Seriously, what the fuck?!?
Thieves targeted the offices of two political campaigns, stealing cash and leaving behind a trail of damage in Independence.
The latest crime happened at the downtown Independence headquarters of Lucas Kunce. He is running for U.S. Senate in Missouri, hoping to replace retiring Sen. Roy Blunt.
Kunce’s campaign manager said they arrived at the office Monday and realized someone had broken into the building, and helped themselves to whatever they could find.
“Tens of thousands of dollars worth of campaign equipment and other resources were stolen. The most important thing is that our staff and volunteers are all safe. This is an ongoing investigation,” said Connor Lounsbury, Kunce’s Deputy Campaign Manager and Spokesperson.
What’s even more fucked up is that Fox 4 KC pointed out that this break in is eerily similar to what happened a few days ago:
Less than two weeks before voters head to the polls in Independence, City Councilman Mike Huff said thieves broke into his campaign headquarters.
Huff said the thieves caused thousands of dollars worth of damage when they broke in through the front door window and vandalized the offices.
“it’s very disturbing that anybody would do this. I can’t figure out why anybody would break into this place break the glass and take signs,” Huff said.
Mike Huff says he was targeted because of issues he’s had in the past.
“I ran 4 years ago and I had very few signs missing. This particular run I’ve had numerous signs stolen and vandalized and now we’re to the point where they’re breaking into my headquarters” Huff said.
We don’t know who did this but it’s clear Kunce is a target, especially since he’s looking very competitive in his Senate race:
Friendly reminder about Eric Greitens:
The ex-wife of former Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens alleged in court documents Monday that Greitens, a GOP Senate candidate, abused her and their young son while they were married, including knocking her down and confiscating her cellphone.
In an affidavit for a custody case in Boone County, Missouri, Sheena Greitens said she was the victim of domestic violence while she was married to Eric Greitens for almost a decade.
“Prior to our divorce, during an argument in late April 2018, Eric knocked me down and confiscated my cell phone, wallet and keys so that I was unable to call for help or extricate myself and our children from our home," she said in the court filing, accusing her ex-husband, a former Navy SEAL, of "unstable and coercive behavior."
"This behavior included physical violence toward our children, such as cuffing our then three-year-old son across the face at the dinner table in front of me and yanking him around by his hair,” she alleged in the filing, which was obtained by NBC News and NBC affiliate KOMU of Columbia, Missouri.
Her filing was first reported by The Associated Press.
And of course right-wing press like The Washington Examiner are nervous about Greitens winning the primary and hope the GOP establishment can hold him off:
A new poll found Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt leading a crowded Republican primary field in the state’s open-seat Senate race following domestic abuse allegations against former Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens, who previously led the pack.
The new poll, conducted by Remington Research Group on behalf of MOScout, found Schmitt in the lead with 24%, followed by Greitens at 21%. Rep. Vicky Hartzler followed in third place with 19%, and the other candidates, including Rep. Billy Long, all came in under 10%. Nearly 20% of primary voters said they remain undecided.
Greitens’s ex-wife, Sheena, recently alleged that Greitens physically abused both her and their children and threatened to use his political connections to hurt her career. Greitens has denied the allegations, claiming Karl Rove and Mitch McConnell were behind them. Prominent Republicans, including both the state’s current senators, Josh Hawley and the retiring Roy Blunt, have called on him to exit the race.
Asked about the allegations against Greitens, 32% of respondents said they were disqualifying, while 23% said they did not believe them.
The Schmitt campaign characterized the poll as evidence the attorney general is the only candidate in the primary positioned to defeat Greitens and keep the seat in Republican control.
A spokesperson for the Schmitt campaign called the allegations against Greitens disqualifying and said his candidacy would hurt Republicans’ chances of holding the Senate seat.
“Greitens’ continued candidacy places Missouri’s open Senate seat in the hands of Joe Biden and Chuck Schumer,” Nick Maddux, an adviser to the Schmitt campaign, said in a statement.
