JEFFERSON CITY • Political attack ads and mailings are nothing new. But some Republicans say the tactics went too far in recent state primary campaigns, and they're calling for new party rules to clean them up.
In the run-up to the Aug. 3 primary, GOP candidates for state Senate launched harsh attacks against each other. Staunch conservatives were painted as big on spending and soft on abortion restrictions. In some cases, the attacks hit deeper, questioning a candidate's character and even his marital fidelity.
The intraparty feuding was particularly bitter in three contests, including one involving Rep. Brian Nieves, R-Washington. His race for a Senate seat made headlines last week when he was accused of threatening a rival's aide with a gun the day after the election. Police are investigating the allegations.
In the meantime, Senate Majority Leader Kevin Engler, R-Farmington, has asked Republican leaders to help develop a code of conduct for primary campaigns. He also says candidates should exert more control over hard-charging consultants who orchestrate political attacks.
Engler has met with several other GOP leaders — including House Majority Leader Steve Tilley, R-Perryville, and Lloyd Smith, executive director of the Missouri Republican Party — and plans to continue talking to them and other party stalwarts.
"We're going to have to come up with some rules of engagement where, if you cross the line, there's going to have to be a price you pay," Engler said. "These political consultants that use people like pawns in a chess game and don't care whether what they're saying is the truth, it's just ridiculous."
Tilley agreed, saying, "It's not productive when races get personal. I look forward to working with Kevin" on the issue.
But it's unclear how a political party would define dirty tricks without violating the right to free speech, or how it could make candidates obey the standard.
"It's wishful thinking because there's nobody to enforce violations within the party," said Terry Jones, a political science professor at the University of Missouri-St. Louis.
While many Republicans say they share Engler's distaste for attack ads, especially those that get personal, some political veterans say it's no worse than in the past. Attacks just circulate faster because of the Internet, they argue.
Both parties have seen nasty primaries, but Republicans had more hot Senate races this year. Of the 10 open Senate seats where no incumbent is running, Republicans hold eight and Democrats two.
Political consultants say fiercely contested primaries are inevitable in an era of term limits, when legislators who can't seek re-election to the House after eight years decide to compete for a Senate seat.
"You strap it on in the political battlefield and you're going to have things said about you," said Jeff Roe, a Republican consultant in Kansas City. "You strap on the chinstrap and go to war."
RACE SPURS DEBATE
At the center of the debate is the race in Franklin County, where Nieves, the state House member from Washington, won a four-man contest for the nomination to replace Sen. John Griesheimer.
His opponents were former Washington Mayor Dick Stratman, former Rep. Jack Jackson of Wildwood and perennial candidate Don Meyer of Labadie. The 26th District covers Franklin and Warren counties and part of St. Louis County.
The campaign of Stratman, a retired high school teacher, was overseen by Jefferson City political consultant James Harris, a Franklin County native and Stratman's former student. Before becoming a lobbyist, Harris worked for then-Gov. Matt Blunt, screening appointees for state boards and commissions.
Harris hired Shawn Bell to help run the Stratman campaign. It was Bell who filed a complaint with police alleging that during a visit to Nieves' headquarters the day after the election, Nieves head-butted him, threatened him with a gun and forced him to apologize to Nieves' wife for campaign tactics.
Through an attorney, Nieves has denied Bell's accusations. The prosecutor has not yet weighed in on whether Nieves broke any laws.
But the tone of the primary campaign is not in question.
Nieves hosted a daily morning radio talk show on KWMO (1350 AM), where he "took shots at everybody" and often insulted and belittled his opponents, said Griesheimer, who endorsed Stratman.
One hot-button issue was abortion. Like many legislators, Nieves had seen his anti-abortion rating fall after he voted for a college construction program financed by assets from the Missouri Higher Education Loan Authority.
Missouri Right to Life, an anti-abortion group, downgraded legislators who voted for the program because it lacked what the group considered ironclad guarantees against embryonic stem cell research.
Stratman's campaign cited the rating to woo anti-abortion voters. Engler, the Senate majority leader, said that was misleading and that using the scorecard was "unacceptable."
Harris, Stratman's consultant, said the ratings were fair game: "Some people may not have liked the issues, but everything was accurate."
No one, though, is taking credit for a two-page typed letter that accused Nieves of having extramarital affairs with female lobbyists. The letter, which was mailed to some Franklin County voters, purported to be signed by a "John Franklin."
Engler contends the author was "working for somebody. They're not just doing it on their own."
Harris said the letter didn't come from him or anyone else with the Stratman campaign.
Roe, the Kansas City consultant, did some work for Stratman's campaign, and he also denied any involvement.
"I saw the letter," he said. "That's bush league."
KANSAS CITY SLUGFEST
Roe's name is usually first on the list when Republicans talk about consultants who go for the jugular.
He ran the 2008 gubernatorial campaign of Sarah Steelman, who was accused of crippling the party establishment's candidate, Kenny Hulshof, by branding him a Washington insider during the primary campaign.
"Jeff is definitely known for his willingness to throw a punch and throw it hard," said Sen. Brad Lager, R-Savannah, a Roe fan.
This year, Roe ran campaigns in two of the GOP's hottest Senate slugfests, in suburban Kansas City and St. Joseph.
In the 8th District, his candidate, Rep. Will Kraus of Raytown, came from behind to beat House Speaker Pro Tem Bryan Pratt of Blue Springs.
The race illustrates a long-running rift in the GOP, going back to those who sided with former House Speaker Rod Jetton and those who warred with him.
Kraus sent out a mailing that depicted Pratt as a puppet of Jetton. It listed pending assault charges against Jetton — charges leveled after Jetton was out of office — and an old FBI investigation into Jetton's handling of a strip club bill, though charges have yet to materialize from that investigation.
Lager, an old Jetton foe, provided $125,000 in last-minute funding for Kraus' campaign to get its message out.
Pratt did not return phone calls seeking comment.
To the north, Roe ran the campaign of businessman John DeStefano, who vied with Rep. Rob Schaaf of St. Joseph in the district that covers Buchanan and Platte counties.
DeStefano's campaign portrayed Schaaf as unpredictable and out of touch with the district. But it didn't work. Schaaf won the nomination with 64 percent of the vote.
"I don't believe it was my opponent who did the negative campaigning," Schaaf said. "I think that more than likely it was the consultants."
Republicans still seething about what happened in the Nieves race say that in the future, there may be a way to get to the bottom of some over-the-line attacks.
Tilley, the House majority leader, notes that under a new ethics law passed this year, the state Ethics Commission can launch independent investigations. Materials mailed to voters without properly identifying the source could qualify for an inquiry, he said.
What's more, lying to commission investigators is now a crime, like it is on the federal level.
"If the Ethics Commission has the ability to launch an investigation, you can see how it'll put a stop to that kind of thing," Tilley said.
