JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — Sen. John Lamping, R-St. Louis, decided to not file for re-election today for District 24 seat.
“I’m most proud of governing through the eyes of ordinary citizens,” Lamping said. “I took a different approach to governing.”
Lamping will serve as the 2014 campaign chair for State Auditor Tom Schweich’s reelection campaign.
“John Lamping has the absolute highest level of integrity,” Schweich said. “I am honored he is co-chairing my campaign.”
The St. Louis County native admits he would potentially be interested the Lieutenant Governor’s office, which is up for election in 2016 along with other executive positions.
“Of the offices, Lt. Gov. would make sense,” Lamping said. “State treasurer is a weak office. It should be part of administration. It’s not worthy of a statewide office.
“It is very early to speculate on 2016, but Sen. Lamping is a proven vote-getter in the kind of swing district that Republicans need to compete in to win statewide,” Robert Knodell of Barklage and Knodell said.
He said he also turned the nomination of caucus chair by current majority leader Ron Richard.
“I took myself out of leadership,” he said. “That was a mistake.”
Lamping was elected in 2010 and served just one term as a Senator, but he boasts a productive legislative record.
He is most proud of six bills that passed from the first three years of his tenure. There was a domestic violence bill, which made the definitions for the crime more consistent, improving the process for orders of protection, and clarifying the law for juvenile respondents. One bill updated the laws against human trafficking by increasing penalties and adding new procedures for identifying victims of those crimes. Also in 2011, Lamping sponsored an adoption bill, which increased access to adoption records of adult adoptees and their lineal descendants.
The last of those bills struck a personal cord with Lamping. His family adopted a daughter from China in the early 2000s. The family then adopted two more children.
In 2012, Lamping sponsored a bill for religious freedom, prohibiting the imposition of certain health care services on the grounds of religious beliefs. Lamping is a devout Catholic, attending St. Alphonsus Church.
Last year, there was a bill for subsidized guardianship, which allowed legal guardians to receive the same benefits as adopted parents. Also, Lamping sponsored a bill that allowed people with mental disabilities the same rights of accommodation to service dogs as those with physical handicaps.
Lamping was elected after campaigning in an extremely competitive race in 2010, winning by about 100 votes. Previously, his district in St. Louis County exclusively elected Democrats.
Lamping works as the branch manager of a St. Louis-based Securities Firm. He previously worked as a currency trader in New York City during the 1980s. This is where he met his wife of 20 years, Caryn. At the time, she was one of the few traders in a male dominated world. He said she supports the decision not to run in 2014.
He said this decision will allow him to spend more time with his family, including six children three of which were adopted. Recently, he purchased a 50-acre farm in Augusta.
“Six to seven acres of vineyards and pasture,” he said.
Although Lamping will be stepping down at the end of the next session, he is not finished pushing the legislative envelope. He’s filed four bills already of which he is very proud: a overhaul of ethics, an income tax cut for dependent children, a halt for the implementation of common core, and the creation of a state road fund in Missouri. He’s planning eight bills to be filed during the next week.
