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#F150CampaignTour Days 4 & 5

#F150CampaignTour Day 4 

  • We started off the day at Mrs. Busch’s house for a visit. It’s nice. It’s not awesome like the Bauernhof or anything, but it’s nice. In a different way.
  • She was a very warm and pleasant host. She made sure Gussie (my son, not her dad) had some outstanding toys to play with while we visited in the front room. 
  • The conversation was very enjoyable. That is right up until I asked her about the overturning of Roe vs. Wade.

    Trudy Busch and Scott Faughn
  • Then she went from very welcoming host, and intelligent conversationalist to extremely passionate and pretty damn forceful. 
  • I figured out pretty quick that as a guy in Carhartt I’d rather talk about something else with her because she was pretty well cleaning my clock. 
  • We discussed her family’s suffering with addiction, and she combined a passion that moved her to tears with a pragmatism that discussed some public policy changes that could be helpful to families dealing with addiction. 
  • While we were walking out she told us this amazing story about how she was the one who answered the door the day Whitey showed up to Grant’s Farm to be hired by Gussie. 
  • Then we discussed our favorite underrated Cardinals. She mentioned Julian Javier, solid choice. I agreed with Whitey Herzog in my support for Tommy Herr. 
  • The appropriate amount of esteem afforded to Tommy Herr might be one of the biggest points of contrast in the fall campaign if Attorney General Schmitt wins the republican primary. 
  • You can read the entire interview here

From there we went to freedom loving Franklin County. 

  • Gussie snagged a milkshake from Dairy Delight and continued his streak of picking the Cardinals to win every state senate primary. 
  • We visited with Ben Brown who has worked as hard as anyone in the state. 
  • He said they have volunteers out in every county in the district. He feels that they have out door knocked the field 10-1. 
  • The anti Brown ad spending has been ratcheted up. I asked Ben if he was surprised by that development. I’ll quote his response verbatim: “I have no intentions of letting more than $150,000 from abortion industry supporters steal this Republican primary from the voters.  They are trying to stop me because they know I am a conservative fighter who opposes abortion, is endorsed by Missouri Right to Life, and will not be beholden to lobbyist and special interest groups.  My grassroots army will continue to spread our conservative message between now and Tuesday and educate voters on the new abortion industry money that has entered this race.”
  • I got to visit with businessman Bob Jones. He just carries himself like a senator.

    The Old Dutch Hotel & Restaurant in Washington, MO
  • He made a pretty significant tv buy for the final weekend to bolster himself that pushes the race into a tossup. 
  • From the Bier Deck at John G’s Bier Deck I visited with Christ Arps and Suzie Moore on Newstalk STL. 
  • We talked about the U.S. Senate primary and pretty well all agreed that Schmitt had the momentum heading into the election on Tuesday. 
  • From there I got to visit with my favorite campaign, Hun Scott Dieckhaus and local legend Dave Hinson, the Ron Burgandy of southern Franklin County, at the Old Dutch Hotel and Tavern. Dieckhaus went full on local hookup privileges on some high end whiskey they pulled out from under the bar, and I had one of the best steaks I had all week. Hell of a way to end the day. 

#F150CampaignTour Day 5

  • The day began by taping This Week in Missouri Politics. I had on SD2 candidate Rep. Nick Schroer. He discussed several things including his desire to bring some collegiality back to the senate.

    The set of This Week in Missouri Politics.
  • The panel consisted of Jefferson County Executive Dennis Gannon, Chris Arps of Newstalk STL fame, the dean of the Missouri Republican Party David Barklage, and Mr. St. Louis Jeff Rainford. 
  • We collected all of their predictions and the majority prediction was that it will be an all German-American U.S. Senate race in the fall of Schmitt vs. Busch. 
  • Again I think the key issue in the fall will be the value of Tommy Herr to the 80s Cardinals and if we lost the Brunansky trade (we did).

From the First Rule Studios we went to the Pike County Fairgrounds where I got to have lunch with my buddy Rep. Chad Perkins. 

  • His prediction was that Schmitt would win the U.S. Senate race.

    Rep. Chad Perkins, Eddie Montgomery, and Scott Faughn
  • On SD 10 his take was that Mike Carter would win Pike County and Lincoln County and win the entire primary. 
  • While I was there we got to chat with Eddie Montgomery of Montgomery-Gentry fame. Hell of a guy who was taking the stage arrangement into his own hands. 

After meeting half of one of the best country duos of the past twenty years I headed south to Troy. 

  • Without Gussie I decided to stop in Mustang Sally’s and visit with some folks. I pulled up to the bar with about four guys. 
  • We made a deal that I would buy the rounds and as long as I was buying I could pick their brains about politics.  
  • They were pretty split on the U.S. Senate race. They liked Greitens but didn’t like that he was a quitter. 
  • They all thought that Doyle Justus would win the house race primary, 4-0. 
  • They all thought that Pam Hupp killed Betsy Faria 4-0, and that Lea Askey was really bad on her Dateline interview, again 4-0. Even the bartender chimed in to make it 5-0, and I also voted in that one to make it 6-0. 
  • When I asked who they would vote for it was 2-2. Learning from my conversation Wednesday night at T’s  I asked which of them planned to vote, only the two Schmitt voters actually planned to vote. #TheMoreYouKnow

From there I caught up with Mike Carter doing doors just north of Wentzville. 

  • He said he was gonna knock doors and continue having his team of volunteers out there turning out the vote on the eastern side of the district through Tuesday. 

    Mike Carter knocking doors in Wentzville.
  • He said that Team Carter would be working at the Pike County Fair Saturday night. 
  • He left me with, “We have been out working the district with the most mail, digital, billboards, tv, and door knocks of anyone and we are not going let off the gas until 7:00 p.m. Tuesday night. 

From the suburbs of Wentzville I went to Tubby’s in St. Charles. 

  • Folks there were really big on Schmitt.
  • Not so much anti-Greitens but there were a couple women there who were having nothing of the Greitens talk. 
  • Its always a real pleasure to visit with my old pal Steve Ehlmann. His early Schmitt turning out the vote on the eastern side of the district through Tuesday. 

    Tubby’s Pub n Grub in St. Charles
  • It seemed pretty clear that if you’re at a bar in St. Charles you don’t score many points with women being pro-wife beater. Neither the tank top nor the senatorial candidate. 
  • There were a lot of John Wiemann fans there, but no one really knew what state senate district they lived in. One was convinced he had already voted for Mike Carter, but come to find out, he lives in O’Fallon bout a quarter mile from Bill Eigel’s house. 
  • I bout the house a round and of the 8 takers the vote broke down 6 Schmitt, 1 Trudy Busch (coincidentally the only one drinking Busch Light), and one for McCloskey. Although I think one guy was secretly a Greitens guy he just didn’t wanna look like a sick freak and say it out loud. 
#F150Campaign Tour