Spence criticizes ‘lack of leadership’ in General Assembly

Dave Spence.

— On the stump, Republican gubernatorial candidate Dave Spence is not necessarily fond of the GOP-led Missouri General Assembly.

“The House is fairly functional in my book, the Senate needs some work,” Spence said at a recent meting of the Pettis County Pachyderm Club. “I think its suffering from lack of leadership.”

The upper-chamber of the state legislature has been widely criticized for stopping major legislative initiatives backed by Missouri Republicans, including a bill to to move or nix Missouri’s non-binding presidential primary, and economic developmental legislation that seemed to, at the beginning, have broad political support.

Spence cites a leadership deficit, and, in an excerpt of his remarks posted by the Missouri Democratic Party, said that he has leadership skills that might be able to help.

“Leadership is something I’ve done all my life,” Spence said. “There’s a new Beta house going in Missouri: I was one of three people that said ‘we can do it,’ and everybody said “no you can’t, no you cant.’ We raised 8.6 million dollars and it’ll be open in August, so it’s going to be the finest fraternity house in the country.”

While Spence’s sentiment is shared by many Republicans who follow the Missouri General Assembly, Democrats will likely disparage the first-time political candidate for citing his “leadership” experience in a fraternity as his current leadership experience.

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