Steve Hunter Addresses Accusations that He's Part of the Billy Long Campaign Strategy

The MO-7 blog features a tweeted interview with Steve Hunter, the latest Republican to join the crowded race in the Republican primary in Missouri’s Seventh Congressional District. Interestingly enough, Hunter is already on defense. Could it be I am not the only one who suspects Hunter, the Mel Hancock protégé, was planted in this race by the Billy Long campaign to take away votes from Gary Nodler in Joplin and to possibly help soften Billy Long’s own ethics problems.

He spoke with Chad Livengood, and it seems to address my entire blog I wrote last night after I learned Hunter entered the race and discovered the baggage he carries into this race.

Hunter’s reasons to run, according to MO-7 aren’t very inspiring. He says he is running because he is an “unemployed, looking for work, former state representative who has no money.” In other words, he has nothing to lose if indeed he is a creation of Jeff Roe or another operative within the Billy Long campaign.

Livengood also asked him if he was running to take a slice out of Nodler’s Jasper and Newton county support. Hunter’s answer sounds like he has already been called out and been placed in defense mode. “No one put me up to run. No one puts me up to do anything.” No one? Not even George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Alexander Hamilton, Andrew Jackson, Ulysses S. Grant, or Benjamin Franklin?

Something is strange with Hunter’s late addition to the field, especially when you consider the ethics problems his wife faces. It appears Hunter is already defending why he is in this race.