This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon Oct. 28, 2013: For state Rep. Chris Kelly, the Missouri General Assembly just isn’t what it used to be.
The Columbia Democrat returned to the Missouri House in 2009 after a roughly 16-year layoff. He first served from 1983 to 1994.
Kelly recently announced he wouldn’t seek another term in the Missouri House, a move prompted primarily because of redistricting. Like many state lawmakers elected in 2012, Kelly ran in a district where he does not reside. He would have to move to run in 2014.
In talking with reporters — including this writer — about bowing out, Kelly has been critical of the legislature’s decision-making.
Kelly said the House has turned into a legislative body unwilling to tackle substantive issues. Instead of working together to bolster transportation infrastructure, improve public buildings or strengthen the state’s utility groundwork, Kelly said, the legislature is fixated on "ginning up the base.”
"I just think that the capacity to (govern) may not be there,” Kelly said. "It seems in so many instances that they just get distracted by the silly partisan stuff — rather than talking about the governing issues.”
"It’s one thing to go and do something worthwhile,” he added. “But it’s another thing to [think that] I give up reading to my granddaughter to do Sharia law.”
In the 1980s, Kelly said, Democratic legislative leaders worked hand-in-hand with GOP governors to do "big things” — including a major bonding plan. Back then, he said, the legislature "had a critical mass of people who understood why it was important,” adding that Republican governors like Kit Bond and John Ashcroft were ready and willing to work with Democratic legislators.
That’s gone now, he said, and it could get "much, much worse” in the years ahead. He contends that "now you don’t have that critical mass because of term limits and because people are all focused on crazy, philosophical, partisan agendas."
"If somebody wants to gin up their base, that’s fine,” Kelly said. "But it shouldn’t be something that aggressively works against the interest of the state. That’s what we’ve got happening here.”
'Imaginary' threats?
Kelly is one of many Democrats who questioned the GOP-controlled legislature’s decision to send three bills to Gov. Jay Nixon:
- The “Second Amendment Preservation Act," which among other things sought to nullify federal gun laws.
- Legislation stipulating that a court ruling isn't enforceable if it's based on a foreign law that "is repugnant or inconsistent with the Missouri and United States constitutions." Critics have referred to this measure as the “Sharia law bill,” although some lawmakers from both parties have disputed that characterization.
- A bill barring any state or political subdivision from implementing any policy recommendations traceable to the United Nations’ Agenda 21, a non-binding sustainable development agreement.
Nixon vetoed all three of those bills and the legislature didn’t override the governor’s objections. But Kelly said he was taken aback by how some responded to those pieces of legislation.
"Look at the gun bill. Every single, rational Republican in the building knew that was unconstitutional. And yet they voted for it anyway,” Kelly said. “To maintain that it was constitutional was an indication of either blind adherence to a lunatic agenda or a complete ignorance of the Constitution.”
U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill has made a similar point. The Missouri Democrat told the Beacon earlier this year that Democrats “need to draw the contrast” as to which party is worried about K-12 education, infrastructure spending and higher education.
"And the Republican Party seems to be focused on the looming, perceived, imaginary threat of Sharia law and the United Nations,” said McCaskill, who entered the Missouri House along with Kelly in 1983.
The legislature’s passage of those three bills, she said, was one reason she’s become more involved in working to increase the number of Democrats in the heavily Republican legislature.
"To me, it’s a very stark contrast and I don’t think that we have done as much as we needed to do in terms of drawing that contrast,” McCaskill said. “I think most Missourians want moderation and compromise. They don’t want us to say that the federal government can’t enforce gun laws against criminals. And that’s basically what the Missouri legislature has been focused on.”
Unsurprisingly, Republicans have a differing view.
House Majority Leader John Diehl — a Town and Country Republican who is slated to become House speaker in 2015 — earlier this year called McCaskill’s argument “silly” and “laughable.”
"Any time you pass 100 or so bills, it’s pretty easy for people to come out and [nitpick],” said Diehl on a recent edition of the Politically Speaking podcast.
Diehl said it’s not uncommon for international agreements to find their way into municipal ordinances. He pointed out that many municipalities put into place suggestions from the International Fire Code, which includes mandates to include sprinklers in buildings.
"To just sit there and laugh off what happens at a national or international level (and say it) doesn’t have an effect on our local laws is putting your head in the sand,” Diehl said. “It’s easy to make fun of something with the word ‘agenda’ on it. But some of the policies behind it are real and do have impact.”
