State Auditor's Race

Politico's Dave Catanese posted a series of interesting tweets on Saturday about Tom Schweich's campaign for State Auditor.  In chronological order:

• 8:38 PM - Bad buzz about Schweich from even those who support him. He's steamed he has a primary when he cut a deal. Ala [Florida Governor Charlie] Crist, welcome to the NFL.
   
• 9:14 PM - GOPer says Schweich needs to learn from @RoyBlunt in approach. Roy takes his licks, but smiles, brushes off like Jay-Z. Schweich gets mad.
   
• 9:32 PM - Schweich should devote a speech to his $500 contrib. to @clairecmc. Say if the GOP wants to b party that excludes indys, it won't prevail.
   
• 9:41 PM - No, @allenicet [primary opponent Allen Icet] doesn't inspire. But Schweich is turning people off. RT @davesmith3: @davecatanese is @alanicet really crushing it THAT much?

House Budget Chair and candidate for State Auditor Allen Icet apparently missed all those audits of the "death panel" falsehood -- Saturday, he said they're real.

Icet also attacked the federal health care bill working its way through Congress: "However you want to put lipstick on this pig, it will destroy our country," Icet said. And, he added, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin was right: "We will have what she referred to as death panels."

Palin and Icet, of course, are wrong (very wrong).  But why would a man entrusted by the House GOP with the state budget and seeking a promotion to statewide office be expected to know what he's talking about?

Lt. Governor Peter Kinder wrote state auditor candidate Thomas Schweich a $100,000 check on New Year's Eve -- a sizable donation, especially from a candidate who still showed more than $400,000 in his own campaign debts in his last campaign finance report.

As the Post-Dispatch's Tony Messenger notes in his post about the donation, Kinder's strong support for Schweich (a thank you for not pursuing the US Senate?) puts him at odds with most all of the House Republicans, who have backed House Budget Chair Allen Icet in the GOP primary for auditor.

Rep. Cynthia Davis is no longer running for State Auditor, as she's told the Missouri Ethics Commission.  Instead, she's endorsing House Budget Chair Allen Icet over the insufficiently conservative (in her mind) Thomas Schweich. KY3's Dave Catanese has the details:

"I don't understand how Republican voters could support someone who came out of the bureaucratic morass of Washington, D.C. where Schweich has been for many years before showing up expecting to be anointed to win a statewide office," Davis said.

"Worse, he expects Missouri Republicans to support him, when he donated money to and supported Democrat Claire McCaskill and praised President Obama for choosing what Schweich called 'an all-star cabinet.' Given Schweich's support for the president and Claire McCaskill, he might have been more comfortable filing in the Democratic primary," Davis said.

But then check out this quote at the end of Catanese's story:

"I plan on being a candidate in 2010, but not for Missouri State Auditor," Davis said.

Last week, the Thomas Schweich campaign announced endorsements from five state senators, including Sen. Delbert Scott (R-Lowry City).

There appears to be a small problem with that announcement: Scott says he never actually agreed to endorse Schweich, and he supports Rep. Allen Icet in the GOP primary for State Auditor.

That listing was unauthorized by me," concluding with, "I continue my strong support for Allen Icet for State Auditor."

If you've been busy tweeting from your deer stand this weekend, you've probably missed a bit of the back-and-forth in the GOP contest to challenge Auditor Susan Montee next year. Sadly, Lt. Governor @PeterKinder has refrained from posting any updates to his live Twitter feed about the conflict.

In bullets of 140 characters or less, is a summary of what's transpired in the past few days:

• @TomSchweich4MO won't commit to full Auditor term. May seek promotion in '12 if not "consensus candidate" in '10. #revenge http://tr.im/F4bM
• @AllenIcet promises full term. "Short-sighted, selfish thinking does not strengthen parties, it destroys them." http://tr.im/F4cV
• Sen. Gary Nodler resigns as Budget Chair 2 avoid conflicts. @AllenIcet w/n follow suit in House. @TomSchweich4MO pounces. http://tr.im/F4dr
• Fmr. Rep. Ed Robb chimes in. "Kudos to @AllenIcet for having the courage 2 resist @TomSchweich4MO's ignorant request." http://tr.im/F4eV

Sen. Gary Nodler (R-Joplin) announced yesterday that he'll step down from his Chairmanship of the Senate Budget Committee before the 2010 legislation session to "avoid any appearance of conflicts of interest" while he raises money for his bid for Congress.

