Greitens Hires a Top Cop Who Perfects the Art of Looking the Other Way
Nosotros were somewhere on I-44, well-nigh 20 miles west of Springfield, when we realized we'd missed the exit. It was a cool September morning, and my editor and I were heading to the Chateau on the Lake where the Missouri gubernatorial and senatorial candidates for the Nov election were set to fence at the 150th annual Missouri Press Association Convention in Branson.
Yes, Branson, the low-budget Las Vegas nestled in the Ozarks. Iv miles from the Chateau, Missourians hitting Highway 76 for undead wax museum Charlie Chaplins, rickety roller coasters and a life-sized front third of the Titanic, which doubles as a museum and a shameless hood decoration on center America's circus caravan that never leaves town.
It was to be a political smoke show and unique in the sense that the 2 major candidates were finally squaring up after dodging each other for months similar boxing rivals Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather. I whipped the car around as soon as I found a break in the median. The seemingly routine 3-hour drive had now become a speed bump in the tumultuous journeying to the core of Missouri politics. I put my pes to the pedal and turned up the stereo. Time was ticking.
We arrived at 12:53 p.m., vii minutes shy of the gubernatorial candidate forum's ane p.m. start time. I pulled on my slacks in the parking lot, and we walk-jogged to the press table and snagged our credentials (which displayed the Titanic as a master sponsor for the convention — the irony of the sinking ship seemed lost on attendees). My anxiety chop-chop subsided equally the show commenced. After months of shadowboxing with PR contacts (who responded to emails at a glacial speed) and psychoanalyzing these power-hungry men during the months of my reporting, they were finally in front of my very eyes.
Traditional party politics are dead in the Show-Me State. If I told you that 1 of the Missouri gubernatorial candidates supports constitutional acquit, stricter immigrant employment laws, suing the Environmental Protection Bureau and, until Monday, photo ID for voters at the polls, which party would you approximate he represents? If you said Republican, you would be incorrect. And, what if I told you lot that the Republican candidate with a passion for automatic weapons is a onetime Democrat?
If you think Missouri is an outlier in the national scene, you'd exist wrong again. At the very top of the two major political parties in America, outsider candidates constitute relative success by departing from political party lines and creating divisions betwixt traditional supporters and voters who take become increasingly disgruntled with politics.
It's a tendency worth following in a country with several highly competitive races and some serious issues to prepare. Gov. Jay Nixon has reached his term limit, and the adjacent iv to 8 years will swivel on this campaign.
Republican Nominee Eric Greitens from St. Louis is running as a self-described "conservative Republican" and political outsider, simply it wasn't until he published a letter with conservative-leaning Play tricks News in 2015 explaining why he was making a departure from the left that he officially swapped political ideologies. Just iii months before he made that move, the one-time Navy SEAL appeared on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart to talk over his veteran's charity work with the former host and archliberal. In that location, he appear he was exploring the possibility of running for governor.
In 2009, the domain name EricGreitensforPresident.com was anonymously registered, indicating someone's want for him to enter the political sphere. The site is inactive.
Shortly later on switching party affiliations, he began carefully assembling the necessary components for what would go his bid to be the next occupant of the Governor's Mansion. His seemingly calculated political switch is curious because that his principal selling indicate has been his status as an outsider candidate unlike his Democratic rival Chris Koster, also from St. Louis, who he labels as a "career politician."
Greitens emerged out of a four-person Republican chief that featured former Missouri Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder, former Speaker of the Missouri House of Representatives Catherine Hanaway and fellow veteran and businessman John Brunner. Greitens finished kickoff, collecting 34.5 percent of the principal vote. It's worth noting that he and Brunner, who finished second in that race, have never held public offices.
In June, Greitens released an advertisement titled, "Taking Aim," in which he famously introduced himself to the people of Missouri while brandishing an set on rifle, touting his war machine service and business concern feel and declaring that he would "have dead aim at politics as usual." The spot concluded with Greitens firing his weapon into an open up field. An explosion ensued, and it also marked the moment his entrada caught fire.
