The Missouri Senate’s new traffic cop

By NewsPress Now

Tony Luetkemeyer voiced confidence and enthusiasm following his election to the second-highest leadership position in the Missouri Senate.

Luetkemeyer, a Republican who represents Buchanan and Platte counties, enters the 2025 legislative session with reason for optimism. He will serve as majority floor leader in a GOP leadership team that includes Sen. Cindy O’Laughlin, the first woman elected to serve as president pro tem of the Senate. Voters in Missouri elected a Republican governor and returned a GOP supermajority to both chambers of the General Assembly.

As majority leader, Luetkemeyer will schedule bills for consideration and determine the time allotted for floor debate on a particular issue. He will act as a traffic cop for a chamber that at times doesn’t seem to follow basic rules of the road.

Senate dysfunction in recent years can’t be traced to partisan battles between Democrats and Republicans. There aren’t enough Democrats for that. Instead, infighting among traditional Republicans and the conservative freedom caucus results in gridlock. In some years, the Senate hasn’t even bothered to stay in session up until the deadline at the session’s end.

Things won’t get easier for Luetkemeyer and Republican leadership in the Senate. Voter approval of Amendment 3 portends a 2025 session with a significant amount of time devoted to debating further restrictions on abortion. That’s not exactly a recipe for getting lots of other business accomplished. State revenue is showing signs of decline and Biden-era stimulus money is definitely a thing of the past, meaning that more difficult budget decisions loom on the horizon.

Voters consistently send Republicans to the legislature in large numbers, yet they also have approved more liberal statewide ballot issues on marijuana legalization, abortion, Medicaid and the minimum wage. It’s hard to tell what message voters are sending, except maybe that they prefer lawmaking that’s less focused on ideology and more attuned to addressing problems that everyday Missourians face. This is especially true on issues involving crime, jobs and schools.

Luetkemeyer and the Senate leadership will have to find a way to remain true to their conservative values while not letting the chamber get bogged down in culture wars and symbolic battles.

Missourians deserve more than that from Luetkemeyer and the Senate leadership.

An unfortunate wedge issue

The 2024 presidential campaign produced a storm of criticism on the federal response to major hurricanes in Florida and the Carolinas.

Upon reflection, it’s easy to dismiss the more bizarre allegations that a secret cabal controls the weather and sends destructive storms to red states. (If this was true, why don’t all the hurricanes go to Mar-a-Lago?)

But others raised a more legitimate issue of misplaced resource-allocation priorities or a government response that appeared flat-footed at times. Now comes confirmation that the Federal Emergency Management Agency has terminated one employee who told assistance teams to avoid homes with Trump signs in Florida.

This only reinforces the broader range of conspiracy theories, which is unfortunate. Disaster response shouldn’t be a wedge issue.