Gov. Eric Greitens had a busy week during the special session, mainly with holding rallies in Southeast Missouri and Jefferson City to support his call for legislation to bring a steel mill to Southeast Missouri. Over 500 people attended Greitens’ event at the now-closed Noranda aluminum smelter to stand alongside Rep. Don Rone, R-Portageville, to lobby for a bill that could reopen the facility and bring an estimated 400+ jobs back to the Bootheel.
In Jefferson City Tuesday, as the House Utilities Committee was debating the legislation, he held a rally that drew around 300 people to Jefferson City. Some attendees from Southeast Missouri were bussed in by the New Missouri political nonprofit, which specifically supports Greitens’ policy agendas and has close connections to his administration.
Greitens, the only full-time office holder in the state, criticized “career politicians” for trying to stop jobs from coming to the state.
“We need to let politicians know that instead of trying to score political points, they should be trying to win jobs,” Greitens said at the rally to promote his political agenda. “Instead of standing in the way of businesses that want to come to Missouri, they need to stand up and fight for the people of Missouri.”
After his speech outside the Capitol, the governor led people through his office’s reception area to put posters and flyers on the walls of Sen. Rob Schaaf, Sen. Doug Libla, and Sen. Gary Romine, the legislators most thought would impede the progress of the bill in the Senate. Libla and Romine have long blocked grid modernization legislation because they fear it would give utility companies too much leverage in setting their own rates.
Senators spoke Monday at length on the attacks against their fellow members, as well as themselves. Sen. Jason Holsman especially seemed to have become the most angered by Greitens’ attacks against Libla.
“If you want to have a partner in the legislature to move an agenda forward, then work with us and stop the campaigning in the district of the 25th without discussing the issue with him,” Holsman said. “Don’t disparage this chamber by calling us third graders because you want to score political points in a non-ending campaign.”
Despite leading the crowd through the halls of the Capitol, Greitens reportedly caved to the Senate’s demands and abandoned the second part of his call for broader policies that could have allowed for rate changes to modernize the grid.
In other news, curious comments from Greitens on KMOX’s The Mark Reardon Show seemed to indicate he had problems with the disclosure of donors to political organizations. He was responding to questions about the New Missouri nonprofit’s status as a “dark money” organization because it is not required to release the names of its donors and can raise unlimited funds.
He said the “liberal media” and “career politicians” were attempting to intimidate fundraisers for the nonprofit.
“The people who believe in voter intimidation believe that the minute you make a political donation, you immediately need to turn all your information over to the government, that you need to turn over your home address and your contact information, so that the government can turn around and publish that,” he told Reardon.
Curious comments from Greitens on campaign finance disclosures spark ire of Senate Dems
The comments themselves speak much more broadly to Missouri’s campaign finance rules as a whole, which require the names of donors to most campaign and party committees.
“Missouri’s ethics disclosure laws have provided a bedrock of transparency for decades,” Sen. Scott Sifton, D-Affton, said in a statement. “The governor is wrong to malign transparency and disclosure. The people have a right to know who is paying for campaigns.”
The governor also requested a federal disaster declaration for the flooding that ravaged 51 counties in the state after disaster assessment crews from the State Emergency Management Agency and the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
“Today, I am requesting that President [Donald] Trump approve federal assistance for flood survivors and businesses,” Greitens said in a statement Thursday. “This assistance will help our people begin to rebuild, and help local communities with costly emergency response and infrastructure repair costs. The people of Missouri are strong. Communities are coming together to rebuild. Support from the administration is essential to that effort.”
Public assistance is being requested for the following 45 counties: Barry, Barton, Bollinger, Butler, Camden, Carter, Cedar, Christian, Cole, Crawford, Dade, Dallas, Dent, Douglas, Dunklin, Franklin, Gasconade, Howell, Iron, Jefferson, Lawrence, Madison, Maries, Miller, McDonald, Morgan, Newton, Oregon, Osage, Ozark, Perry, Phelps, Pike, Pulaski, Ralls, Reynolds, Ripley, Shannon, Stone, Taney, Texas, Washington, Wayne, Webster, and Wright.
More information can be found on the governor’s website here.
Greitens also set a high bar for new University of Missouri Chancellor Alexander Cartwright, the provost and executive vice chancellor of the State University of New York (SUNY). He said with shrinking enrollment in the state’s flagship university, the schools administrators needed to show strong leadership.
“Missouri needs Mizzou and our universities to succeed,” Greitens said. “For that to happen, strong leaders will have to make hard decisions. The University of Missouri has lacked strong leadership for far too long. That leadership vacuum has created a crisis… We need a new, bold approach for our flagship university and the entire UM System that creates excellence and puts the needs of Missouri citizens first.”