The advert fabricated him a topic of give-and-take in Missouri and nationally over the next several weeks, provoking liberal criticism and dividing opinions inside his own political party all while appealing to the frustration of many voters.
Greitens' early success is the product of his outsider image, which he has adamantly projected, too as his accomplishments as a veteran, business concern owner and humanitarian. The St. Louis native studied ethics, philosophy and public policy at Duke University and became a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University. With his education consummate, he enlisted in the Navy in 2001 and reached Navy SEAL status by 9/xi. He went on to serve four tours in Iraq, Transitional islamic state of afghanistan, the Horn of Africa and Southeast Asia.
In 2007, later his concluding tour ended, he started The Mission Continues, a charity for veterans for which he served every bit CEO until 2014. That yr, Fortune included him on its list of the world's 50 greatest leaders.
And now, he has set up his sight on existence governor. To do that, he'll have to get through Koster, the blazon of career politician he abhors. And while Greitens has to expend precious free energy on advancing by the much tougher Republican land primary, Koster faced little opposition in his, netting 78.seven percent of the overall vote for an easy victory.
Koster's experience is his chief calling card. He graduated from the MU School of Law in 1991, went on to exist the Cass County prosecutor in 1994 and and so became Republican state senator from 2004-08. Yes, Republican.
Greitens isn't the only candidate who has switched sides. On Aug. 1, 2007, Koster announced his intention to become a Democrat at a press briefing at MU and cited his support of stem cell research, education reform and a distaste for the growing influence of the religious right as reasons behind his mutiny.
"A man can modify his beliefs in order to preserve his party, or a homo can modify his party in order to preserve his behavior," Koster said. "Today I choose the latter. I'm a Democrat."
He was called an opportunist by many of his sometime party mates, who said he made the switch purely for his own political gain. Koster added fuel to the fire when he reversed his stance on ballgame rights and announced his support of increasing Medicaid funding when he became a Democrat, the kickoff of many liberal policies he would add together to his arsenal in the years leading upward to his gubernatorial bid.
Since becoming Missouri's attorney general in 2009, he's been collecting the experience he would need to run for governor. Now he is labeled a moderate Democrat, though in many ways he leans farther right than others with that designation. He supports traditionally conservative interests such as gun rights, tax cuts, the death penalty and immigration reform. He has likewise sued the EPA over restrictions on land, an issue that is specially of import to farmers but not exactly a typical career move for a Democrat.
According to an Oct. 12 Remington Research survey, Koster is polling at 48 pct over Greitens' 42 percent. Only the margin betwixt them is shrinking, and Greitens is riding a booming populist moving ridge that he hopes volition crest on Election 24-hour interval and topple the Jefferson City status quo.
Information technology's difficult to say where either of the 2 sits on the political spectrum and fifty-fifty harder to determine if they actually stand up with their chosen side.
My first feel reporting on this entrada came back on Aug. 27, when Greitens hosted a full general election kickoff rally at his Columbia headquarters on Ash Street. The camouflaged building sits among the local coffee shops, alternative grocery stores and art galleries of the North Village Arts Commune, a neighborhood known for its liberal clientele.
Past my standards, I was right on time (just a few minutes late), but once I turned the corner and saw Greitens heading into his ain event, it became credible I shouldn't have played that extra game of Overwatch before leaving my house that morning. Fortunately, Greitens wasn't in a position to alienate a potential voter, and so he offered me a business firm handshake and thanked me for coming.
Eric Greitens talks to a oversupply attending a campaign event held at the University Plaza Hotel in Springfield, Mo. on Oct. half-dozen, 2016 in support of his bid for the Missouri governor's office.
