of trying to win voters over with blowtorch-and-gunfire silliness.
Unlike silver-spoon freshman Republican Sen. Josh Hawley, who once staged a hayride to feign an interest in rural Missourians’ needs, Kunce can back up his Yale education with actual stories of his parents’ struggle through bankruptcy and family medical hardship. Yet he and Hawley might actually be able to work together since they share a common interest in breaking up big corporate monopolies.
Missouri Democrats should think of this vote in strategic terms. The top two contenders on the Republican side are disgraced former Gov. Eric Greitens and Attorney General Eric Schmitt, who has spent the past two years filing politically motivated lawsuits clearly designed to generate publicity for his campaign. These two candidates utterly lack substance in their platforms, which is why they keep reverting to silly tactics like Schmitt’s blowtorch appeal and Greitens’ use of firearms to “hunt” liberals and Republicans-in-name-only, or RINOs.
Blue-collar workers who mistakenly think that Greitens or Schmitt would carry on President Donald Trump’s legacy need only look under the hood to recognize what those two really stand for and how little they’ve actually done to improve the lives of average Missourians. Kunce can match them head-to-head and toe-to-toe in pretty much any subject. If Greitens tries to assert himself as a macho ex-SEAL, Kunce can counter with a record that includes more and longer deployments than Greitens in actual Afghan and Iraqi combat zones.
Plus, Kunce has represented the United States in arms negotiations with Russia. He actually knows what he’s talking about and wouldn’t embarrass the state as Schmitt has done with his ridiculous lawsuit against China over responsibility for the coronavirus pandemic.
The only other Democratic contender with any promise based on polling is Trudy Busch Valentine, 65, an heir to the Busch beer fortune. We grilled both candidates in interviews, and Valentine came off as unprepared and unconvincing. She would not fare well in a debate against the likes of Greitens or Schmitt— which might explain why she refuses to appear in a television debate against Kunce. The contrast between the two couldn’t be more stark.
Current polling shows Valentine and Kunce in a dead heat, within the margin of error. It’s all going to come down to the two campaigns’ get out the vote efforts. It isn’t too late to give Kunce a helping hand by making a contribution to his campaign here. 22% of Democratic primary voters haven’t made up their minds yet.
a thinking person might just ponder how MO got to be shithole central.
The nazis have a nazi that beat his wife and kid vs. a nazi that, so far, we do not know if he beat his wife.
On the democrap side, we have a new form of "graysoning" where the money is brought to bear to prevent a seemingly less worser guy from winning a nom and maybe a seat. But in this form, the party may not be throwing money at it because the candidate herself is rich enough to handle that job. No reporting on which democrap party approved for-profit firms are allied with which side. I'd guess that the democrap party is helping the heiress…