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Schaefer uses his role as senator and potential AG to rein in federal overreach

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — Sen. Kurt Schaefer has spent the last few years using his position in the state senate to reign in what he calls “federal government overreach,” and sees the opportunity to serve as the state’s Attorney General as a better vehicle to keep a check on Washington.

The Columbia-area Republican is running for statewide office by highlighting his brand as that of the diligent, incorruptible prosecutor. Schaefer appears to have made it his personal goal to establish himself as the resident prosecutor of the senate, and the leading watchdog on federal overreach.

Schaefer, a former criminal prosecutor with 20 years in the courtroom, has made something of a full-time job out of hounding Gov. Jay Nixon, a former Missouri AG himself. He’s dogged Nixon on DOR document scanning, his purchase of a new plane, and the Governor’s handling of the unrest in Ferguson and his directions to the National Guard.

“When there is government overreach, the loser in that situation is the individual,” Schaefer said. “I want to step up to the plate and I want to be the one who protects individual Missourian’s rights against government overreach.”

This appears to be Schaefer’s personal mantra, and the state senator has endeavored to paint himself as a vicious opponent of overreach or arbitrary enforcement of the law. Schaefer wants Missouri to join in the state of Texas’ lawsuit against the federal government over President Barack Obama’s DACA executive order. Schaefer says that a Missouri with him as Attorney General will be fighting the federal government any time he believes the law hasn’t been fairly enforced.

“It’s a very slippery slope when any government, whether it’s municipal or all the way to the federal government, believes that it is above the rule of law and can simply implement laws however it suits them that day as opposed to the way the law is written,” Schaefer said.

Schaefer’s resume features time in the AG’s office and cases argued before the Missouri Supreme Court, including a host of death penalty cases. Schaefer’s own view that the death penalty is an appropriate law enforcement practice won’t make him many enemies among Republican voters, even as some state Democrats howl for an end to capital punishment.

Sen. Joe Keaveny, D-St. Louis and the ranking Democrat in the senate, wants the state to audit the death penalty program for financial inefficiencies. Schaefer said he had no issue with such an audit, but that death penalty cases featured a host of checks and balances to prevent improper prosecutions.

“I’m all for auditing anything you want,” Schaefer said. “But right now every death penalty case in Missouri gets a proportionality review before the Supreme Court. When you intentionally take someone’s life, particularly in Missouri, there has to be a statutory aggregator for that to be a death penalty case. Not every first degree murder case is eligible for the death penalty.”

Schaefer says that the nation must increasingly rely on state governments and state actions to protect citizens from the “massive overreach” of the federal government, a line sure to rouse applause at Republican events.

“States have to step up to the plate and through attorneys general, bring litigation against the federal government,” Schaefer said. “It’s up to them to reign in some of this spending and some of these programs.”

Schaefer said that the toxicity of Washington D.C. went far and beyond partisan politics, calling the spending problem of Congress a “D.C. problem.” Schaefer is one of a handful of lawmakers formally calling to Congress on behalf of Missouri to call a “Convention of the States” to offer amendments to the U.S. constitution. Schaefer wants an amendment requiring that the U.S. budget be balanced, a red-meat talking point that has risen to prominence in the last few years.

Schaefer is steaming toward the 2016 race with plenty of money in the bank and no declared challengers for the primary, while Democratic candidates Sen. Scott Sifton and St. Louis County Assessor Jake Zimmerman prepare to spar for the nomination; Schaefer is loudly cultivating an image of the crusading lawyer on behalf of the little guy, a thorn in the side of big government, and a perennially energetic foe. It’s an image that has served him well.