Greitens is a great speaker; he'southward clean cut and wears a reassuring smile that transcends annihilation he could offer voters in terms of specific policy stances. In official appearances, he enunciates each and every word and isn't afraid to enhance his voice to emphasize a point or strike a passionate tone that evokes emotion amid his listeners. His demeanor matches his adopted persona as the disruptive, impassioned savior of the beleaguered GOP. Remind y'all of anyone?
Within, Greitens' function had a feel of deliberate modesty. It was generally empty apart from the slew of campaign posters and American flag-themed wall decor. A single desk sat against the front window and faced the street. A Yeti cooler rested on the countertop to the left of the desk, and it accordingly featured both Greitens and Trump/Pence entrada stickers — an undeniable reflection of both campaigns' populist roots.
Greitens' volunteers are all college men in oversized suits, and the fraternity vibe was immediately apparent. Still, they worked diligently and seemed excited to have cemented their political allegiances at a young age. As Greitens prepared to have the floor, the chatter of the oversupply of xxx or so came to a complete halt. A daughter twirled a mini American flag around in her hand while sitting on her male parent'southward shoulders. Her sis wore a Greitens shirt and mirrored her sibling's enthusiasm. Politics is a family unit affair, later all.
A group of particularly vocal bikers barked their approval as Greitens rattled off conservative inclinations, such as his opposition to the Affordable Care Human activity. One of the bikers, a woman with a bandana and a black cutting-off T-shirt, even knew the names of Greitens' wife and two sons and murmured them along with Greitens when he stressed the importance of family unit. It was clear this following was deeply invested in the outsider candidate.
After the rally, Rudi Keller of the Columbia Daily Tribune asked Greitens if he had whatsoever more advertisements featuring heavy weaponry in the works. The interaction was tense, and Greitens started talking faster in an attempt to avoid the topic. Keller sensed that his original question left also much room for Greitens to evade giving a real answer and asked, "What do these things say to voters when you use them?"
Greitens' tone changed, and he became audibly upset. "Did you lot heed to the ad?" he replied, implying that perhaps through some combination of ignorance and sheer indifference that Keller had non done his homework. A campaign staffer was at his side immediately, gear up to stop the candid session. Greitens wouldn't say whether any similar ads were planned for the full general ballot, and the interaction presently fizzled out.
His inexperience was well-nigh visible in that moment. Before Donald Trump, these emotional outbursts were uncommon among practiced politicians looking to project an image of stability to voters. Greitens will need to keep his cool nether force per unit area if he hopes to overtake Koster's lead before Judgment Day arrives on Nov. eight.
Koster was much less accessible. Later on months of contacting his press squad, who had skillfully dodged my attempts to reach them, I never did get a chance to speak with everyone involved with the campaign.
Frustrated, I sent an electronic mail to reporters at both the Kansas City Star and the St. Louis Mail-Dispatch, asking if they knew of any upcoming Koster events. Kurt Erickson, a political reporter for the Postal service-Dispatch, told me he had the aforementioned issue, despite Koster's entrada headquarters being located in St. Louis.
The closest I ever got to Koster was one September morning when my canis familiaris woke me upwardly to alert me to a knock on the door. Barely awake, I put on a pair of boxers and opened the door to find a Koster leaflet on my front porch. I picked it up and skimmed through it, hoping to find an event he would exist attention, simply it was merely another attack on Greitens.
I was set up to chuck it in the trash and caput dorsum to bed when I saw a young woman across the street distributing the leaflets. It was the first fourth dimension I had seen anybody even remotely associated with the Koster campaign, and I one-half considered running afterward her for an unconventional interview. Unfortunately, by the time I had put on a semi-presentable outfit from the heap of laundry on my flooring, she had gone.
Democratic candidate Jason Kander, left, debates Republican incumbent Sen. Roy Edgeless at the Missouri Press Association Convention. Similar to the gubernatorial contest, deviating from party norms could win voters over this election season.
The lack of printing contact makes it seem that Koster is merely riding out the final stages of the general ballot and, with a sizable lead in the polls, his camp is sure they take it locked up. I've seen little evidence of his candidature in Columbia, which leads me to believe that because of Boone County's liberal voting history, he shifted his focus toward more rural and conservative areas of Missouri.
