An already intense Republican campaign for Missouri Attorney General has intensified, with candidates Kurt Schaefer and Josh Hawley lobing political bombs at each other with new attack ads that began airing this week.
In Hawley’s ad, dated video is shown describing Schaefer as a “moderate candidate,” something he has said is not true. Hawley and his campaign have said for months that Schaefer is a moderate and that he only began calling himself a conservative after he announced his candidacy for attorney general. This runs contrary to multiple national reports calling Schaefer “too conservative.”
In Schaefer’s ad, he alleges that Hawley served as a lawyer defending terrorist Abdul Maalik Muhammad, who was known as the “American Taliban.” The ads cite Supreme Court documents that allege Hawley did legal work on a case in which Muhammad slit his girlfriend’s throat and threatened to kidnap former president George W. Bush’s daughters.
The ad claims that Hawley sued law enforcement so that Muhammad could practice “radical Islam.” In fact, Muhammad wanted to grow his beard to practice his faith, but was told no by the Arkansas Department of Corrections, which has a policy against facial hair beyond a certain length.
Attempts to reach Hawley or those with his campaign were unsuccessful Thursday afternoon.
Hawley has said in the past that Schaefer knows these are flat-out lies and that his name was mistakenly listed on Supreme Court documents as a member of the legal team who worked for on the Supreme Court case, which eventually ruled that the prison policy against facial hair violated religious freedom. The brief lists Hawley in the same way he is listed on the Hobby Lobby brief Hawley touts on the trail.
Scott Dieckhaus, Schaefer’s campaign spokesman, said Thursday, however, that it is “absolutely 100 percent true” that Hawley worked on that case. Dieckhaus noted that Hawley’s name is still listed on the Supreme Court paperwork. Hawley even went to New York City, according to Dieckhaus, to teach a continuing education course for lawyers and was billed by his employers, the Beckett Fund, as an expert on the American Taliban case.
“I certainly don’t know why he would travel to New York City unless he had something to do with it,” Dieckhaus said.
A recent poll has Schaefer leading in the race over Hawley. According to a Remington Research Group poll conducted on behalf of Missouri Scout, Schaefer had 28 percent to Hawley’s 21 percent, though 51 percent of the likely Republican voters said they were still undecided.
Dieckhaus said that Hawley keeps trying to say that Schaefer is a moderate is nonsense.
“I think what we’re seeing in this race is that actions speak louder than words,” Dieckhaus said. “Kurt Schaefer has an eight-year record as a consistent conservative, working on and passing legislation that was pro-NRA, pro-life, for limited government and decreased taxes.”
Voters in the Aug. 2 GOP primary have the final say.
