Billy Long embraces his role as chaos agent in Missouri Senate primary

Rep. Billy Long (R-MO) poured more fuel to the infighting fire in Missouri’s U.S. Senate GOP primary last week, attacking Rep. Vickey Hartzler’s (R-MO) voting record and referring to former Gov. Eric Greitens as “Snidely Whiplash.”

On Pete Mundo’s Kansas City-based talk show last week, Long said Hartzler — his closest contender in the primary — recently confronted him about comparing her to Liz Cheney. “You need to stop that,” Long said Hartzler told him.

Long told Mundo it had been his policy not to mention opponent’s names during a primary until he took an ad Hartzler ran personally. “I looked at her and said ‘Vicki, you cut an ad that I took personally, you said ‘I am the lifetime conservative in the race.’’ I said, ‘you didn’t say I’m a conservative.’”

Long disputes Hartzler’s claim to her conservative credentials. He cited rankings from the American Conservative Union and the conservative Club for Growth, both of which assign ratings to legislators based on how closely they align with those foundations’ values. Cheney and Hartzler are ranked similarly by both organizations; Long is ranked significantly more conservative.

He then accused Hartzler of sending out a text “that said my people sat me down, told me to get out. They were sorry they supported me.” Long said he told Hartzler “I would have never done that to anyone ever.”

The Missouri Times reported Long first leveled that claim in February, shortly after Republican Sen. Josh Hawley endorsed Hartzler — an endorsement Long had been angling for.

Hartzler’s campaign told the Missouri Times in February they were aware of “a baseless rumor spread by someone via text message that included false information. We were not involved in spreading this rumor in any way.”

Last week, Long said Hartzler told him “the guy” who sent the text didn’t work for her.

“And then he called the next day threatening to sue, saying that Billy Long was going to get him fired.” It was not clear exactly who Long was referring to.

A former auctioneer and radio host — who once drowned out a protestor by pretending to auction off her phone during a 2018 hearing with Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey — Long was elected to Roy Blunt’s 7^th district seat in 2010, the same year Blunt got elected to the Senate.

Once again running for a seat Blunt is vacating, Long is currently coming up a distant fourth — with just 6% support — in the Trafalgar Group’s February poll of the Republican primary. Missouri’s disgraced former governor Eric Greitens led the poll with 30.5% of the vote.

When Mundo asked Long how he felt about Greitens’ lead, he responded, “you’re talking about Snidely Whiplash I think.”

Snidely Whiplash was the villain of the “Dudley Do-Right of the Mounties” segment in the Rocky and Bullwinkle cartoons. He “had a penchant for tying women to railroad tracks. And so, that’s my moniker for [Greitens], Snidely Whiplash,” Long said.

Greitens resigned under pressure in 2018 due to allegations of campaign finance violations and sexual misconduct

A woman he had an affair with in 2015 testified under oath to a Missouri House investigative committee that Greitens engaged in aggressive sexual acts, which included taping her hands to exercise rings in his basement, taking nonconsensual photographs that he threatened to use as blackmail if she told anyone, and coercing her into oral sex before he would allow her to leave.

However, Long told Mundo he thinks Greitens is “a likable guy” who may be able to win the election. “That’s for the people in Missouri to decide. And if he does win, I’m going to back him. I’m going to support anyone in the race.”