This kind of confidence might exist adequate in political circles, but it doesn't exactly show mid-Missouri voters they are valued in the grand scheme of things. Koster, the mystery man, proved himself extremely elusive at every turn. I wouldn't get the chance to come across him in person until the showdown in Branson.
What does information technology mean when bothmajor party candidates of a state gubernatorial election accept well-documented ties to the other side? In any other realm, information technology might mean they would be subjected to the harsh treatment LeBron James received subsequently absconding from his native Cleveland to play for the Miami Heat (before he helped bring the NBA championship home). Merely in politics such insubordination seems to exist more than easily forgiven.
Politics are fluid later on all, and the truth of the matter is some voters simply don't intendance how conventional candidates are equally long as they can offer them something more than than dull policy jargon. This yr'due south presidential election and primaries are evidence of that.
While Koster has carefully pinpointed a position on the political spectrum that helps him tap into bourgeois regions of Missouri equally well as urban liberal strongholds, Greitens has been following in the populist footsteps of some other outsider candidate, Republican Presidential Nominee Donald Trump.
"A lot of conservatives are relatively unhappy with their party leadership, and so what we're seeing this year is this sort of 'populist defection' against conservatism," says Marvin Overby, an MU professor of political science. "It speaks of a type of conservatism that is not particularly intellectually grounded."
Click the story beneath to find out virtually Libertarian Cisse Spragins tertiary party alternative.
Dave Robertson, professor and chair of the University of Missouri-St. Louis Political Science Section, agrees with this assay. He says there are, more than or less, 3 divisions in the conservative base of operations: the social conservatism fly, the establishment fly and the populist wing. Greitens belongs in the latter of the three, which has caused many in the party to distance themselves from him in the same vein that prominent figures such as Mitt Romney and John McCain have directly opposed Trump's candidacy for president.
"He'southward not only cursed with being unpredictable, a onetime Democrat and untrustworthy but besides being an outsider in a party where the establishment has a whole lot of influence," Robertson says of Greitens. "You come across that in the lack of enthusiasm and even the opposition of some of the leading Republicans (in the land)."
On Sept. 6, Greitens campaigned aslope Mike Pence, Trump'southward vice presidential candidate, in a boondocks hall-style rally in Springfield. To a crowd of Trump supporters and other conservatives, Greitens and Pence denounced Democratic Presidential Nominee Hillary Clinton and Koster as products of the Democratic calendar. Even so, later on a tape depicting Trump making incredibly sexist comments leaked on the internet, Greitens took a footstep away from Trump, tweeting from his personal account: "Donald Trump'south words were icky and wrong. There is no defence of them."
Republican nominee for Missouri governor Eric Greitens prides himself on being an outsider candidate at his rally. Greitens recirculated Trumpist campaign strategy by calling Chris Koster "kleptomaniacal," Donald Trump'southward go-to insult for Hillary Clinton.
Greitens and Pence haven't campaigned together since, but whether or not it has to do with his condemnation of Trump is unclear. Either mode, the similarities between Trump's rise to popularity and Greitens' are abundant. Like Trump, Greitens has been criticized for non releasing his tax returns and has likewise been questioned about the $700,000 in total earnings he made equally CEO of The Mission Continues.
Nevertheless, pushing against his party might ultimately fail Greitens. Robertson attributes Koster'southward polling reward to the Democratic Political party'south willingness to go with establishment candidates, bolstered by splits amidst the Republican voter base. His position in the middle of the political spectrum isn't all that uncommon in a state that leans conservative, simply what differentiates him from other moderate liberals is that he has taken an unorthodox position in his back up of unrestricted gun rights.
