Kansas City, Mo – Monday morning Sen. Mike Cierpiot, R-Jackson County, took to Pete Mundo’s “Mundo in the Morning”’ show on KCMO radio in Kansas City and shared his views on the conservative caucus, Missouri Right to Life and the current state of the Missouri Senate.
Cierpiot blamed the lack of bills passed during spring session on the conservative caucus. Cierpiot claimed that the caucus spent a third of session working on a congressional map that would have helped their own careers at the expense of the Republican party overall, referring to them as the “chaos caucus.”
“There were 7-1 maps that I could have supported, but none of the ones that were offered,” Cierpiot said. “My concerns were that if we had a bad Republican year, a 7-1 map could quickly turn into a 5-3 map, and once a Member of Congress is in they are really hard to get out.”
He then went on to critique the 100 PAC’s scorecard that was used to label some Republicans as “RINOs.”
Cierpiot went on to criticize Sen. Mike Moon, R-Lawrence County, for offering “silly amendments.” He also said that Moon was a man who was in the House for 9 years and still never passed anything.
“They just want Facebook clicks and don’t care about getting things done,” said Cierpiot.
The harshest criticism was saved for Missouri Right to Life who he says were not welcome in his office until they had fired Susan Klein or Dave Plemmons. This was due to Right to Life not endorsing many Republicans this cycle, Cierpiot included. Although they did endorse many members of the conservative caucus.
Cierpiot claimed that the conservative caucus talks about their support for the Republican party platform but are primarily funded by gambling interests and trial attorneys. Mundo noted that trial lawyers traditionally support Democrats, and asked why they are contributing to some Republicans.
Cierpiot claims that trial lawyers donated to the 100 PAC because they know that as long as the conservative caucus is active and obstructing, tort reform will never happen.
“Trial lawyers don’t want legislation to pass. They are very smart people,” Cierpiot said.
Cierpiot also pointed to a deal that ended session a day early after passing the congressional map, saying that deal was the reason that legislation regarding transgender athletes participating in girls’ sports and to ban Critical Race Theory didn’t pass.
Mundo asked where Gov. Mike Parson was in all of this. Cierpiot responded, saying that the caucus is not interested in what the Governor thinks, even when Governor Parson weighed in on a few key issues.
Cierpiot concluded that he and other Republican senators need to, and plan to create a media presence to combat the conservative caucus’ domination of messaging from the Senate.
Kelton is a 2023 graduate of the University of Missouri with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and a Bachelor of Arts in Religious Studies. He is a native of mid-Missouri and likes to write politics at both the state and federal levels. Kelton joined the Missouri Times in April 2022
