This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, July 22, 2011 - Possibly bowing to pressure from both national political parties, Gov. Jay Nixon just announced that he is adding another topic to the special session for September: Moving the date of Missouri's presidential preference primary to March 6, from its currently scheduled February date.
Both parties are threatening sanctions if the move isn't made.
Nixon had vetoed a General Assembly-passed measure moving the primary because of other provisions in the bill that would have:
-- Eliminated local elections in many communities when the number of candidates equalled the number of offices. Nixon noted today he objected to such a move, seeing it as curbing democracy. He pointed out that last-minute write-in candidates would be outlawed under such a provision.
-- Done away with the governor's power to appoint replacements when fellow statewide officials stepped down before their term was over. The vetoed bill would have mandated special elections. Nixon contended such a requirement would have cost the state money.
Governors rarely get to make such major appointments. It's been almost 20 years since Secretary of State Judith Moriarty, the first woman elected to that post in Missouri, was removed by the state Supreme Court. Then-Gov. Mel Carnahan replaced her with fellow Democrat (but at the time, little known) Bekki Cook.
Nixon emphasized in today's statement that he is authorizing only "a narrow bill" moving the primary date and not any side issues.
"I look forward to continuing to work with the General Assembly during the special session to pass narrow, bipartisan legislation to make this important change," Nixon said.
He did not mention the primary during a question-answer session this afternoon with reporters in Fenton, where he participated in a ribbon-cutting at Leinco Technologies, a biotech firm.
Nixon left the door open to perhaps allowing the special session to take up the local-control issue, which would allow St. Louis to take back control of its police department. Nixon emphasized that economic development was to be the session's prime focus, with other issues added if they met his "broad consensus" test.
The presidential primary issue likely fits, since leaders in both parties are concerned about the sanctions should Missouri fail to move its primary.
