This website is best viewed in a browser that supports web standards.

Skip to content or, if you would rather, Skip to navigation.

Listen Live
Donate
MARYVILLE

KXCV-KRNW


News Brief

Feb. 12, 2025 |  By: Rudi Keller - Missouri Independent

Republican unity undercuts Democratic leverage in Missouri General Assembly

missouri democratic lawmakers

By Rudi Keller - Missouri Independent

For the first time in years, Democrats in the Missouri Legislature think they are about to feel the power of a fully operational Republican supermajority.

Factional fighting in the state Senate made that body “a dumpster fire” last year, state Sen. Rick Brattin, chairman of the Missouri Freedom Caucus, said Thursday. The Freedom Caucus initiated the fight last year on the day the session opened and the result was the fewest number of bills passed in decades.

This year, for the first time in living memory, the Missouri Senate last week sent bills to the House before the lower chamber even had any of its own bills on the calendar for debate.

“The fact that Republicans seem to be moving legislation through at a much faster clip than they have in the past is concerning for Democrats,” said House Minority Leader Ashley Aune, a Kansas City Democrat. “We do not have the negotiating power as a super minority to make the bills better when we want them to, or to stop some of the worst bills from moving. So, yeah, that is a problem for Democrats, and we’re keeping an eye on it.”

Republicans hold more than two-thirds of legislative seats — 24 of 34 in the Senate and 110 of 163 in the House. The GOP also holds all statewide offices.

The five bills the Senate approved Thursday all had broad bipartisan support, with no more than two senators voting against passage and that only on one bill.

The bills sent to the House include a plan to adjust the salaries for several sets of county officials and another to cap the cost of telephone calls from county jails at 12 cents per minute. 

It is the more controversial measures — such as reimposing state control on the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department — that will put Democrats on defense with few weapons.

“Often what we see from the state legislature are attacks on our largest municipalities in the state, because they are Democratically run,” Aune said.  “And so there’s a constant push and pull between the state and St. Louis, and the state and Kansas City. And so yes, of course, we’re concerned about the effect that an effective and efficient super majority party will have on our big cities.”

The return to familiar rhythms has Republicans hoping they will pass priorities stymied by past infighting.

“I’m sure that we are going to have times where we have differences of opinion, but I think on the House side, we are able to manage that,” said House Majority Leader Alex Riley, a Springfield Republican. “We’re able to still work together, and we’re able to still function, even when we have internal disagreements where they don’t just shut down our ability to function.”

One area where Republicans might test their power is altering the law approved by voters to increase the minimum wage and require most businesses to provide paid sick and family leave of up to seven days a year. Proposition A took 58% of the vote statewide and received majorities in 27 counties plus St. Louis and Kansas City. Of those 27 counties, 21 are represented only by Republicans in the General Assembly.

The terms of Proposition A hurt small businesses, Riley said, and that is who Republicans are listening to. 

“At the same time as they’re (passing Proposition A), they’re also electing us as House Republicans, and we stand for small businesses, we stand for economic growth,” Riley said.

For most of the past four years, Democrats were content to be spectators in the state Senate, often helping GOP leadership pass bills over the objections of the Freedom Caucus. In rare moments of Republican unity, Democrats were ready to filibuster, such as when they held the floor for a record 50 hours in May to block legislation changing the majority needed to amend the constitution.

Including the opening day speeches, there were seven severe outbursts of factionalism in the Senate in January 2024 alone. There were fights during committee hearings, filibusters filled with attacks on the Republican leadership, retaliation against Freedom Caucus members, an exasperated floor leader speculating about expelling the ringleader, local party committees demanding resignations and a 16-hour standoff over gubernatorial appointments.

“You can see that we’re getting along better,” Brattin said. “It was kind of turned into a dumpster fire last year in terms of being at odds, but I think a lot of it had to do with personality, with particular individuals.”

The differences are submerged in a willingness to work for common goals, said Senate Majority Leader Tony Luetkemeyer, a Parkville Republican.

“We have a cohesive, unified Republican caucus, which is something that we have not had for the last several years,” he said. “You should expect the pace of things in the Senate to be deliberative. We’re going to see filibusters and those things, but you’ll, I think you’re going to see us work much more efficiently this year than you have maybe in the last four years.”

The debates in the Senate showed it is functioning as it has in the past, said Senate Minority Leader Doug Beck, an Affton Democrat. All the bills passed had broad support, and a bill that Democrats opposed — removing the sunset date for the ban on transgender medical treatments for minors —  was set aside.

“This was a good week,” Beck said. “Bipartisan legislation was passed, complicated legislation was debated and laid over so senators could have more time to discuss these matters, and this is how the Senate should work.”

The bill on sunset dates — it included elimination of expiration dates on several laws —- shows how the GOP has smoothed over its internal disputes, Beck said.

The bill would remove the expiration date on provider taxes that fund Medicaid, which was extended just last year at the end of a 41-hour Freedom Caucus filibuster. No Freedom Caucus member objected when total repeal of the sunset was added to the bill last week, followed shortly by the addition of the repeal of the sunset date for a law banning gender-affirming care for minors — over Democratic opposition.

Democrats do not have the power to stop everything they don’t like that is on the Republican agenda, Beck said.

“We’re going to do what we can,” Beck said. “We’re not, you know, miracle workers.”