Kehoe changes campaign status to statewide

Looking down the road

Sen. Mike Kehoe, R-Jefferson City, speaks on the floor of the Missouri Senate during last month's veto session. Kehoe serves as majority floor leader in that chamber.
Sen. Mike Kehoe, R-Jefferson City, speaks on the floor of the Missouri Senate during last month's veto session. Kehoe serves as majority floor leader in that chamber.

Senate Majority Floor Leader Mike Kehoe's name isn't on a ballot this November, but that doesn't mean he's been on the political sidelines, working his cows, selling Fords, and being a husband and dad.

Not likely.

Now in his second and final term in the General Assembly's upper chamber, the Jefferson City Republican could have chosen to sit this one out. Instead, he's amended his campaign status with the Missouri Ethics Commission (MEC) from a Senate committee to one seeking statewide office, specifically as a candidate in the Aug. 4, 2020, primary election.

Furthermore, he's raised $425,800 in contributions through September, as reflected in the MEC report filed Monday. In turn, he's donated about $300,000 of that warchest to candidates for the House and Senate throughout the state.

Kehoe has become one of the most sought-after surrogates and guests of honor at candidate events. He's become a peripatetic star on his party's pancake breakfast, BBQ chili supper and catered reception fundraising circuit this year.

So what higher office is he seeking?

The gregarious, well-spoken Kehoe isn't saying. At least he wasn't Thursday when asked about his new-found status among Missouri's GOP leaders.

He said he had made no decisions about what, if anything, he would be doing politically when he cleans out his office in the Capitol in January 2019. The five statewide offices on the Nov. 8 ballot will be up again in four years, and the local congressional seat now held by U.S. Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer, R-St. Elizabeth will be up again in two years. The incumbents of 2020 will shape his decision-making, Kehoe said Thursday.

Speaking of the congressional seat, Kehoe expressed admiration for and support of Luetkemeyer, especially as a champion of rural Missouri. The congressman is a lifelong farmer-stockman, insurance broker and banker, a former state representative and state tourism director. He's given nary a hint of retiring.

"I'm putting zero thought into that district," Kehoe said. "I'm not the kind of guy who sits around the house waiting for doors to open. Blaine's doing a fine job. If something changes in the next four years, I'd make a decision on the opportunities in front of me at that time."

Kehoe's emergence as a statewide player hasn't gone without notice, however.

Jeff Roe is Missouri's most prominent national political operative, becoming a regular on television talk shows because of his management of Texas Sen. Ted Cruz's presidential campaign this year. Roe's successful involvement in national campaigns the past decade has resulted in his Axiom Strategies consultancy spawning satellites in Austin and Washington, D.C., in addition to his headquarters near Kansas City International Airport. Dozens of his clients are now in Congress.

So what Roe says about a public official resonates among the nation's political cognoscenti.

"Politicians and fish have a lot in common," he said this week. "You are either swimming or sinking. Kehoe doesn't have the look of a politician ready to be sunk."

Thursday was a cattle day for Kehoe.

"I try to spend 30 percent of my time working cattle, 30 percent at the (former Kehoe Ford) dealership and 30 percent on politics, with my family coming first, of course," he said. "For the next 19 days, that schedule's going to be tilted toward politics as we wind up this election."

Kehoe has proven an attractive surrogate for candidates. In fact, he has been to the far corners of the state representing U.S. Sen. Roy Blunt, and he's campaigning for several candidates for the Missouri Senate, especially Rep. Caleb Rowden, R-Columbia, in the 19th District. He was scheduled to speak for Blunt at a Thursday night chili supper at the Eagles Lodge and a Farm Bureau meeting in Jefferson City.

Kehoe's campaign cash has been getting around the state, too.

On Oct. 12, his committee depleted its checkbook by $25,000 to enrich the coffers of Rowden, who had previously received $3,534 in Kehoe cash.

Senate Appropriations Chairman Kurt Schaefer, R-Columbia, said Rowden's race is a top priority. "Mike is floor leader, and he's doing all he can," Schaefer said. "I assume the change to statewide is because he doesn't have another Senate run, so he has to designate something to keep his committee going. That's pretty common for guys who are termed out."

Throughout Jefferson City, the consensus among campaign professionals is Kehoe isn't planning his political retirement party.

"Kehoe has worked tirelessly in the Legislature to bring the conservative change that Missourians need," said Robert Knodell, executive director of the Missouri Republican Campaign Committee. "He goes beyond the talk and rhetoric to get real results on the tough issues that matter. He would make an outstanding statewide candidate."

Kehoe said, and repeated himself for emphasis, he hasn't made that call to seek statewide office yet.

"This is a weird year," he said. "I hear that statewide. People for the most part are sick of the campaign and are ready to get it over with. I've got to think Trump is going to win in Missouri and that Sen. Blunt will win. He's got the tenure and horsepower we are going to need to protect our military bases at Fort Wood and Whiteman (Air Force Base), especially in this next round of base closures.

"Now's not the time to send a rookie to the Senate."