Jasper County Republicans express concern about 'ridiculous antics' in state Senate

Jan. 30—Recent discord in the Missouri Senate prompted the Jasper County Republican Central Committee's executive board to issue a public statement calling for "unity and a complete overhaul of behavior."

The statement notes that local Republicans were disappointed with the "poor performance of the Missouri Senate in 2023" and also said: "While the Missouri House passed our most important conservative priorities, our senators were bickering amongst themselves and playing political games."

"... It's time to end the ridiculous antics, political backroom deals, egos, punitive measures and overall despicable behaviors from the Missouri Republican Senate. Each of you is responsible for the breakdown of the reputation of the Republican Senate in Missouri," the statement said. "We are calling for unity and a complete overhaul of behavior."

The statement, issued Monday, came after filibusters in the Senate to slow down business and block appointments by Missouri Gov. Mike Parson.

Jasper County Republicans also called for "reform" of the state's initiative petition process that "must be the immediate and highest priority of the Missouri General Assembly."

Many Missouri Republicans have argued that the process has been abused and driven by out-of-state and dark money and have sought to make it harder to amend the state constitution using the initiative petition process. That pressure increased when abortion rights advocates announced plans to use the process to bring the issue to a public vote this November.

Sen. Bill Eigel, a member of the Freedom Caucus, said the hope is for Parson to put a measure on voter-referred constitutional amendments on the August primary ballot. Then, if approved, the higher approval threshold would be in place before the general election.

"The abortion question in front of us is the immediate threat. Without question," Eigel said. "But I think this has been building for a few years."

Missouri Freedom Caucus members spoke for hours Monday and Tuesday, delaying unrelated work to pressure Senate leaders to act more quickly on the top GOP priority.

The standoff ended Tuesday morning with Freedom Caucus members allowing a confirmation vote on several gubernatorial appointees they had been blocking. Eigel said in exchange, a state Senate committee minutes later voted out a Freedom Caucus-endorsed measure that would raise the bar for voters to approve constitutional amendments.

Currently, Missouri voters can enact constitutional amendments by a majority vote. In addition to that requirement, Sen. Mary Elizabeth Coleman's proposal would require the approval of a majority of votes cast in a majority of the 163 state House districts, including more conservative rural ones.

If passed by the Legislature, Coleman's measure would still need voter approval.

The local statement followed punitive actions taken by Republican Senate President Pro Tem Caleb Rowden that included removing four members of the Freedom Caucus from committee chairmanships.

The Missouri Independent reported recently that after Rowden's action, Republican central committees in several counties, including Vernon County in Southwest Missouri, issued statements demanding that Rowden and Senate Majority Leader Cindy O'Laughlin, of Shelbina, resign from Senate leadership. The Independent also reported that Republican leaders in Boone County — a county represented by Rowden — issued and then retracted a statement calling on him to resign. They said they retracted it because it was a draft of a letter and not meant to go out to the public.

Alan Griffin, chairman of the Jasper County Republican Central Committee, said his committee's statement calls out both sides in Jefferson City.

"Last year, they didn't get a lot done," Griffin said of the Missouri Senate. "A lot of the House members were frustrated too. They sent good bills over to the Senate, and nothing happened because they were bickering, arguing just like they are this year. And this year, it started off with a bang. Politics is give and take. But I don't see any give and take with them. They're taking a hard line, and if they do that, it's going to be the same thing as last year."

Griffin also said he's concerned about the effects the divide will have on the passage of Republican priorities.

"It's almost like there's a ... I hate to say the words ... civil war within our own Missouri GOP," he said. "I mean, I don't know how else to name it, right?"

Sen. Jill Carter, who represents Jasper and Newton counties, said Tuesday: "So everything that we've been working for, you know, on either side has been accomplished."

"A lot of people talked about getting things done — quote unquote," she said. "And yet there is a sentiment that we see states like Texas and Florida and Tennessee that are doing real big reforms. They're cutting taxes and they're reforming education, and we aren't doing all that. They're doing really big things. With our supermajority of Republicans in the Legislature up here, we haven't been able to do some of those big things. We need to define what it is when people say we need to get stuff done, what is it that we want to get done because we get plenty of bills passed every year, but none of them are trickling down to the kitchen table level where it's really impacting the average Missouri citizen."

Carter said the specifics on how the initiative petition process will be reformed still have to be worked out but that it needs to be made more difficult to get issues on the Missouri ballot.

She pointed to the constitutional amendment passed in 2022 to make recreational use of marijuana legal in Missouri.

"How many people realized that it was over 30 pages long?" she said. "We're changing our most fundamental document, and these are not simple things that we're passing and adding to and expanding our founding document. Voting on a simple issue is one thing, but you're changing the constitution, which means that in order to to change or tweak the policy, you have to have another constitutional amendment. Those are heavy lifts."

Rowden on Tuesday tweeted that "nothing has changed in any way relative" to voter-referred constitutional amendments. But he said because of the infighting, "other top priorities like education reform, tort reform, and Missouri's crackdown on illegal immigration are now behind schedule."

"It has to be noted that we are in the exact same place that we would have been had certain members of the Senate not chosen to hijack business for the past two weeks," Rowden said.

Speaking to hundreds of allies who gathered in the Capitol halls to show their support, Freedom Caucus members lauded the end of the filibuster as a win.

Meanwhile, those who want to keep the current system rallied a floor below in the Capitol rotunda.

"Our initiative petition process has been a sacred constitution right for Missourians across the political spectrum for more than a century," Missouri Voter Protection Coalition Director Denise Lieberman said to a crowd of more than 100. "It is how we make our voices heard."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.