How Will Kinder Reconcile His Loves For Tea Parties and the Evil Metro?

Peter Kinder is a bit of a pickle. He really, really, really wants the tea partiers to like him. But he's also pinning his fading hopes for a successful gubernatorial run on voters in St. Louis thinking he's a reasonable person. Those constituencies overlap in the St. Louis Tea Party, which staked its reputation on defeating Proposition A.

Proposition A, which passed yesterday by a wide margin, will raise the St. Louis County sales tax by a half-cent to help fund the Metro transit agency. Kinder's tea party friends (he hopes they're his friends, anyway) hated the idea of propping up the public entity. But around this time last year, Kinder was positioning himself as a champion of Metro funding, asking state taxpayers to provide $20 million for Metro, to survive long enough to push and pass Proposition A.

In fact, Kinder specifically pointed to extended state funding for Metro as one of the top legislative achievements in 2009. He wrote:

This funding will help restore many routes while creating new jobs. The restorations of these routes are critical for many disabled and handicapped residents in St. Louis. The improved METRO routes will also help employees reach their places of employment in St. Louis County.

Kinder has been usually quiet in recent days and weeks about Proposition A. But now that it's passed and voters have shown strong support for the sales tax increase to fund the transit agency, will Kinder climb on board? Or is he too scared of a potential tea party backlash to remain a Metro champion?