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Rifts surface in Missouri GOP

Ed Martin
KBIA

As the Conservative Political Action Conference takes place in Washington, D.C. this weekend – without some notable key players on the national Republican stage – a rift apparently is developing in the Missouri Republican Party, between new and veteran factions.

State Republican Party Chairman Ed Martin sent an email this week chastising what he called the "old guard" for failing to embrace Sen. Rand Paul's filibuster about drones. He wrote that his goal was for the party to be more like Paul, and less like Republican senators John McCain and Lindsay Graham.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that John Danforth, a former three-term senator from St. Louis, responded by email to Martin on Thursday, asking who else Martin wanted to kick out of the party.

Martin became GOP chairman in January after failed runs for Congress in 2010 and state attorney general last fall. He is associated with the party's more conservative elements.

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