Following Hulshof-Steelman Lead, GOP Consultant Infighting Heightens

Perhaps taking a page from the playbook of slow-to-reconcile primary opponents Congressman Kenny Hulshof and Sarah Steelman, GOP political consultants are getting their hands dirty with negative campaigns of their own against their consulting business competitors.

Republican regulars were clucking last week about a slew of "brown envelopes" delivered anonymously to dozens of GOP incumbents and candidates for state office.  Those communiques were focused squarely at discouraging GOP candidates from hiring outgoing Speaker and paid political strategist Rod Jetton to assist in their campaigns. 

The attack packets reportedly engaged in assaults on Jetton's personal character and posed to candidates the question of whether social conservative candidates could be adequately served by a consultant with faults which they ascribed to the Marble Hill legislator.

There's plenty of open speculation about The Source of these attacks, but the bulk of the betting money seems to be with the prominent Republican operative from southeast Missouri rather than the well-known hack from the state's opposite corner.