Embattled Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens, a Republican, is declining to block from the November ballot three initiatives that could boost Democratic turnout in the midterm.
Greitens faces possible impeachment in the Republican-controlled state legislature over twin scandals involving an extramarital affair and mismanagement of a charity. But the governor is defiant, and in a move interpreted as a shot at Republicans demanding his resignation, he is choosing not to exercise his authority to shift a trio of popular Democratic initiatives to the August primary.
The measures would raise the minimum wage and legalize medical marijuana. Most worrisome for Republicans in majority-GOP Missouri, the third proposal would hand the decennial redistricting process over to a nonpartisan demographer charged with drawing politically competitive seats.
Republicans fret that the initiatives will supercharge Democratic turnout in the midterm, providing a lift to Sen. Claire McCaskill. The unpopular Democratic incumbent needs all the help she can get to hold off Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley, her presumed Republican challenger.
Greitens’ office did not respond to a request for comment. But Maura Browning, a spokeswoman for Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft, who oversees elections, told the Washington Examiner on Wednesday that the governor’s office “notified us yesterday that he did not plan to move anything to the August primary election.”
Will Schmitt, of the Springfield News-Leader, first reported the news. The development quickly circulated in Missouri political circles and set off alarm bells among Republicans focused on the fall elections.
Under the Missouri Constitution, initiatives that submit the required petitions are automatically placed on the general election ballot. But the governor is granted sole authority to move consideration of initiatives to the primary election. In this case, doing so would protect the Republican Party’s turnout edge in the state and reduce the chances of the measures passing.
Greteins’ apparent decision not to use this power appears aimed at punishing his fellow Republicans — yet more fallout from ongoing scandals that now threaten to bleed into federal politics and impact crucial midterm contests. Some Republicans in Missouri are speculating that Greitens’ problems are keeping Vice President Mike Pence out of the state.
Rather than travel to Missouri to raise money for Hawley, Pence’s political team has added the attorney general to a planned fundraiser in Indianapolis that also would collect campaign cash for Mike Braun, the Republican nominee for Senate in Indiana, and the National Republican Senatorial Committee.
Many Republican officials in Missouri, Hawley among them, have called on Greitens to resign in the wake of revelations that he had an affair with his hairdresser before he was elected governor and allegedly engaged in sexual misconduct.
Greitens is subject to another investigation regarding alleged malfeasance in how he administered a charity formed to serve military veterans.
