Missouri Gov. Candidate a former regular

Sounds like a great guy to me. He should put on his campaign literature.

"I am a PL, vote for me, and I'll buy you a lap dance"

Thanks Dtech for the post.

Yeah, VM, here’s proof of what a great guy he is from another alternative MO paper:

pitch.com

“...Hey, Kinder told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that he was just being a single dude in the '90s. He and a few broskis hit up the strip club after a baseball game. And Kinder admitted that he came back a "handful" of times, which amounts to about 10 trips.

Kinder found a way to make Dean Martin's "Let's Be Friendly" creepy, quoting the lyrics to the newspaper.

"'My, what lovely scenery, cupid's own machinery,'" Kinder said. "That is an innocent expression of romantic love — romantic attraction, I should say — that sort of captures the beginning of this. And then you realize that you are pursuing that in a strip club."

Uh, Peter. You're not helping your cause.

Kinder also claimed that he never got rough with Chapman, who claimed that the politician would try to force her head down into his lap during private dances. She also told the Post-Dispatch that police had to intervene during one incident.

Kinder claims that he doesn't go to strip clubs anymore because they're immoral and exploitative of women.

"I came to realize this is not consistent with my upbringing. I'm a Christian. I'm a sinner. I'm a sinning Christian," Kinder said. "I was raised in a good family and thought, 'You know, continuing to go there is leading me down the wrong path.'"

How convenient. Also a convenient coincidence: Kinder's claim of how he ended up at Verlin's, a bar that is home to nightly pantsless parties. Kinder claims he stopped in because he needed to use the restroom.

"I felt the urge to use the bathroom and I was in the neighborhood," Kinder told the paper.

And since Kinder happened to be in the bar, he decided to have a glass of red wine. That's when he ran into Chapman. Chapman would later claim that Kinder offered to let her stay at his campaign apartment in Brentwood — a claim he has denied. But his denial sounds pretty fishy.

From the Post-Dispatch: ‘Asked how Chapman could have known about the Brentwood apartment, Kinder suggested that she could have read his campaign finance reports. "It's a matter of public record," he said.’

I'm sure the folks at Verlin's are breathlessly awaiting the next filing of campaign finance reports.”

And some fellow Republicans are having second thoughts about supporting him as a candidate for governor:

pitch.com

“Breaking news alert: Some of the people who go into politics aren’t very bright.

Missouri Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder faces the possibility that dumb-assness will keep him from realizing his ambition of being the state’s next governor. Last week, a deep-pocketed Republican donor said he regrets supporting Kinder’s campaign and called on the Cape Girardeau politician to resign his office to avoid hurting the party in 2012. "If I had known this about him, I would not have supported him in the past," David Humphreys, a southwest Missouri businessman who gave $165,000 to Kinder’s campaign in the current election cycle, told Politico.

“This” refers to the revelation that Kinder tends to find himself in establishments where the employees wear skimpy clothing. Details about Kinder’s recreational pursuits began to emerge when a recent photo of the lieutenant governor and a former Penthouse Pet surfaced on the news blog of Riverfront Times, a St. Louis alt-weekly.

...Kinder has called Chapman’s story “bizarre,” but that hasn’t stopped his fellow Republicans from believing it. Echoing Humphreys, Tim Garrison, a Missouri GOP activist in Springfield, blasted Kinder in an e-mail, stating that his story about stopping at Verlin’s because he needed to pee did “not pass the laugh test."

Garrison wants to see a different Republican challenge Gov. Jay Nixon next year.

"I am sorry, but the price of cavorting with Penthouse Pets in your 40s is that you don’t get to be governor of a Bible Belt state in your 50s," Garrison said in his e-mail, which was obtained by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. "The Republican Party claims to be the party of personal responsibility. It’s time to put action to those words, and ask Mr. Kinder to step aside."

Kinder, meanwhile, is standing pat in his conviction that he should be Missouri’s next governor. But if enough moneymen in his party lose faith, he may be the one going without pants.”