State Sen. Brian Nieves, R-Washington, was either the Senate sponsor or the handler for the three bills. With the exception of the Second Amendment Preservation Act, he disputed that the Agenda 21 and foreign law bills were “priorities” of the General Assembly.
When "Claire McCaskill or anybody else looks at some of these more minor bills and says that the Republicans are focusing on these bills,” they are engaging in a form of gamesmanship, Nieves said.
"In terms of the foreign law bill, that was not a bill that our caucus concentrated on,” said Nieves on a recent edition of the Politically Speaking podcast. "That was just simply one of the bills out of the maybe 2,000 bills per year that get filed that happened to find its way through the process and receive a final vote just like many, many other bills. But they were bills that myself and some of the other members of the legislature felt would be important to have in place.”
No regrets
Despite his misgivings about the Republican-controlled legislature’s decision-making, Kelly has no regrets about jumping back into the electoral fray. After slogging through an intensely negative election, he won his seat in 2008 against then-Rep. Ed Robb, R-Columbia. At the time, it was the most expensive state House race in recent memory.
But Kelly — who had run television ads in 2008 touting support from some prominent Boone County Republicans – noted that he forged a productive relationship with state Sen. Kurt Schaefer, R-Columbia, that yielded tangible results. That was in contrast, he said, to when members of the Boone County delegation fought with each other.
That cooperative relationship resulted, he said, in laws to train more medical professionals, transfer the Missouri Psychiatric Institute to the University of Missouri and use a bill Schaefer sponsored as a vehicle to curb the disparity between crack and powder cocaine sentences.
"That’s the kind of seriousness that I’m talking about,” said Kelly, referring specifically to the initiative to train medical professionals at Missouri colleges and universities. “Are you willing to put the district in front of the party? And I will always be very proud of the work that Kurt and I did for the university and for the community on that level.”
In what may have been a surprising turn for followers of his epic battle against Robb, Kelly was praised by several prominent Republicans after he announced he wasn't running again. That included kind words from conservative Republican representatives, Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder and even House Speaker Tim Jones, R-Eureka.
Jones and Kelly have worked together on a bonding proposal for public infrastructure, such as public buildings and state parks. And Kelly is planning to spend his last year in the Missouri House getting a plan ready for a public vote, calling such a proposal "the most important bill literally in a generation.”
"Nothing that faces the state of Missouri is more important than our failure to deal with our infrastructure problems,” Kelly said. “They’re tremendously harmful to our long-term economic development. We are making such a huge mistake by failing to deal with them.”
Kelly suggested that it might be a good idea to combine a bonding proposal with a transportation funding plan. He panned a one-cent sales tax for transportation, which was introduced as an initiative petition last week, as a "guaranteed loser.”
"You start off with 40 percent who are against any tax, no matter what. They’re always going to oppose any tax, right?” Kelly said. "So you only need 10 percent to beat that thing. Where’s your 10 percent? It is automatically anybody who cares about corrections or mental health or higher education or public education. Because if that tax passes, it means there won’t be anything else in terms of revenue for 10 or more years.
"You could do a bunch of things that would bring those groups along,” Kelly said. “And if you were paying for your infrastructure and your capital improvements and your repair and maintenance, then those things wouldn’t be lugs on the budget every year.”
Post script
While Kelly’s time in the House is coming to a close, he may have another opening to return to the legislature. Kelly said he would consider running for Schaefer’s seat if state Rep. Stephen Webber decides against a state Senate bid in 2016.
While the 19th senatorial district that encompasses Boone and Cooper counties became more Republican after redistricting, both Webber and Kelly would be strong competitors. But Kelly emphasized that he will not run for the Senate if Webber seeks that seat.
(In a neat bit of historical synchronicity, Kelly recently swore in Webber as an attorney after the 30-year-old Columbia Democrat passed the bar. Webber followed in a Boone County tradition, by Kelly and former state Sen. Ken Jacob, D-Columbia, in earning a law degree while serving in the legislature.)
If his General Assembly career is over, Kelly says he may travel abroad to advise emerging democracies on legislative processes. And he and his wife, U.S. District Judge Nanette Laughrey, plan to spend more time with their grandkids: MaryEllen and the “World Champion Grandbaby” Sam.
"Pete the Cat is a good book,” Kelly said. "And I like reading it.”
On the Trail, a weekly column, weaves together some of the intriguing threads from the world of Missouri politics.
