MO-GOV: Schweich dead from gunshot wound

[RogueBeaver]

Horrible news. RIP.

[RogueBeaver]

No idea. Missourians? Condolences going out throughout state guv, Nixon has ordered all state flags to half-mast.

[RogueBeaver]

He had requested interviews with the AP and Post-Dispatch a few hours earlier.

[RogueBeaver]

He had confided to a journalist that he believed the MOGOP chair was leading an anti-Semitic whispering campaign against him. Schweich was Episcopal but had Jewish heritage.

[RogueBeaver]

Party leaders expect Danforth, Schweich's political mentor, to address the whispering campaign head-on when he delivers the eulogy on Tuesday. Expectations are that there will be calls for MOGOP chair John Hancock's resignation. Hancock has admitted mentioning to some Pubs his belief that Schweich was Jewish but denied anti-Semitic motivations. Could be implications for Hanaway.

[RogueBeaver]

Danforth's eulogy here. He discusses the anti-Semitic smear explicitly and at length, also mentions the radio ad ridiculing Schweich's appearance. That ad was linked to associates of Hanaway allies. Schweich wanted to go public on the smear campaign with several witnesses, Danforth advised him to let the media unearth it.

[RogueBeaver]

Hancock said he mentioned Jewishness in the same breath as his Presbyterianism and Hanaway's Catholicism... somehow I doubt that. Before his election, Hancock did some consulting work for Hanaway. The radio ad, among other things, called Schweich "a little bug."

[RogueBeaver]

Kinder considering.

[RogueBeaver]

Long WaPo feature on Schweich.