SAINT LOUIS, MO (KMOX) - Missouri's Republican race for U.S. Senate may have a new frontrunner. A couple of polls, including one by her campaign, have western Missouri's Vicky Hartzler gaining seven points to lead the field now by one point. That after new domestic violence allegations against Eric Greitens, who denies the claims.
One poll -- by The Trafalgar Group -- puts Hartzler at 25 percent, Greitens at 24, and Attorney General Eric Schmitt at 22. Another, by Hartzler's campaign, has her at 23 percent to Greitens' 22. Meantime, a third survey, by Schmitt supporters, has the A.G. on top with 25 percent.
Could there be some consolidation in the field, with non-Greitens Republicans coming together around a single alternative? "Hartzler is going to be -- I don't want to use the term moderate -- but I think she's better known statewide. Her name has been floated periodically. I think she's got more a statewide base kind of naturally than any other candidates," explains Lindenwood University Political Science professor Don Heidenreich. Heidenrich expects a national Republican push for a single non-Greitens candidate by May or June if nobody besides Greitens has taken a clear lead.
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