JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — As far as politics go, it has been a good week for Jasper and Newton County’s state senator, Ron Richard.
On Tuesday, the Republican ran unopposed for re-election. On Thursday, he got another win: He was easily re-elected by Republicans to serve another two years as the Senate’s Republican leader, the No. 2 position in the upper chamber.
“I represent the people of my district, but also the whole state being majority leader,” he said during an interview at the Capitol. “I treat everybody fair, and I think that people have some confidence in me to do the job right.”
Richard was in Jefferson City on Thursday for the first meeting of Senate Republicans since voters sent them back with a strengthened majority. Republicans won two seats that had previously been held by Democrats but lost one seat in St. Louis that had been held by a Republican. Still, they ended the night Tuesday with 24 members. That number — 24 — is one more than they had at the end of the last General Assembly, and is one more than is required to override a gubernatorial veto.
Coupled with the Republicans 118-vote majority in the House, the party has significantly strengthened its hold on the General Assembly for the final two years of Democratic Gov. Jay Nixon’s term.
“We do have the ability to enact our agenda without the support of the governor,” said Senate President Pro Tem Tom Dempsey, R-St. Charles.
What exactly is that agenda is not set in stone, he said.
This week, Dempsey said Senate Republicans will go for a private retreat to solidify their plan for when the 9th General Assembly is sworn-in after the new year begins.
Speaking generally, Dempsey said Republicans want to focus on education policy and show a response to the events in Ferguson that arose after the shooting of Michael Brown, an unarmed black man who was killed by a white police officer. Sen. Eric Schmitt, a St. Louis Republican who has announced his campaign for state treasurer in 2016, said Thursday he plans to file a bill aiming to address inequities in the municipal courts system that have plagued places like North St. Louis County.
Ethics reform?
Richard said he plans to use his powerful position to push an ethics bill. Missouri is the only state where lawmakers can accept unlimited campaign contributions and gifts from lobbyists, and pressure has been mounting in recent years from both ends of the political spectrum for lawmakers to do something about it.
“It’s not going to have campaign contribution limits in it — the courts have already spoke on that – but it will have a lot of other things,” he said. “We’re going to try to get more transparency.”
Richard — who, so far this year, has accepted more than $1,745 in free meals and tickets from lobbyists — said he plans to tackle the issue of the gifts. He said he is considering legislation similar to a bill introduced last year by Sen. Brad Lager which, among other things, would ban the practice of reporting pricey meals to entire committees instead of individual lawmakers and would bar lobbyists from paying for out of state travel.
Richard also said he is also in favor of temporarily closing the revolving door for lawmakers between leaving the Legislature and returning to be a registered lobbyist, a practice employed by Democrats and Republicans, alike, often as they are forced out of the Legislature by term limits.
“We’re going to have a two-year cooling off period,” he said.