The Republican Party of Missouri is calling on a state candidate to step down after he was arrested for allegedly trying to plant drugs on an opponent.
37-year-old Thomas Christopher Ross was arrested on Wednesday on a federal charge of conspiring to distribute a controlled substance.
Ross allegedly told the manager that he could anonymously tip off the police about the drugs planted in Secker’s car.
Ross had allegedly told his campaign manager to plant cocaine and Adderall in the car or purse of his primary opponent, Louise Secker, who is also a Republican.
Ross defeated Secker in the Republican primary for Missouri House District 161, representing Joplin, but his campaign manager contacted police about the alleged drug plot.
Police say they tested a bag of cocaine and an Adderall pill that the unidentified campaign manager brought to them, and they confirmed both to be real.
The informant also provided police with text messages allegedly from Ross detailing the planting plot as far back as May, according to the complaint.
“I was hoping we could make it happen before THIS Thursday…which would be extreme egg on the face,” read part of a May 31 text attributed to Ross by prosecutors.
Police contacted the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which provided a covert recorder so that the manager could obtain audio evidence from a July 31 meeting with Ross.
Ross allegedly told the manager that he could anonymously tip off the police about the drugs planted in Secker’s car.
“If you can pull it off…pull it off,” Ross allegedly told him.
Ross won the primary by fewer than 35 votes and would face Democrat candidate Aaron Metzger in the general election, if he resists calls to step down from the campaign.
He was booked into the Joplin Municipal Jail but has not made a plea yet in the case.
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Missouri Republican Party Chairman Peter Kinder called on Ross to drop out.
He added that the “people of Southwest Missouri deserve nothing less than leadership they can trust.”
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