Friends and colleagues mourn the tragic death earlier today of Missouri State Auditor and GOP gubernatorial candidate Tom Schweich. Schweich was confirmed dead this afternoon from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Whether the shot was intentional or accidental is unknown. While a state remembers one of the most discerning auditors in some time (who received massive grassroots support), rumors roil the Missouri Republican Party:

On Tuesday morning, Schweich confided in Post-Dispatch Editorial Page Editor Tony Messenger that he believed that John Hancock, the newly elected chairman of the Missouri Republican Party, had spread disinformation about Schweich’s religion. That topic was what Schweich wanted to discuss with reporters for the Post-Dispatch and the Associated Press Thursday.

In several conversations via text and phone in the days leading up to Thursday morning, Schweich told Messenger that Hancock mentioned to people in passing that Schweich was Jewish. Schweich wasn’t Jewish. He was a member of The Church of St. Michael & St. George, an Episcopal congregation in Clayton.

Schweich told Messenger he believed the mentions of his faith heritage were intended to harm him politically in a gubernatorial primary in which many Republican voters are evangelical Christians. He said his grandfather was Jewish, and that he was “very proud of his connection to the Jewish faith.”

[…]

Schweich told Messenger that he attempted to ask Sen. Roy Blunt to intervene but was unable to speak with him. Schweich said he had lunch with Blunt’s son, lobbyist Andy Blunt, according to Messenger’s account.

[…]

Karen Aroesty, regional director of the Anti-Defamation League, said Schweich had contacted her, as well, earlier in the week concerning alleged anti-Semitism. She said she was waiting for Schweich to comment publicly on the issue before deciding whether to issue a statement.

[…]

Hancock said Thursday that he may have said to someone last year that Schweich was Jewish, “but I certainly would not have said it in a derogatory manner.”

“I have been a public figure for nearly 30 years,” Hancock said. “No one has ever accused me of bigotry in any shape, manner or form.”

[…]

This week, Hancock said he heard that Schweich intended to hold a news conference in Jefferson City to accuse Hancock of making an anti-Semitic remark to a specific person. Hancock said that rumored incident — which he declined to detail — was “demonstrably untrue.”

“To set the record straight,” Hancock said, he and his wife traveled to Jefferson City on Tuesday to attend the news conference, which they had expected to take place that afternoon. That news conference never took place.

This from the AP:

Naturally high-strung, Schweich seemed unusually agitated — his voice sometimes quivering and his legs and hands shaking — when he told an AP reporter on Monday that he wanted to hold a press conference to allege that Missouri Republican Party Chairman John Hancock had made anti-Semitic remarks about him.

Schweich postponed a planned press conference Tuesday. But he called the AP at 9:16 a.m. Thursday inviting an AP reporter to his home for a 2:30 p.m. interview and noting that a reporter from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch also had been invited. An AP reporter spoke with Schweich by phone again at 9:35 a.m. to confirm the upcoming interview.

Police say the emergency call to Schweich's house was received at 9:48 a.m.

In conversations with the AP, Schweich said he had heard that Hancock had been making phone calls last fall in which he mentioned in an off-handed way that Schweich was Jewish. Schweich said he felt the comments were anti-Semitic and wanted Hancock to resign the party chairmanship to which he had been elected last Saturday.

[…]

“I don't have a specific recollection of having said that, but it's plausible that I would have told somebody that Tom was Jewish because I thought he was, but I wouldn't have said it in a derogatory or demeaning fashion,” Hancock said.

Schweich always seemed as a pretty confident guy which is one reason why this has shocked so many. For someone who had spent so long in the political realm it seems odd that suddenly now he would be pushed to the point of suicide over an attack ad or charges of an anti-semitic nature. While despicable, this isn't new to politics and not to St. Louis. Was Schweich really so high strung as to leave behind his wife and children over attacks on his religion? Would John Hancock gamble his new position as leader of the Missouri GOP to engage in such an attack? Is he impartial to Catherine Hanaway as Schweich suspected? Why did former GOP head Ed Martin leave the position?

I'd hate to see the leadership of the Missouri Republican Party change hands from a grassroots co-opter to one, if true, who engaged in such an attack. A fight is brewing within the Missouri GOP, that much is for sure.