St. Louis — Sam Fox still recalls the day many years ago that a friend asked him to speak to a young Bryan Cave lawyer who was writing a book on management. Grudgingly, the busy businessman and philanthropist agreed to spare half an hour as a favor.
“An hour later, I remember getting out of my seat and going over to my assistant and saying, ‘Cancel everything for the rest of the afternoon,’ ” Fox marveled. {mprestriction ids="1,3"}“We spoke all afternoon. He was one of the most engaging men.”
Late last week, that man, Missouri state auditor Tom Schweich, was found dead of an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound. Minutes before, he had phoned two reporters to schedule a time to discuss what he evidently felt was an effort to undermine his Republican bid for governor by implying he was Jewish. His death placed the promising politician at the center of a tragic and bizarre story that has rocked state government in Missouri to its core and left some questioning the real world consequences of cutthroat politics.
More religion than politics
Schweich, a longtime attorney who worked in various roles with U.S. Senator Jack Danforth and the latter Bush administration, unseated Democratic incumbent Susan Montee in a 2010 election to become the state’s top fiscal watchdog. Recently reelected to the post with little opposition, he launched his campaign for the Republican gubernatorial nomination earlier this year.
But on Feb. 26, Schweich left a voicemail inviting St. Louis Post-Dispatch editorial page editor Tony Messenger to a briefing at his home regarding a matter that he described as “more a religion story than a politics story.”
Just two days earlier, Schweich had apparently confided to Messenger that he believed that Republican Party chair John Hancock had been mentioning to potential donors that Schweich was Jewish in an effort that the auditor felt aimed to harm his campaign and swing support to fellow Republican Catherine Hanaway, according to a published account by Messenger.
The Associated Press also said Schweich placed a call to one of its reporters the day he died to discuss the same invite in a follow-up discussion to one he’d had three days before. Describing him as “naturally high-strung” the news service characterized him as “unusually agitated” during the earlier conversation with “his voice sometimes quivering and his legs and hands shaking.”
Schweich, who identified as Episcopalian, was not Jewish but did have a Jewish grandfather.
“He called again on Wednesday to tell me that he believed there was a chance that Mr. Hancock would resign,” wrote Messenger, “and that he was holding off on his news conference to see if that was going to happen. He also told me he had talked to somebody in the St. Louis office of the ADL and they told him that they would likely issue a statement of some sort to the press after his news conference.”
Karen Aroesty, executive director of the Anti-Defamation League of Missouri and Southern Illinois, confirmed that she had indeed spoken with Schweich regarding anti-Semitism but said she could not reveal the content of the confidential exchange.
“When we closed our last conversation, I really wasn’t sure whether he had made a decision to make a public statement about his concerns,” she said. “When I learned the news on Thursday I was shocked and stunned and very sad.”
In a statement that blasted Messenger as a “liberal Post-Dispatch columnist,” Hancock blamed political opponents for “using this tragic incident as an opportunity to criticize me and to smear the Missouri Republican Party.”
Hancock’s statement said that while he had erroneously believed Schweich was Jewish, he felt that was no different a part of his biography than his hometown or what law school he attended.
“While I do not recall doing so, it is possible that I mentioned Tom’s faith in passing during one of the many conversations I have each day,” he wrote. “There was absolutely nothing malicious about my intent, and I certainly was not attempting to ‘inject religion’ into the governor’s race, as some have suggested (in fact, I have never met with donors or raised money on behalf of the Hanaway campaign.)”
Calling him a “tenacious, energetic and effective elected official,” Hancock wrote that he was saddened to know that some of the late auditor’s final thoughts centered on the disagreement with him.
“While those who know me understand I would never denigrate anyone’s faith, Tom had mistakenly believed that I had attacked his religion,” he wrote.
Hanaway’s campaign declined a request for an interview but released a statement expressing condolences to the family while calling Schweich an “extraordinary man with an extraordinary record.”
The office of Democratic candidate Jason Kander, who is running for his party’s nomination for senator, also declined an interview and issued a statement online.
Eric Greitens, another possible Republican candidate in the race who has formed an exploratory committee, released a statement expressing condolences and sadness at the tragedy. A spokesman said that Greitens, who is also Jewish, would refrain from further comment at the moment out of respect for the family.
‘Squash him like a bug’
Fox remembered Schweich as an articulate and deeply perceptive man gifted with a sometimes blinding intellect.
But Fox said that, despite his involvement in public service, Schweich had little tolerance for or understanding of politics’ more brutal aspects. The one elective office he’d held was auditor, a low-profile statewide slot where the race hadn’t been particularly dirty.
By contrast, the gubernatorial contest promised to be a muddy slog. One attack ad from an independent group called Schweich “weak” and an easily-manipulated “pawn,” mocking him with a comparison to TV’s fictional rural sheriff Barney Fife while saying sarcastically “just look at him” and concluding with a promise that Democrats would “squash him like the little bug that he is.”
Fox said that he feels that such efforts might have impacted Schweich “because of Tom’s makeup where he is such a straight arrow.”
Fox, who is Jewish, said Schweich had mentioned to him the alleged comments linking Schweich to Judaism.
“It wasn’t a long conversation,” he said. “It was mixed in with other things that he wanted to talk to me about and he mentioned it almost in passing.”
But Fox notes that it may have been the totality of negative campaigning generally that may have affected his friend. Fox said that while bigoted voters still exist, they are a small group, and he doesn’t feel that anti-Jewish sentiment has much effect on political races. He noted the success of lieutenant governors like Ken Rothman and Harriett Woods in attaining statewide office here.
“I don’t think anti-Semitism is a significant factor in Jewish people getting elected to public office in the state of Missouri,” he said.
Behind closed doors
Meanwhile, Karen Aroesty said that the ADL’s tracking of anti-Semitic incidents had shown an increase in Missouri and southern Illinois over the past year jumping from two to 11 – including the deadly Jewish Community Campus and Village Shalom shooting in the Kansas City area last year.
Still, she doesn’t believe that being Jewish is considered a negative in running for office nor is it seen as unusual these days. She said that the bigger concern may be too much focus on Christianity in the development of public policy.
“Does that mean that there is anti-Semitism in that?” she said. “I don’t think so.”
However, she said Schweich was not the first candidate to phone her with concerns.
“It has happened,” she said. “His call was not unique in what he was presenting. We are periodically brought into these conversations.”
Reprinted with permission from the St. Louis Jewish Light. For the full version of this story, visit the St. Louis Jewish Light online at stljewishlight.com.{/mprestriction}