BY: Jack Miles, Editor

Todd Graves built a solid reputation as a career prosecutor and conservative Republican loyalist, but appears to have gotten “whacked” politically by his own party for having the audacity to place principle before politics.

Graves in 1994 and 1998 won election as the Platte County, Mo., prosecutor on Kansas City’s northwest side. He cleaned up the pigsty of an office he inherited – files everywhere, including in halls – and turned the office into a place where people could work with pride. On substantive issues, he emphasized prosecutions over plea bargains, employing the kind of zeal for justice that the public expected from the youngest prosecutor working in Missouri at that time.

Graves did not stand alone on the family farm as a loyal Republican. He helped brother Sam Graves rise to state senator. From there Sam ascended further to become Missouri’s 6th Congressional District representative.

Again earning their Republican stripes, both Graves brothers won their elected posts by defeating high-profile Democrats. Todd whipped an incumbent prosecutor and Sam slammed U.S. Rep. Patsy Ann Danner’s son, Steve, who ran with the expectation of replacing his four-term mother. The Graves brothers’ loyalty to the party is indisputable. Read more…

Related:

Overland Park Sun: “U.S. Senate’s probe targets county native”

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