In 2011, Tom Dwyer was one of the “best and brightest.â€
After finishing his junior year at Vianney High School, the University City teen headed to the University of Central Missouri for eight days of learning about leadership and government at . Sponsored by the American Legion, the program since 1938 has produced governors, senators and business leaders.
People like Eric Greitens. In 1991, after his junior year at Parkway North High School, Greitens . Twenty years later, after graduating from Duke University with a degree in ethics, becoming a Rhodes Scholar and Navy SEAL and founding the nonprofit , Greitens was a keynote speaker at Boys State.
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That’s when Dwyer met the man who would become the first sitting governor in the state of Missouri to be indicted on a felony charge.
“While he was speaking, we were given a postcard to fill out and asked to list our email,†Dwyer told me. Now a law student at Notre Dame University, Dwyer contacted me after reading about a St. Louis area high school student who had ended up on Greitens campaign email list after studying The Mission Continues and signing up to receive emails from the nonprofit organization.
The same thing happened to Dwyer.
After Boys State, Dwyer started getting emails from The Mission Continues. He was fine with that. He voluntarily gave his email to the organization after hearing Greitens speak. Then 2015 came, and Greitens kicked off what in retrospect might be a short political career.
“When he started running for governor, I kept getting campaign emails,†Dwyer said. He knew he hadn’t signed up to receive them. “I found it annoying. I thought it probably was a campaign violation. It was odd that I never gave him my email.â€
How the Greitens campaign obtained an email contact list from the nonprofit he founded now appears to be part of two separate investigations. Last month, a grand jury empaneled by St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner on a felony invasion of privacy charge alleging that he took a photo of his half-naked lover in March 2015 without her consent.
That grand jury investigation is continuing and according to published reports has interviewed at least one Greitens campaign worker who was involved in obtaining a donor list from The Mission Continues. Greitens already paid a $100 fine to the Missouri Ethics Commission over his campaign’s use of the donor list. Last week Attorney General Josh Hawley said he, too, is into the nonprofit.
Boys State Director Matt Dameron, a Kansas City attorney who was not the director in 2011, said that the organization is “strictly nonpartisan†and “closely adheres†to rules governing nonprofit organizations.
“We are not aware that Boys State ever provided a list of participants or their contact information to The Mission Continues or Eric Greitens,†Dameron said. “Before Governor Greitens began his political career, Boys State participants could voluntarily choose to receive notifications from The Mission Continues, but Boys State did not provide a comprehensive list to The Mission Continues.â€
Still, the email addresses somehow ended up in the possession of the Greitens campaign, and for some distinguished Boys State graduates, it is a breach of confidence that sullies the governor’s history with the organization.
Former Missouri Gov. Bob Holden, who is on the Boys State board of directors and was an early supporter of Greitens when, like Holden, he was a Democrat, said it was unfortunate that Greitens chose to take advantage of his connection to Boys State to try to benefit his campaign.
“I don’t think it was the appropriate thing to do,†Holden said.
And former Sen. Ryan Silvey, a Kansas City Republican who Greitens recently appointed to the Public Service Commission, similarly was disappointed in the governor. He offered comments as an alum of the organization, and said he doesn’t speak for Boys State.
“Boys State is meant to be an environment that trains and encourages public involvement from everyone, no matter their political views,†said Silvey, who attended Boys State in 1993. “The program works very hard to foster that impartiality. It’s troubling to me that anyone, especially an alumnus, would use contacts from Boys State for unsolicited partisan marketing. In my opinion, that act could jeopardize the credibility of the entire program, including endangering their nonprofit status.â€
On Thursday, Dwyer received his latest email from the Greitens campaign, this one attacking the prosecutor who is investigating the governor. The next day, the future attorney did something he wishes he would have done long ago.
He unsubscribed from the email list he never signed up for in the first place.