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| Jeff Roe Image via Missouri State Auditor’s Office |
In his first interview since two suicides rocked the Missouri
governor’s race, political consultant Jeff
Roeadmitted that he was the man behind an ad that allegedly
drove Tom Schweich, a
frontrunner in the state’s GOP primary, to kill himself.
Roe, who is currently
managing Texas Sen. Ted
Cruz‘s presidential campaign, said in an interview with The
Kansas City Star that
had he known about Schweich’s mental state, he would have never run the ad,
which compared the state auditor to a “little bug” who could easily be
manipulated. He paid $8,300 out of pocket to run the television spot, via
Citizens for Fairness in Missouri, during an airing of The Rush Limbaugh Show.
Prior to his death, Schweich
had alleged that
he was the subject of an anti-Semitic whisper campaign in the GOP, despite the
fact that he was not Jewish. He was, however, described as an emotionally
fragile man who spoke frequently of suicide, and a recent Washington
Post feature revealed
that his friends and family had tried to dissuade the lawyer and Chief of Staff
to three U.N. ambassadors from running. During the funeral, Schweich’s
political mentor, former Sen. John
Danforth (R), alluded to Roe as a “bully”. Weeks
later, Schweich’s aide,Spence Jackson, killed himself as well.
Roe
denied that he had a personal feud with Schweich, adding that he had discussed
potentially working for his campaign prior to his announcement “There’s no way
that anyone could ever go through and be a part of the political landscape and
not be impacted by the tragedies that have happened the last two months,” Roe
said. “It’s sad. It was never expected. It’s an awful time.”
Roe, who currently works for
GOP candidate Catherine
Hanaway,mentioned that while he would still have a small role
in her campaign, he would decrease his involvement. “She had a very aggressive
conversation with me afterwards about my participation in the race and what it
would look like if I wanted to stay involved going forward,” he said.
[h/t The Kansas City Star]
