Candidate’s Suicide/Anti-Semitism Charges Ripping MO GOP Apart

Missouri Republicans this week began to break their silence about the state GOP chairman’s alleged link to state Auditor Tom Schweich’s (R) suicide.

The floodgates opened Tuesday at Schweich’s funeral service, where former U.S. Sen. John Danforth (R-MO) implicitly rejected Missouri Republican Party Chairman John Hancock’s denials about being involved in an anti-Semitic “whisper campaign.” Schweich had told people before his death that Hancock was telling people he was Jewish, when in fact he was Episcopalian.

Schweich, who was a leading Republican gubernatorial candidate, believed that the “whisper campaign” was intended to hurt him among evangelical Christian primary voters. Hancock had previously done consulting work for Schweich’s primary opponent, Catherine Hanaway.