Dylan Johnson, Greitens's campaign manager, dismissed the poll as an internal Schmitt campaign survey.
“This was a fake poll conducted by Schmitt’s campaign consultant and has been consistently off throughout the election when compared to President Trump’s trusted pollster and other polls have shown Gov. Greitens with a huge lead in the primary and general elections," Johnson said in a statement to the Washington Examiner. "This fake Schmitt poll was also done before news outlets exposed that RINO’s Karl Rive and Mitch McConnell were behind the disgusting, false attacks on Gov. Greitens.”
But some in the Missouri GOP establishment are afraid to cross Greitens:
Missouri Gov. Mike Parson on Wednesday said he believed allegations of domestic abuse against former Gov. Eric Greitens, but stopped short of calling on him to drop out of the U.S. Senate race.
The allegations, made by Greiten’s ex-wife Sheena Greitens last week in an affidavit filed as part of an ongoing child custody dispute, accused the former governor of hitting their then 3-year-old across the face, yanking him by his hair and knocking her down.
Greitens had been previously accused of blackmailing and sexually assaulting his former hairdresser in 2018.
“I have no reason to doubt Sheena Greitens on what she said,” Parson told reporters Wednesday afternoon. “If she filled that out and she signed it, to an official affidavit, until it’s proven different, I think that’s her affidavit.”
Parson, however, side-stepped questions about whether Greitens should drop out of the race and whether he would endorse and vote for Greitens in his bid for U.S. Senate.
That’s because Greitens has been on a rampage against the GOP establishment:
Things are getting tense between Eric Greitens, the beleaguered Republican Senate candidate in Missouri, and GOP establishment figures who want him to drop out of the race.
Greitens is a former Missouri governor who resigned in 2018 over deeply disturbing sexual misconduct allegations and claims that he broke campaign finance laws — all of which he has denied. He's an outspoken Donald Trump supporter and has endeared himself to the former president, in part because he's criticized Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, one of Trump's political foes.
Just last week, Greitens’ ex-wife accused him in court of physically abusing her and their two children while they were married. McConnell reportedly seemed hopeful that the news would torpedo Greitens' campaign, according to a New York Times report last week.
“We caught a break,” McConnell reportedly told fellow GOP senators.
Greitens has since claimed — without evidence — that McConnell and GOP operative Karl Rove conspired against him to spread allegations of misconduct. Specifically, Greitens said the two worked together to pass details of the latest allegations to the Senate Leadership Fund, an organization led by McConnell’s former chief of staff.
“I want to tell you directly, Karl Rove and Mitch McConnell," Greitens said in a video he tweeted Friday. "Hear me now. You are disgusting cowards. And we are coming for you. We are no longer going to allow you to attack me and attack my kids and to destroy this country.”
Greitens called McConnell and Rove "RINOs" — Republicans in name only — and said “true patriots” were “coming for” them.
“We’re not just taking back our party, we’re taking back our country,” he claimed.
Meanwhile, Kunce is running a true populist campaign as Lee Harris at The American Prospect points out:
Kunce, who has never won elected office, wants to rein in the reckless adventurism of Wall Street bankers and rechannel imperial vanity back into Missouri. A century ago, Roosevelt’s Rural Electrification Administration helped bring light and heat to towns including Hayti. If Kunce wins, he wants the Plains States to manufacture and install the next generation of energy. You won’t hear him talk about a Green New Deal, but his campaign pays homage to the postwar era’s program of public investment. And populists have won before in Missouri, on similar plans to stanch corporate greed. The Show-Me State’s only native-son president climbed to fame off a war profiteering investigation. Kunce now lives in the same town where Harry S. Truman grew up: Independence.