Firearms are a recurring theme in this election, and support of guns is the issue for which both candidates have received their harshest criticisms. For Greitens, it came from reactions to "Taking Aim," as some voters felt the advertisement was an ill-timed endorsement of assail weapons in the context of rampant mass shootings. Likewise, Koster regularly takes flak for his unwavering support of 2d Amendment rights, only it has also brought him one of his biggest avails: the endorsement of the National Rifle Association.
The NRA had never endorsed a Democratic gubernatorial candidate in Missouri before they gave Koster the nod on Sept. 6, and that could be both a blessing and a curse in the long run. At that place are murmurs in Democratic circles that this anarchistic endorsement is unacceptable. 1 Democratic staffer who spoke to me on background says that he nearly considered leaving the party altogether. He asked to remain bearding over concerns that he could lose his position.
"When I picked upwardly the paper and read that Koster had received the NRA endorsement, I didn't know whether to run for my bottle of Jameson, my blood pressure medication or both," he says. "The activist excursion was called-for upwardly. I hateful, we were in contact with each other and on fire. That's how we experience most Koster."
The man, who describes himself equally a veteran party activist, says he and his peers volition still vote for Koster with the hope that he would "occasionally" veto conservative legislation. But as a left-of-center liberal, the homo must settle for a candidate who has a much more than right-of-center viewpoint than his ain to win in a state such equally Missouri.
Koster'south other major endorsements are also from bourgeois-minded groups such as the Missouri Farm Bureau, the Missouri Fraternal Gild of Police and the Missouri Cattlemen'southward Association, among other agricultural interest groups. These organizations are all, for i reason or another, confronting Greitens to such a degree that they would endorse a Democrat.
"(Koster), they suspect, has more of an interest in taking care of the issues they care about," Overby says. "He's the kind of Democrat that Republicans can see themselves living with and working with, because he in fact is a former Republican."
By taking a large clamper of historically conservative voters, Koster has skillfully tapped the deepest well that Greitens had at his disposal, and the kind of unprecedented support he's seeing might be enough to go along a Republican out of the governor'southward function for another iv years.
"Part of the value of an endorsement like that is that it's something that the Greitens people at present have to explain; it becomes a complimentary medium for Koster," Overby says.
Greitens does have one major endorsement, from the Missouri Chamber of Commerce and Industry, only that alone might not exist plenty. Greitens is unfazed past this and has skillfully spun his lack of popularity with conservative interest groups every bit a manipulation by (you lot guessed it) the establishment, though he might be right in that exclamation.
MU sophomore Chris Vas has come to support Greitens through his involvement with the Republican Political party. He's worked on campaigns for Missouri's own U.S. Sen. Roy Blunt and U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz from Texas.
"You lot want these endorsements, but do they really mean that much?" Vas says. "These lobbyists and people who are endorsing (Koster) take been in Jeff City for decades. I don't know if their approval is necessary for the people of Missouri."
Dan Mehan, president and CEO of the Missouri Sleeping room of Commerce, cites economic reasons for the Chamber's back up of Greitens, who he says has, "a boldness that we don't come across likewise often." It's upwardly to voters to make up one's mind whether that boldness makes Greitens qualified to hold the highest office in Missouri.
After missing our highway get out andnearly botching the whole trip, my editor and I take our seats in the hall amid a group of 260 supporters, political insiders and reporters and settle in with our notebooks. Greitens' sympathizing horde sits in a large grouping to our correct, while important relatives and friends of each candidate sit down in the front end row.
After experiencing one Greitens rally firsthand and chasing the shadow of the Koster campaign for weeks, information technology's surreal to finally see Koster and Greitens next to each other on phase in Branson. The once-budding rivalry between them has escalated into total-blown warfare — by means of millions of dollars worth of scathing advertizement — and information technology is at present fourth dimension to duel.
The first shot hits almost immediately, when Greitens introduces his program to hire a chief operations officer to check state spending. Koster responds with a hint of scorn, chuckling at the suggestion.
