Recently, Randa Hayes made headlines when Gov. Matt Blunt asker her to resign from her post as Missouri’s Director of Business and Trade because the Democrats had revealed that she had in her youth pled guilty to stealing money from her college sorority.
In St. Charles, Randa Hayes is publicly known as the wife of St. Peters Alderman David Hayes. But in Missouri state Republican politics, Randa Hayes was acknowledged as a top notch political operative with strong grass-roots organizational skills, an accomplished fund-raising touch, and keen killer instincts.
And from all reports, she was someone many feared to cross, as she had a vindictive side. She worked on an assortment of campaigns in a variety of capacities. But in the end, her contribution to the party was that she was an insider who could be counted on to accomplish almost any task needed, including many tasks that the candidates would not like to acknowledge needed to be done. Sort of a Dark Knight of the Political Right.
Now before the Democrats get all high and mighty, it should be noted that they have such operatives on their side as well. In fact, Roy Temple, the democrats top-operative at the moment, was the one who organized the media attack on Randa Hayes.
The whole thing is a little like the old cold-war where both sides had spies doing their dirty work. The spooks believed in their side’s cause, but the methods each side’s operatives employed were essentially the same. And neither side’s leaders liked to admit they used such clandestine operatives. Politicos, like spies, work in the shadows. If they end up in the media, they did something wrong.
As the Columbia Tribune noted in a recent column, Randa Hayes appointment to the position as Missouri’s Director of Business and Trade, however, made perfect sense to insiders because that post is also in charge of the Hawthorn Foundation, which is a private foundation that raises money to fund the Governor’s trips outside the state. Again, both the Democrats and Republicans have been using the Hawthorn Foundation for this purpose for decades, so there is nothing unusual in it, but neither side likes to talk about it. Putting a political operative with significant fund-raising skills in charge of the office made sense.
The Columbia Tribune column also expressed what political insiders on both sides suspect: Randa Hayes would have told the Governor's office about her prior misdemeanor conviction, but the Governor’s office decided to appoint her anyway because skilled operatives are rare. And if a scandal broke, he could count on an experienced operative like Randa Hayes to take the fall.
Now the Governor’s office says they didn’t know and that they just missed the information in the background check. Frankly, I am not sure that crying incompetence was the way to go in this scandal. I think the Governor might have done better to say that they knew the facts, considered them, and decided that a ten year old misdemeanor conviction from college did not justify removal from office for someone who spent the next decade doing a great job. But Governor Blunt has not had an easy time dealing with the media and likely thought he could cut and run and the media frenzy would only last a day or two.
For that to happen, they had to know that Randa Hayes would do exactly what she did do-disappear. Randa Hayes never talked to the press, other than the prepared resignation letter. In a media frenzy like this, where the media’s real target is the sitting Governor, every reporter would have been offering to put her on T.V. to “Tell her side of the story.” Regular people, when attacked like this in the media, want to talk to try and clear their name. Politicos fade back into the shadows to keep the media from having anything new to run. In the insider’s vernacular, Randa Hayes “Fell on her sword” for the boos just like a good soldier is supposed to do.
What the Governor could not have predicted was that the St. Charles County Republican Committee leaders would decide to attack their own sitting Republican Governor. In politics, you expect the other party to launch an attack when they have a chance. But Republican Central Committee Chairman Tom Kuypers and Vice-chairman Brandi Pedersen each called the media to pound on the Governor’s selection of Randa Hayes.
Tom Kuypers, who is better known locally for losing to Rory Riddler, literally called the Post-Dispatch to say “I told you so” to Governor Matt Blunt. This kept the whole thing in the media for another couple days and Jo Manies at the Post had a field day talking about how the Republican party in St. Charles was imploding. And a week after the story had died, Brandi Pederson went to a St. Peters Board meeting to attack Randa Hayes, thus putting the whole story about the Governor back in the St. Charles papers.
Short of actually calling Jay Nixon and volunteering for his expected campaign against Matt Blunt in 2008, it is hard to imagine what more these two “Republicans” can do against their own Governor. The Democrats recently won a surprise St. Charles victory with County councilman Joe McCullough winning a seat in a Republican district. With party leaders like this, the Democrats are likely to make further inroads in the Republican stronghold of St. Charles County in 2006.
As for Randa Hayes, everyone needs to remember that good political operatives are a little like vampires. First, they should both avoid the light of day. So Randa Hayes should return to the shadows. Second, they are both hard to kill. Just like David Barkledge, Garrett Lott, or other Republican operatives before her who became p art of a scandal, come 2006 Randa Hayes will be running the shadowy side of some Republicans campaign as a “consultant.”
