Missouri‘s attorney general sued Planned Parenthood and President Joe Biden, tried to force clinics that provide gender-affirming care to hand over their records and pressured a liberal prosecutor to resign.
Despite those decidedly conservative moves, some prominent conservative groups outside Missouri are spending millions ahead of the Aug. 6 primary to boost Andrew Bailey’s opponent, Will Scharf, a member of former President Donald Trump’s legal team. In the GOP-dominated state, the winner of the primary has a huge lead in the November general election.
The tumult demonstrates how important state attorneys general have become as they have taken on increasingly nationalized roles, as well as using those positions as springboards to run for governor or the U.S. Senate. Both senators representing Missouri previously served as AG.
“It’s part of the broader universe of AGs and where we are now in terms of funding for these elections,” said Paul Nolette, a political scientist at Marquette University who studies state attorneys general and has watched them delve into issues. such as abortion and LGBTQ+ rights. “That money makes AGs less likely to break their commitment to their ideological poles and often their culture war approach to issues.”
State attorneys general are lawyers who represent the state government. Attorneys general are appointed in some states, but elected in 43. Some are their states’ chief criminal prosecutors; They all play important roles in consumer affairs. They have long crossed partisan lines to protect consumers, such as with joint lawsuits against the opioid industry and technology companies.
However, AGs have become much more partisan in the last decade, and many, like Bailey, have sued the federal administration over policies when the president is from the opposing party.
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For example, nearly every Republican attorney general has filed a lawsuit challenging the Biden administration’s regulations requiring transgender students to be protected under a gender equality law. A group of Democratic attorneys general has initiated legal filings in support of the regulations.
The political operation around state AGs has also been strengthened. The Republican Attorneys General Association, which is dedicated to electing Republican attorneys general, became its own entity in 2014 after splitting from a group dedicated to electing Republican lawmakers and other state officials. Two years later, the Democratic Attorneys General Association moved from Colorado to Washington, D.C. and added full-time staff.
Groups now pour money into the most competitive races, often in the form of independent expenditures that pay for attack ads.
RAGA, which typically supports GOP incumbents, has stayed out of the Missouri primary. However, some of the association’s biggest contributors support Scharf. They’re doing it by making contributions to a Missouri branch of the Club for Growth, a major financial powerhouse that focuses on helping fiscally conservative candidates and which, in turn, is airing ads boosting Scharf and criticizing Bailey.
The group has received $1 million this year from Leonard Leo, a political funding powerhouse who serves as co-chairman of the conservative Federalist Society, and another $1 million from the Concord Fund, which is part of Leo’s vast network. The Concord Fund, formerly known as the Judicial Crisis Network, is best known for attempting to create a more conservative federal judiciary. He is often a major supporter of RAGA and has contributed more than $10 million to that group since 2020.
The fund backing Scharf also received $1.4 million this year from investor Paul Singer and $500,000 from the National Growth Club.
It is not unusual for national conservatives to try to unseat a sitting Republican attorney general. Two years ago, a separate branch of the Club for Growth spent more than $280,000 on ads attacking veteran Idaho Attorney General Lawrence Wasden in the Republican primary. His opponent, U.S. Rep. Raúl Labrador, defeated him and won the general election in November.
Last year, Club for Growth PAC President David McIntosh praised Scharf for his economic positions, such as promoting tax cuts.
Leo has not publicly explained his network’s support and his representative did not respond to interview requests.
But Scharf fits the mold of some of the Federalist Society-connected lawyers who have risen through the ranks of the government legal system with resumes that include elite law schools, clerkships with Republican-appointed federal judges and strong ties to the Party. Republican.
He received his undergraduate degree from Princeton University, his law degree from Harvard University, clerked for two federal appeals court judges, and worked at CRC Advisors, a conservative public relations firm chaired by Leo. In addition to being one of Trump’s lawyers, he worked as an assistant U.S. attorney in St. Louis, and worked on the campaign and later in the office of then-Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens. A representative for Scharf said he would be available for an interview, but did not respond to subsequent email, text and voicemail messages from The KeynoteUSA.
“I’m surprised that Wall Street and coastal elites would want to buy an office in Missouri for a New Yorker,” Bailey said of Scharf in an interview. She said Scharf would be the kind of candidate those funders could control.
Bailey has spent almost his entire career at Missouri. The Army veteran received his undergraduate and law degrees from the University of Missouri, worked in the state attorney general’s office and was an assistant county attorney and state government attorney before joining the office of Gov. Mike Parson, who eventually appointed him lawyer. general.
Liberty and Justice PAC, an effort Bailey supports, has also attracted significant contributions. The largest amount was $500,000 from Carolyn and Mike Rayner, St. Louis area residents who are part of the family that owns the agribusiness company Cargill, Inc.
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