P-D:
GOP’s Steve Tilley drops race for Missouri lieutenant governor
JEFFERSON CITY • Missouri House Speaker Steve Tilley, who rose quickly through the legislative ranks and built a $1.5 million war chest to run for lieutenant governor next year, suddenly dropped his statewide bid today.
Tilley, a Republican from Perryville, released a statement saying he wanted to spend more time with his two daughters, Kourtney, 17, and Korrin, 15. Tilley and his wife, Kellie, are going through a divorce.
He still has a year remaining in his House term and will continue to be speaker during that time.
His departure from the race would make it easier for Republican Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder to seek re-electiion instead of challenging Democratic Gov. Jay Nixon next year. Kinder has been mulling a race for governor but has not declared his candidacy.
Peter KinderCare hasn’t exactly had the best of years in 2011. So hopefully, with the white-hating bigot Tilley a no-go and KinderCare on the rocks, this will take care of the two biggest, ahem, “black” lovers, in the Missouri GOP. On top of that, it will open the field for some real right wingers, or even better, some honest to goodness populists-nationalists.