No wonder he was such a fervent advocate of the MO strip club law. Can’t control himself without restrictions on others’ activities. Hey, Peter, there are still “dirty” clubs on the Illinois side not far from your leased apartment paid for through campaign contributions. Did you also use past campaign funds to pay for your strip club visits because you handed out your business card?

Diamond Cabaret is now the Penthouse Club. Enjoyed many fun times there back in the day. Really need to make it back one day soon.

Wow, Joker44. Thanks for all the info. I heard about the story for the first time today and missed all that stuff -- I don't live near KC anymore and so I don't pickup copies of the Pitch.

Kind of scary that a single guy visiting a club a few times 16 years ago and doing nothing illegal can be used as political ammunition against him now. Does that mean nobody here can ever hold political office in the future?

Sounds like he's the one now doing the dancin'!

I believe he was teaching that stripper how to pray. That's why she was down on her knees.

A bar where the waitresses don't wear pants, and it isn't listed on TUSCL. Would someone from St. Louis please review Verlin's Bar and Grill.

@gillydon: "Kind of scary that a single guy visiting a club a few times 16 years ago and doing nothing illegal can be used as political ammunition against him now. Does that mean nobody here can ever hold political office in the future?"

"GOP Lt. Gov. Who Said 'Every Dollar Counts' Charged Taxpayers With Thousands In Hotel Bills Ryan J. Reilly | April 4, 2011, 11:40AM

Missouri Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder (R) has had taxpayers foot the bill for 329 nights at hotels and casinos in St. Louis and St. Louis County since 2006 to "attend society balls, baseball games and political events, even though Missouri guidelines state that taxpayer-funded travel must be 'essential' for state business," the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported this weekend.

Kinder -- who is expected to run for governor next year -- hung up on the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reporter who called for an interview on the story....

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported that:

Kinder's taxpayer-funded hotel stays dwarf his predecessor's, and they are far above those of other statewide elected officials. Kinder billed the state for hotel stays and meals when he came to St. Louis to attend society balls, baseball games and political events, even though Missouri guidelines state that taxpayer-funded travel must be "essential" for state business. Kinder often listed no official reason on his expense reports for billing taxpayers for nights at the Chase or Four Seasons...."

tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com

And from Tits & Sass:

"Scandal In The Show-Me (The Legally Permitted Amount) State by BUBBLES on AUGUST 17, 2011

Here’s a little Midwestern scandal with a tough old-school lesbian stripper and Republican hypocrisy about sex and sex work. Missouri Lieutenant Governor Peter Kinder has been outed as a creepy PL (pathetic loser) who used to be a strip club regular. When he ran into his old ATF, Tammy Chapman, he asked her if she wanted to move into the condo his campaign fund pays for. Chapman was so disturbed (or something) she went public. From the Riverfront Times:

Chapman says she’s speaking out because she’s disgusted by Kinder’s behavior, both in the mid-’90s and today. “He uses his political business card to get women,” she says.

She adds, “He is not fit for public office.” 

Now he’s sneaking into events through the back door to avoid answering questions and facing early muckracking before a likely (?) gubernatorial campaign.

What makes this story interesting to sex workers at large? Last year the Missouri legislature passed some of the nation’s most restrictive anti-strip club legislation. It banned nudity, alcohol, and contact in adult businesses and required them to close by midnight, meaning that in a strip club in St. Louis, you could drink a soda and watch a semi-clothed dancer but only if you’re six feet or further away and it’s before 12 a.m.. It’s been devastating to the industry and resulted in job and tax losses for the state. Let’s not have any illusions that only Republicans get behind these laws—the governor who signed the bill, Jay Nixon, is a Democrat. But this case serves as a glaring reminder of how elected officials are willing to ignore the harm done to sex workers by politically expedient actions even when they should know better. This is one instance in which I think a customer’s right to privacy is forfeited by his failure to not act like a dirtbag."

titsandsass.com

No gillydon, it's about hypocrisy exposed. For a politician in a bible-belt state who wanted to be governor by courting and playing to true believers. It's about a guy who supported passage of MO's tough SC law having visited 'dirtier' clubs across the state line earlier in his career. It's about an indiscreet guy who made known his political position to try to impress strippers.