"That's you, Eric. That's what they're trying to hire," Koster says condescendingly. "The governor is the person who runs the budget. And if y'all don't know enough to operate the land of Missouri, then you shouldn't exist applying for the job, my friend."
The room is tense for a brief moment, but a small and less-reserved portion of the crowd can't aid just laugh at the commutation.
Greitens replies with emotionally charged tenacity that would become a common theme during the debate. "You lot don't understand it, Chris," Greitens says. "You lot don't understand what it takes to run a business concern or an enterprise; that is i of the reasons the people of Missouri cannot elect another career political leader."
I had seen Greitens' rhetoric earlier, and I was accepted to his adversarial style and liberal use of the term "career politician." Simply to me, Koster was a whole new animal. He wears a slightly loose, white push-down shirt, sans jacket, likely in an endeavour to appeal to his valued farming constituency. Greitens, by contrast, wears a well-fitted blue adapt jacket and looks as though he could be on the cover of GQ.
Koster's vocalisation is deep and clear. I could but as hands see him becoming an MLB play-past-play announcer if this whole "running for governor" thing doesn't quite work out. His mannerisms requite off the impression that he spent long hours rehearsing his political rhetoric, and now he's so polished, the eloquent demeanor has go 2d nature.
Democratic gubernatorial candidate Chris Koster, left, argues aslope Republican challenger Eric Greitens at the offset and simply general election fence in the race to be Missouri governor. Koster appears equally an experienced politician next to outsider candidate Greitens.
All gubernatorial candidates have opportunities to be heard as the contend rages on, but it is conspicuously a two-homo show. Greitens makes a addiction of interrupting both Koster and the moderator, and his big fan section follows his lead by applauding him each fourth dimension he speaks — both in and out of turn. I'd tell yous what the Koster supporters are doing during this time, but I don't see more than a dozen of them. They are either a quiet agglomeration or nonexistent.
Koster receives many attacks throughout and stays reserved until information technology is fourth dimension for his endmost remarks. Referring to "Taking Aim," Koster says that Greitens "introduced himself to the country v months ago with a motorcar gun, saying that he knows how to accident up government.
"I have no doubt that he knows how to blow up authorities," Koster continues. "I have a lot of doubts every bit to whether he knows anything about putting it back together."
Koster is water ice common cold with his delivery. To him, he had merely voiced what others were thinking about Greitens' ad. Greitens responds with his reactionary "career politician" line, simply the debate is all but over at this indicate, and it is pretty articulate to me that Koster's emphasis on his feel and his composure had won the day. Yet, as I sit in the lobby outside of the debate hall, I overhear some immature Greitens volunteers saying their champion, "knocked information technology out of the park."
You tin find the same rhetoric among Trump voters after presidential debates. Perspective is everything, I suppose, although I'g non entirely certain they saw the same debate that I did.
I went to Branson with theintention of covering only the gubernatorial race, simply the senatorial contest provided too many interesting parallels to ignore. Nationally, the Democrats need a cyberspace gain of iv U.Due south. Senate seats to win the majority, and Missouri's matchup between incumbent Blunt and Autonomous nominee Jason Kander has recently become 1 of nation's closest, according to the Kansas City Star. An October. 17–19 poll from the Emerson College Policy Society has them tied with 44 percent of the vote.
Kander is a one-time captain in the Missouri Army National Guard and was an intelligence officer in Transitional islamic state of afghanistan. He was elected as the Missouri secretarial assistant of state in 2012. He's young, fresh and confident and, similar Greitens on the other side, runs on the platform of ousting government insiders and lobbyists. During the fence, he wasn't afraid to suggest that Blunt, his elder by 31 years, was out of touch with modern voters.
Edgeless, a career politician to the cadre, with 14 years in the U.S. House of Representatives and six in the Senate, responds with a gusto that resembles a hybrid of pre-Watergate Richard Nixon (as seen in The White Business firm) and Eeyore (every bit seen in Winnie The Pooh), although he is an impressive public speaker. His entrada to this point has focused primarily on highlighting his experience in the U.S. Senate.
