Reports Reveal Scheme for Hulshof, MOGOP to Buy Kinder Out of Gov Race, Burning Steelman

In the period after Matt Blunt opted not to run, Kenny Hulshof must have worried that he could not possibly win a three way primary that included him, the Lieutenant Governor and State Treasurer Sarah Steelman.  What resulted was an engineered scheme by which Hulshof used his Congressional campaign warchest and the help of the state Republican Party apparatus to buy Peter Kinder out of the primary, setting up a one-on-one matchup between him and Steelman.

In a backroom deal between GOP powerbrokers, Hulshof apparently agreed to contribute a large chunk of Federal or "hard" dollars (Federal dollars are considerably more valuable politically to parties than are non-federal or "soft" dollars, as parties must use federal funds to pay for some activities that affect Federal races, like the Presidential race) which he had raised into his Congressional campaign account. 

In exchange for the $200,000 hard dollar contribution to the MOGOP, the Party agreed to return much of Hulshof's money in "soft" dollars which can be used by his Gubernatorial campaign and to pay out a windfall to Peter Kinder to induce him to step out of the primary. 

Consider that during the first quarter of 2008, large chunks of money moved from the Missouri GOP to Peter Kinder and Hulshof through each of the following Republican Party committees in the stated amounts:

12th Legislative District Republican Committee - $13,450

14th Legislative District Republican Committee - $13,450

15th Legislative District Republican Committee - $13,450

16th Legislative District Republican Committee - $13,450 

17th Legislative District Republican Committee - $13,450 

32nd Senatorial District Republican Committee - $13,400

35th Republican Legislative District Committee - $13,450

85th Legislative District Republican Committee - $13,400 (Hulshof got $13,450)

Boone County Republican Central Committee - $13,450

From the above listed committees alone, Hulshof got back more than $120,000 of the $200,000 he contributed to the MOGOP and Kinder got 120,000-plus reasons for stepping aside from a GOP primary.  And that's just from committees that filed reports prior to today's deadline.

Additionally, Kinder got $53,700 in MOGOP cash from the following committees, lifting his total buyout (again, just from the reports that we've seen to this point) to more than $170,000.

19th Legislative District Republican Committee - $13,450

23rd Senatorial District Republican Committee - $13,450

27th Legislative District Republican Committee - $13,400

34th Senatorial District Republican Committee - $13,400

In the end, all the parties to the transaction probably figure that they're making out like bandits.  The MOGOP gets to trade soft dollars for hard and boost its establishment gubernatorial candidate.  Hulshof avoids a three-way primary that would've left Sarah Steelman as the odds-on favorite and gets back most (if not all, when all is said and done) of his campaign cash.  And Kinder can dry his crying eyes over the end of his gubernatorial dream with a couple hundred grand in Party cash. 

Steelman, of course, is left on the outside looking in.

All in a few weeks' work for the bagmen who run today's Missouri GOP.