John Hancock's GOP chairmanship apparently not in trouble

It's been 10 days since Missouri Auditor Tom Schweich died, apparently of suicide.

At Friday's Missouri Bar luncheon, Gov. Jay Nixon noted: "Tom was a member of the Bar, a deeply-dedicated public servant, a loving husband and father - I would just ask everybody to keep his family in their prayers.

"These are stressful and difficult jobs and times, and - when tragedies of this level happen - I think it's really important not to forget the personal part of it, and that part is very real."

However, almost as soon as the word spread Feb. 26 that Schweich had died, people began talking about why a man would kill himself only weeks after declaring himself to be a candidate for governor in next year's elections.

One of the reasons getting a lot of traction is an allegation some top Republican officials were trying to block his race for the chief executive's job.

St. Louis Post-Dispatch Editorial Page Editor Tony Messenger got one of the last phone calls Schweich made before his death - and that afternoon posted a story online, that included: "For the past several days (Schweich) had been confiding in me that he planned to accuse the chairman of the Missouri Republican Party, John Hancock, with leading a "whisper campaign' among donors that he, Schweich, was Jewish."

Schweich was proud of the Jewish heritage he had from his grandfather. However, the auditor and his family were Christians - members of the Episcopal Church of St. Michael and St. George in Clayton.

Schweich told some colleagues, including his long-time mentor, former Missouri Attorney General and three-term U.S. Sen. John Danforth, he thought the campaign was intended to scare away donations from evangelical Christians.

Danforth, who is also an Episcopal priest, said during his eulogy at Schweich's funeral Tuesday: "The campaign that led to the death of Tom Schweich was the low point of politics, and now it's time to turn this around.

"So let's make Tom's death a turning point here in our state."

Hancock has said he may have told some people Schweich was Jewish - because he thought he was - in a conversation where the faith positions of several Republicans were being discussed.

Sen. Mike Parson, R-Bolivar, told colleagues Monday: "One has to ask why was the discussion even in the first place? ... I would, also, hope that the people involved at some point would admit to making a poor judgment call and would have the decency to apologize to Tom's family for being such a part of an irresponsible act."

Hancock has not commented on reports some Republicans want him to resign from the party chairmanship he was just elected to last month.

For instance, business owner Paul Hamby, of Maysville, a former state coordinator of the Missouri Campaign for Liberty who said he first campaigned in 1976, when "I was not yet old enough to vote," wrote an Op/Ed piece last week urging Hancock to step aside.

"Ronald Reagan promoted the philosophy of a big tent Republican Party," Hamby wrote. "In the past six years, I have volunteered alongside hundreds of Missouri Republicans in political campaigns and in Jeff City working on political issues.

"The folks I met were only interested in moving the ball on the issue of the day or helping their candidate win. Not once have I heard or seen the ugly head of prejudice rise up until now."

However, the problem with reports about a "whispering campaign," state board member and party treasurer, Dick Peerson, said Friday, is: "There's just no truth to the whispering campaign."

Also, so far, none of the 68 GOP State Committee members have told Peerson that Hancock should be gone.

Hamby said his biggest concern isn't the so-called "whisper campaign," but Hancock's job as a political consultant.

In his Op/Ed piece, Hamby wrote, after the Republican Party worked to rebuild itself "after the disastrous 2008 elections" and "the MO GOP tent grew and the 2014 elections proved Reagan's wisdom one more time," the party's 2015 election for state chairman - which Hancock won after the previous chairman, Ed Martin, resigned - had "brought in a different type of leadership at the head of the MO GOP; the political consultant class. Paid political bounty hunters."

Schweich's suicide showed "candidates sometimes become pawns of the political consultants battling each other. It is time for that to stop," Hamby wrote.

In an interview, Hamby told the News Tribune that, because Hancock is a consultant, "The leader of the Republican Party is being paid to pick candidates in races, and then being paid to support them - which means that there is not a fair, level playing field for the other candidates."

However, Peerson said: "I look at it this way - if you have a committee to study insurance, you get an insurance agent. ... If you have a political organization, wouldn't you want somebody that's an expert?

"Consultants, for the most part, aren't really bad people."

Schweich bristled any time a reporter asked if one of his audit reports was done to make political points.

He pointed out that an auditor's job is to review ways money is handled, and make recommendations for improving that.

In his eulogy, Danforth told Schweich's two children always to remember: "The legacy your father has passed on to you is this: to fight for what is right, to always seize the high ground and never give it up."

Nixon and Schweich didn't always see eye-to-eye, nor share the same political philosophy.

Schweich sued the governor a couple years ago over the way Nixon chose to withhold money from the state budget, only to have the Supreme Court rule the lawsuit had been premature.

However, the governor told Friday's Bar luncheon Schweich "did a heck of a job."