When the Missouri legislature passed legislation reestablishing a gubernatorial board overseeing the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department, fans and foes of the idea contended it would give city senators greater say over who serves.
That’s because whoever gets picked to serve on the board will need Senate confirmation. And by tradition, gubernatorial nominees need to obtain sponsorship from the senator who represents them in order to move through the process.
“If there is somebody that we appoint that they're not comfortable with, they'll certainly have the power to be able to express those opinions,” said Gov. Mike Kehoe.
Added Sen. Steven Roberts on a recent episode of Politically Speaking: “In order to really even get to the confirmation hearing, they need to be sponsored by the senator whose district that individual lives in.”
“That's not something that's written in statute, but it is a tradition of the Senate and something that has always been respected,” Roberts said.
There’s nothing in the new law that Kehoe, a Republican, signed last month requiring St. Louis-based senators, who are almost always Democrats, to back a gubernatorial nominee to the police board.
But it’s unlikely Kehoe would try to appoint board members opposed by Roberts and Sen. Karla May.
The power of tradition
After he was elected to a St. Louis-based state Senate seat in 2006, Jeff Smith ended up sinking two of then-Gov. Matt Blunt’s nominees to the state Board of Education — Donayle Whitmore Smith and Derio Gambaro.
In a recent interview, Smith noted he was put into an unusual spot — as Whitmore Smith was appointed shortly before he was sworn into office. And Smith had just defeated Gambaro in a divisive primary election. At the time, Smith cited, among other things, both nominees’ positions on school vouchers as a reason for his objection.
“I'd say 99% of appointees are sponsored by [the senator who represents the appointee], because it's usually a person of some prominence in your district, and you don't want to alienate that individual and any bloc of voters that they bring with them,” Smith said. “But in rare cases, the nomination is considered dead if a senator says, ‘You know what, Governor, I'm not doing it.'”
Despite acrimony at the time between Republican and Democrats, Smith noted there was no effort made to secure alternative sponsorship for Gambaro or Whitmore Smith, due to what he said was the “long-standing tradition of senatorial courtesy stipulating that only the senator in whose district the appointee lives can do that.”
“Governor Kehoe is a traditionalist,” said Smith, who was involved in negotiations on the legislation that included the reimposition of the gubernatorial police board. “He was the majority leader of the Senate, and he is somebody who's respected the traditions of the Senate. And I would expect that in accordance with those traditions, he wouldn't purposely select someone who was anathema to Senator Roberts or Senator May.”
Kehoe has until late June to appoint members of the police oversight board.
St. Louis County quirk?
As of now, both state senators who represent St. Louis reside in the city. But that could change. That’s because the 4th Senate District is split between St. Louis and St. Louis County. And while St. Louis still has a majority of the city, it’s not as big a majority as it’s been in years past — meaning it's possible that May’s successor could be from St. Louis County. (Former state Rep. Gina Mitten, D-Richmond Heights, is running for the 4th District next year against several candidates from St. Louis.)
But neither Republicans who support the police board bill nor Democrats who oppose it seem concerned that a St. Louis County senator could have effective veto power over a city police board member.
“The senator could be a county senator, technically, by your definition,” said state Rep. Brad Christ, R-St. Louis County, who sponsored the police board legislation in the House. “But that police board commissioner is going to be a city resident.”
Roberts said the aforementioned scenario would only apply if 4th District voters elect someone who is from St. Louis County and that person doesn’t get along with the senator who represents the city-only 5th District.
“Senator May is one of my closest friends and allies up here, and she’s still responsible for representing those parts of the city and county as well,” Roberts said. “You could have a situation, I suppose, where the two senators don't get along. But they still represent the city of St Louis. Those are still their constituents.”
If St. Louis’ population loss continues, Smith said it’s not out of the question that the 4th District could have a majority of St. Louis County residents after 2031 redistricting. But he also said it’s unlikely a 4th District senator’s views would substantially change if they live in St. Louis County, since the eastern part of that county is heavily Democratic.
“I think that is an interesting potential quirk, but I also think the areas that the 4th could conceivably extend out to are aligned enough philosophically with the residents of the western half of St Louis city that I think it would be unlikely to have a big philosophical divergence between a hypothetical county senator and their city constituents,” Smith said.
