Political consultant plays hardball and scores big
The pugnacious campaign tactics of Jeff Roe are viewed with envy and antipathy.
By STEVE KRASKE and MIKE RICE
The Kansas City Star
When Democrat Sara Jo Shettles saw the neon “XXX” and heard an announcer in a TV ad say she once worked for Penthouse, she thought: “That’s just diabolical.”
Her mind raced to Republican Rep. Sam Graves, her political opponent and eventual victor in their congressional race: “How could he do this?”
Then it shot to his chief strategist: “Sure. He’s got Jeff Roe. Anything’s possible.”
Jeffrey Brian Roe. No political consultant has exploded on the Missouri political scene with the same force in years. Beginning in the early 1990s, he helped usher in the Missouri GOP’s return to dominance. Now he operates what may be the Midwest’s largest political consulting shop at 2345 Grand Blvd. with clients nationwide.
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Lots of political consultants run hard-hitting TV ads. What makes Roe different is just how far he goes. Not unlike President Bush’s strategist, Karl Rove, Roe’s approach has been compared to blunt-force trauma. His tactics range from the Penthouse spot to diving through the trash of a political foe to making flatly inaccurate charges.
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“Jeff knows his craft better than nearly anyone in this state for his party. You ignore … his skill at your own peril. While there are certainly things about his tactics that I disagree with, I cannot deny his effectiveness.”
That’s from a Missouri Democrat, U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver. He won his seat in a bitter 2004 race against Jeanne Patterson, a Roe client.
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His record this year in races in which Axiom was fully engaged: 36-5. His career won-loss record: 108-11.
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“(Our) members … would be shocked and dismayed if a portion of their political dollars wound up in the pocket of such a person as Mr. Roe,” wrote Jeffrey Mazur of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.
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