With just 13 days left before the Aug. 2 primary, "outsider" Eric Greitens claims to have the lead.
A recent PPP poll gave Greitens, a retired Navy SEAL, a 24-22 edge over former U.S. Attorney and former Missouri House Speaker Catherine Hanaway, while St. Louis businessman John Brunner had 16 percent and Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder had 15 percent.
A recent Remington Research poll conducted for the "Missouri Scout" political newsletter showed Greitens leading Brunner by a 29-22 percent margin, while Hanaway had 16 percent and Kinder 12.
"This campaign has the political establishment terrified," Greitens told supporters Tuesday night at a town hall event in Jefferson City. "We've made it very clear that when we come here we're going to put an end to their games, including banning all gifts from lobbyists and closing "the revolving door between legislators and special interests."
Former state treasurer and former state Sen. Sarah Steelman, Greitens' campaign chair, introduced him. "I served with Peter Kinder and Catherine Hanaway in the Legislature, and I know John Brunner very well - and they're all nice people," she said.
"But they're just professional talkers - and what this country and this state needs right now is leadership and a man of action.
"And that's what Eric Greitens does."
Greitens spent about half of his 55-minute presentation and question-and-answer session talking about his background - volunteer work in college with poor people, mostly children, in a number of war-torn countries; his after-college decision to join the Navy and become a SEAL; his four overseas deployments, including Afghanistan in 2003 and Iraq in 2006-07; and, after he left the service, his creation of "The Mission Continues" organization to help wounded service members, "so that every single returning veteran can find a way to live a life of purpose."
He explained his campaign for governor is part of his "new mission because our government is broken. We have, right here in Jefferson City, a government that has become infected with career politicians, corrupt insiders and special interests and well-paid lobbyists."
He pointed to what he called failed leadership by President Obama and his administration, and by outgoing Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon and Attorney General Chris Koster - the leading Democrat candidate seeking to succeed Nixon.
Greitens cited the "crisis and lawlessness" in Ferguson - after the Aug. 9, 2014, killing of Michael Brown - as a prime example where Nixon and Koster "failed to show up," and said if Missouri had had "a leader who had shown up with any kind of command presence and courage and calm and clarity, we would have had peace by the second night."
As governor, he said, he always will support law enforcement and Missourians' Second Amendment right to bear arms.
He criticized the federal Veterans Administration bureaucracy and promised to set up a special phone line in the governor's office, to take Missouri veterans' complaints about the VA.
Saying Missouri is 47th in the nation in economic growth, Greitens pledged to "lower taxes on working families" and help more people get good-paying, private sector jobs.
He favors local control of education and pledged to make Missouri's $27 billion budget based on "performance measures" in each state agency.
During his presentation, and again in an interview, Greitens pledged to work with the Legislature to get results. "If we need to, we're going to do it by executive order," he said. "There are a lot of things we can do together."
He emphasized his pro-life position and pledged to work to protect all lives, even in the wake of U.S. Supreme Court rulings that abortion is a constitutional right.