Here’s the latest news out of Missouri:
Turning to the U.S. Senate race, the Missouri Scout survey showed Democratic U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill holding a slight edge over her likely challenger in the November elections, GOP state Attorney General Josh Hawley. Forty-eight percent said they favored McCaskill, 44 percent favored Hawley, and 8 percent were undecided.
Missouri Scout reported a margin of error of plus or minus 2.5 percent.
Fifty percent of Missourians said they approved of President Donald Trump's job performance, and 44 percent said they disapproved.
Their poll also showed disgraced, scandal-plagued Governor Eric Greitens (R. MO) with a 51% disapproval rating. The poll of 1,542 likely voters was taken Wednesday and Thursday. It’s becoming clear this scandal is taking its toll on the GOP’s chances in this race:
Additionally, she more than doubled him in fundraising last quarter, which may be why Hawley is shaking up his campaign team.
Greitens has completely dominated the political news in Missouri since he was indicted on felony invasion of privacy and computer tampering charges, in connection with an alleged sexual assault incident and misuse of a veterans’ charity.
Some Republicans in the state are calling on Greitens to resign, including Hawley himself. But Greitens flatly refuses, and has sneered that Hawley — who has run much of the investigation into the scandals — is “better at press conferences than the law.”
And as if all that were not enough, Hawley is hardly innocent in all this.
For all Hawley’s recent denunciations of Greitens, his office could have investigated some of the allegations much earlier. Missouri Democratic Party chairman Stephen Webber noted that the allegations Greitens was first accused of stealing nonprofit data for political purposes in 2016, and that Hawley “decided to protect a political ally until the very last minute.”
The upshot is that Missouri’s Governor is accused of serious crimes, is dragging down his party’s brand, and is throwing his party’s Senate candidate under the bus exactly as that candidate faces questions over how he has handled Gov. Greitens.
It’s the GOP’s worst nightmare: it’s a Todd Akin-style catastrophe all over again:
"[Greitens] is jeopardizing the whole Republican Party of Missouri," said Rob Jesmer, a top Republican consultant who was executive director of the National Republican Senatorial Committee when Akin made his infamous comments about rape and abortion during McCaskill’s last campaign.
Democrats can hardly believe their good fortune at the same time they pounce. They say Hawley’s outrage at Greitens rings empty, accusing him of going easy on a fellow Republican by stopping or stalling other investigations into the governor’s actions for a year, until Greitens became politically toxic. McCaskill’s party is also hammering Hawley for accepting a $50,000 in-kind campaign contribution from Greitens in 2016.
The conflagration doesn’t guarantee McCaskill will win this November — she’s one of the most vulnerable senators up for reelection this year, and one of five Democrats running in states President Donald Trump carried by double digits. But Greitens still maintains fervent pockets of support among state Republicans and is now feuding openly with Hawley: Earlier this month, the governor said Hawley is “better at press conferences than the law,” while deriding the accusations against him as a “witch hunt.”
"I'm going to start having Claire McCaskill buy my lottery tickets. She's a lucky duck," quipped former Missouri Republican Party Chairman John Hancock, adding: “The bottom line is Eric Greitens is dividing the Republican Party in Missouri and he doesn't care.”
Greitens is also sucking up all of the political oxygen in the state, to Hawley’s detriment, said Missouri Republican consultant James Harris.
“If you want to go out and talk tax reform, if you want to go out and talk about other things, you can — but you really won't have any coverage because all that's coming out in Missouri is about the scandals,” Harris said.
McCaskill knows she can’t rely on luck alone. It’s still all about turnout. So let’s help keep her campaign well-fueled. Click here to donate and get involved with McCaskill’s re-election campaign.