In September, Kander took a lot of flak from Blunt's campaign about his "F" rating from the NRA. Kander responded by releasing an advertisement in which he assembles an AR-15 assault rifle while blindfolded, saying he learned how to respect his weapon while serving in Transitional islamic state of afghanistan. When he's finished, the ad concludes with him challenging Blunt to practice the same.
The ad, like Greitens' "Taking Aim," went viral rapidly and gave Kander a boost in the polls. Now, the race is a dead oestrus — something that seemed unlikely just a few months ago.
People simply desire to believe in their political party's candidate. Some Missourians appear to be defecting from Blunt, who won the concluding election with 54.3 per centum of the vote, to Kander. This suggests that Blunt'southward conservatism might not be the respond anymore. They desire somebody who's not afraid to break the status quo.
Sound familiar? Deviating from political party norms is how Trump won his main and how Bernie Sanders gave Hillary Clinton a scare in her run for the Democratic nomination. Both Trump and Sanders stressed the piffling guy, and both were, in a manner, outsiders who were discounted by many early.
But voters didn't discount them. Both candidates had strong back up initially from the "Bernie Bros" and the alt-right Trump superfans akin, who wanted something new. This is where Greitens' appeal lies and why Koster gets the liberty to choice and choose when he'due south a Democrat. But as my investigation progressed, I found equally compelling reasons why some Missourians wouldn't want to vote for either of them.
The political procedure inherently unfolds like a business, and fifty-fifty the people who say they're different, such as Greitens, are still prone to the same pitfalls that befall veterans such as Edgeless. They're however liable to someday commit the aforementioned acts they are supposed to be rallying against. For instance: Greitens attacks Koster for existence a career politician yet also supports Blunt in an attempt to proceeds voters from his constituency.
Koster, on the other hand, has played it safe in an anarchistic year. Merely as a one-time Republican with many right-wing interest groups behind him, he still has to face up Democratic voters who aren't yet convinced he is genuinely interested in the bug they are the most passionate nearly. He likewise has the misfortune of being an insider candidate in an outsider kind of twelvemonth.
Koster and Greitens aren't traditional politicians, yet onstage in Branson they appeared to be post-obit the familiar formula of attack and evade. Voters might encounter their willingness to cross party lines and unapologetic flip flopping and feel they don't have a true representative in their government.
The rest of the nation is watching intently and waiting to see what the final judgment will exist in this unusual election between two candidates who torched their GOP and DNC allegiances to win the ballot box. The ii-political party system used to be sacred, merely no longer. On Nov. viii, Missourians will pick the lesser of two defectors between two men who drooled over the keys to the governor's mansion and made deals with the devil to go at that place.
To blow off steam after a long and frustrating twenty-four hour period spent reporting on this calculated race, my editor and I pull off the road into the bumpy clay parking lot of Crazy Craig'south Derisive Monkey Bar, a creaky dive bar beyond the street from a firearm outlet and a wing fishing shop.
This is a identify where a wooden monkey with an exposed penis sits on the bar, y'all can smoke inside and a man named Chuck in a Detroit Lions chapeau sets a complimentary blue shot in front of you as soon as you sit down. Five former white men shoot the shit over Miller Lites on the patio. They don't intendance about the ability take hold of at the Chateau a mile down the road — they'll probably support Greitens on party principal, but they'd rather talk about Air Force parties during their Vietnam-era military careers.
The bar is the perfect metaphor for Missouri and its politics. The but dominion is that at that place are no rules. Become lung cancer, pound $2 pints and watch the flies circling your pulled pork sandwich. Information technology's better the less y'all care. Nosotros ponder this and down our shots.
Source: https://www.voxmagazine.com/news/features/switching-sides-eric-greitens-and-chris-koster-stray-from-party-lines-in-the-race-for/article_46a9c9ba-ab8e-11e6-a977-db8d6d254957.html
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