Missouri Auditor Tom Schweich, viewed by many as a smart, well liked Republican with friends on both sides of the aisle was found today dead of apparent suicide in Missouri with a self afflicting gunshot wound to the head, reports Fox News from St. Louis.
http://www.kansascity.com/...
JEFFERSON CITY
Missouri State Auditor Tom Schweich died Thursday in St. Louis — reportedly from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. He was 54.
Authorities say Schweich was taken to a St. Louis area hospital Thursday for what a spokesman at the time called a “medical situation.” Gov. Jay Nixon, a Democrat, canceled a St. Louis appearance following that announcement as concern for Schweich’s condition spread quickly through the state Capitol and across Missouri.
Schweich’s death was confirmed by the auditor’s office at 1:30 p.m. Thursday.
“It is with great sadness that I confirm the passing of Missouri State Auditor Tom Schweich today,” spokesman Spence Jackson said in an email. “Please keep in mind his wife Kathy and two children.”
Governor Jay Nixon had ordered the flags to half staff.
Smart and well liked were key phrases that followed Schweich, but for Republicans, Schweich was a hard charging outsider in a race for Missouri Governor.
http://politicmo.com/...
But when rumors spread throughout the Capitol and made their way to members of Congress in Washington that state Auditor Tom Schweich, one of the Republican candidates for governor, was going to hold a press conference to highlight what has been described as a serious accusation about alleged comments made in the past by the new chairman of the Missouri Republican Party, Hancock swooped into town to push back.
The event did not happen, and a Schweich spokesman did not respond to multiple requests for comment about the allegations.
The news came at an incredible shock today as Schweich had been scheduling reporters to meet with him as recently as yesterday. The press conference that was planned brought Republican pushback and never materialized. Now it never will.
http://www.kansascity.com/...
“Tom Schweich was a lifelong public servant for our state and country,” said Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster in a statement. “I am deeply saddened by his sudden loss, and extend my heartfelt sympathy to his family.”
Missouri Republican chairman John Hancock said he was in shock.
“Tom will be remembered as a tenacious, energetic, effective elected official who worked tirelessly on behalf of the citizens of this state and this nation,” Hancock’s statement said.
New Details, shocking details, have been revealed by the St. Louis Post Dispatch, in which he appeared to be ready to contend that Republicans were blackmailing him by running a whisper campaign around racist assumptions about his heritage. He phoned the editor of the St. Louis Post Dispatch
minutes before reports of his death.
http://www.stltoday.com/...
I have no idea why Schweich killed himself. But for the past several days he had been confiding in me that he planned to accuse the chairman of the Missouri Republican Party, John Hancock, with leading a “whisper campaign” among donors that he, Schweich, was Jewish.
He wasn’t, which is to say that he attended an Episcopal church, but that doesn’t mean he wasn’t proud of his Jewish heritage, passed down from his grandfather.
He will be missed by his family and friends and leaves behind many who loved him in the statehouse.
1:23 PM PT: Some of the responses to the tragedy:
6:50 PM PT: Please note: This is the first diary I've ever republished to move it back to recent. The only reason for this is that facts were published in the St. Louis Post Dispatch and so some details as well as content needed to be changed.