I am leaving the committee before the work for the next session begins so there can not be even the appearance of political considerations compromising the integrity of our budget process.

Read Nodler's full statement at The Turner Report.

Meanwhile, Allen Icet has refused to step down as Chair of the House Budget Committee, seemingly comfortable with the situation Nodler says should be avoided.

What in the world is this all about?

So nine months before Thomas Schweich wins the GOP Auditor primary – to say nothing of actually knocking off Susan Montee -- he can't commit to KY3's Dave Catanese that he'll serve his entire term because he might need to extract revenge in 2012? 

Now that Our Dear Cynthia Davis is fixin' to run for statewide office, we at Fired Up! thought we'd help Rep. Davis with a few suggestions on how to connect with the people outside of her little corner of St. Charles County. Behold:

GOP auditor candidate Thomas Schweich significantly outraised Allen Icet in the third quarter, $335,286 to $127,750.  Numbers for fellow candidate Cynthia Davis are not yet available.

Schweich reports $322,079 in cash on hand, compared to Icet's $139,328.

Cynthia Davis smiles to westbound motorists on I-70 in Warrenton, well outside her O'Fallon House district.

Davis is raising money for a 2010 statewide race and announced in July, "I bought myself some cowboy boots and I'm learning how to say "Missourah!" 

Looks like a real campaign to me. 

At a fundraiser in Springfield yesterday, Thomas Schweich promised to be a "loyal Republican" partisan in conducting audits on behalf of Missourians if he's elected Auditor:

Schweich, who has conducted audits in the private and government sectors, has made auditing the nearly $5 billion in federal economic stimulus money Missouri will receive a cornerstone of his campaign.

"There's an important policy reason that this auditor's race is so important, and there's also a very significant reason from a political standpoint if you're a loyal Republican," said Schweich, a Washington University law professor and former ambassador to Afghanistan.

More partisanship!  That's what people really want from their State Auditor -- an overt partisan agenda. 

KY3's Dave Catanese is reporting that former UN Ambassador John Bolton will be campaigning and raising money with fellow Bush Administration official Thomas Schweich (rhymes with "bike") in Springfield next month.

Bolton was "a central influence on [George W.][ Bush's tough-talking, black-and-white view of the world," and as an ambassador, was alleged to have "bullied and browbeat his underlings, misused his access to intelligence and undermined then Secretary of State Colin Powell."  Before Bush appointed Bolton to the UN, it was revealed that Bolton had made misleading statements to Congress about his participation in investigations of intelligence failures.

There's a fascinating conversation going on in the comments below yesterday's Post-Dispatch story about Thomas Schweich's (rhymes with "bike") personal voting history.  In the story, reporter Tony Messenger notes that Schweich was living in Virginia in 2006 while working in George W. Bush's State Department. His short time as a Virginian is relevant because the Missouri Constitution requires that State Auditors be Missouri residents for "at least ten years" before taking office.  Article IV of the Constitution outlines the minimum qualifications for office.

Section 3. The governor [and state auditor] shall be at least thirty years old and shall have been a citizen of the United States for at least fifteen years and a resident of this state at least ten years next before election.

The discussion about Schweich's residency is all the more interesting because Schweich felt compelled to respond to the questions in the post's comments. He maintains that "case law is clear" on his residency, and that he's eligible for office.  

Lt. Governor Peter Kinder has endorsed Bush Administration Official Thomas Schweich (RhymesWithBike) for the 2010 GOP primary for State Auditor.  In Kinder's endorsement, he describes Schweich as "a patriot," who in turn finds Kinder to be "an accomplished patriot." KY3's Dave Catanese has an early response to the announcement.

Kinder's endorsement of Schweich is no surprise. He was one of the leaders who helped engineer the deal that pushed Schweich out of the U.S. Senate race against Roy Blunt and into the state auditor race. Schweich hinted he'd be receiving some high-level endorsements during his campaign kick-off last week...

Kinder's endorsement confirms the divide within the elected Republican establishment over the race for state auditor.

Read More »