Kunce’s plainspoken style has earned him the attention of national media. TV news has turned to him to explain failed wars, Russian energy, and his pitch for banning stock trading by sitting members of Congress. With an entirely grassroots-funded campaign, Kunce raised more money in 2021 than anyone else running. Private polling shows him within striking distance. His slogan is targeted at places that have been left behind by globalization: “It’s time to Marshall Plan the Midwest.”
At times, Kunce seems to see Missouri as a foreign country. Driving across the state, he marvels at the cattle country of the north, the Ozark mountains of the south, cobalt mining, corn and cotton. The state map is a microcosm of America: a reddening core flanked by two blue coasts, complete with a Florida-style southern “bootheel.” It’s all, he frequently remarks, “very interesting.” I suggest adjectives beyond interesting. Diverse? All-American? It’s the biggest softball question for any candidate: Tell me about the district. What binds Missouri together?
The most he can offer is a kind of kid glee: “We touch the most states! Eight.” (Missouri is tied with Tennessee as the state with the most neighbors.)
Kunce is reluctant to spell out exactly who he’s fighting for. Instead, he gets animated about pressing back hostile forces: the Wall Street raiders, monopolies, and foreign oligarchs that have stripped Missouri for parts. He’s allergic to talk of identity, which he sees as an elite PSYOP. Culture wars keep workers fighting each other instead of the owner class, so he’ll have no part in them, thanks. But in a state drifting right where two-thirds of the citizens believe in hell, can he write off unifying values and build his coalition around a common enemy?
Here’s some more of the latest news on the Democratic Primary:
Anheuser-Busch beer heiress Trudy Busch Valentine on Tuesday announced her candidacy for U.S. Senate, shaking up what has been a low-profile Democratic primary in a solidly red state.
Busch Valentine’s announcement comes amid widespread calls from Republicans for Eric Greitens to drop out of the race after the Republican former governor’s ex-wife accused him of physically abusing her and one of their kids.
The latest scandal renewed Republican concerns that Greitens could win the crowded GOP primary but emerge a damaged candidate in the general election, threatening the party’s chances of keeping what should be a relatively easy win for Republicans.
Some Democrats already are positioning the race as everyone else versus Greitens. In a Monday announcement dropping out of the Democratic primary, former state Sen. Scott Sifton endorsed Busch Valentine and called on other Democrats to unite behind her as “the best chance to win in November.”
Picking a woman to be the Democratic nominee also could help flip the Senate seat if Greitens wins the GOP primary, University of Missouri St. Louis political scientist David Kimball said.
“Assuming that Eric Greitens is the Republican nominee, then that makes for a clear contrast in efforts to highlight allegations of abuse against Greitens and his treatment of his family,” he said.
Busch Valentine, a 64-year-old registered nurse, described herself as still being a “nurse at heart” in her campaign announcement.
She’s a widowed mother of six and said the death of her eldest son from an opioid overdose in 2020 in part motivated her to run for office.
“Matt’s death brought so much sadness,” she said in a video announcing her candidacy. “But it also reignited the passion in me to make a positive difference for others, this time on a larger scale.”
But Kunce has been grabbing his share of endorsements:
Also, received this e-mail today from Kunce’s campaign:
The swell of support we saw after reaching out about the break-in at our office has been astounding. Thanks to everyday people just like you chipping in what they could, we’ve almost completely made up for all of our losses. I am so grateful that I can count on this grassroots team to step up when it matters most.
Our record-breaking campaign has upset a lot of the political class here in Missouri. I’m a political outsider running to fundamentally change who has power in our country and I’m not playing by any of their old, corrupt rules.
I’m in this race to represent everyday working people — not some corporate special interest, mega-donor, or political machine. If you’re on my team, please consider adding another donation to my campaign before our major FEC deadline tomorrow at midnight.
Let’s take back our power from the criminal elites calling the shots in our country and flip this U.S. Senate seat.
Thanks for standing with us.
Lucas Kunce
Click here to donate to Kunce’s campaign.
