By Trent Watson, AIM Lobbyist
The November 4 election in Missouri produced expected results. Republicans in both the Senate and House continued to hold supermajorities in both chambers.
In the House, Republicans now hold 117* seats of the total 163 districts, up from 110. Democrats now hold only 46 of the 163 House seats. Post-election in the Senate, the Republicans hold 25 seats of the total 34 districts.
The only statewide elective office was State Auditor and incumbent Republican Tom Schweich won re-election with 73% of the vote. Schweich only faced token opposition from Libertarian Party and Constitution Party candidates.
(For your information, you can go to the following link to view all results of the November 4 General Election http://enr.sos.mo.gov/EnrNet/default.aspx)
*UPDATE: The AP is reporting that Democrat Rep. Linda Black is switching parties and will serve her final two years as a Republican. Full story is here. The total for Republicans will climb to 118.
Congressional Races
All of Missouri’s incumbent members of Congress won re-election. Republicans continue to hold 6 congressional seats (Graves, Hartzler, Long, Luetkemeyer, Wagner and Smith) while Democrats hold two seats (Clay, Cleaver).
The closest race was in the 7th District where incumbent Billy Long (R) won with 63% of the vote against Democrat Jim Evans.
Senate Races
Half of the 34-member Senate was elected or re-elected on Tuesday. Only two races were considered to be competitive:
In the 22nd Senatorial District (Jefferson County), Republican Paul Wieland garnered 54% of the vote and Democrat Jeff Roorda captured 45%. This victory by the Republicans amounted to an upset in what has typically been a solid Democratic seat.
In the 24th Senatorial District (St. Louis County), Democrat Jill Schupp carried the day with 49% of the vote, with Republican Jay Ashcroft garnering 46% of the vote.
The next closest race was in Senate District 34 where incumbent Republican Senator Rob Schaaf carried the contest with 56% of the vote against political newcomer Democrat Bob Stueber who received 43%.
House Races
Missouri Republicans picked up 7 seats over their previous number of 110. Democrats hold 46 of the 163 House districts, with only a handful of those seats in outstate Missouri. Of the 163 House Seats, 88 were contested and 75 (51 GOP/ 24 Democrat) were unopposed.
There were only 5 incumbents that lost their bid for re-election.
District 20
John A. Mayfield (D-Independence) lost with 45% of the vote to Republican Bill E. Kidd with 54% of the vote.
District 47
John Wright (D-Rocheport) lost with 48% of the vote to Republican Charles (Chuck) Basye with 51% of the vote.
District 94
Vicki Lorenz Englund (D-St. Louis) lost with 44% of the vote to Republican Cloria Brown with 55% of the vote.
District 111
Michael Frame (D-Eureka) lost with 47% of the vote to Republican Shane Roden with 52% of the vote.
District 114
T.J. McKenna (D-Crystal City) lost with 46% of the vote to Republican Becky Ruth with 53% of the vote.
The other two Democratic seats gained by the Republicans were District 149 Steve Hodges (D-East Prairie) and District 41 Ed Schieffer (D-Troy).
St. Louis County Executive
One of the most closely watched contests in the state was that of St. Louis County Executive which featured Democrat and former St. Louis County Councilman Steve Stenger (D) and term-limited Representative Rick Stream (R). Stenger received 48.35% of the vote to Stream’s total of 47.73%.
Caucuses
The House Republicans will caucus on Wednesday, November 5 to formally elect leadership. Speaker-Elect John Diehl (R-St. Louis County) has already cemented the position of Speaker of the House. Other positions that will be decided are Speaker Pro Tem (Rep. Denny Hoskins; R-Warrensburg), Majority Floor Leader (Rep. Todd Richardson, R-Poplar Bluff), Assistant Majority Floor Leader (Rep. Mike Cierpiot, R-Lee’s Summit), Majority Caucus Whip (contested race between three Republicans), Missouri Caucus Chairman (Rep. Shelley Keeney, R-Marble Hill) and majority Caucus Secretary (Rep. Mike Bernskoetter, R-Jefferson City).
Republicans are also expected to discuss (and may vote to adopt) a new committee structure. Speaker John Diehl has made it known that he intends to create several “super committees” modeled somewhat after the congressional committee structure.
House Democrats will caucus on Thursday and will re-elect Rep. Jake Hummel (D-Kansas City) as their Minority Floor Leader. Other elected caucus offices are Assistant Minority Floor Leader (expected to be Rep. Gail McCann Beatty (D-Kansas City), minority Caucus Whip (expected to be Rep. John Rizzo (D-Kansas City), Minority Caucus Chairman (contested race), and Minority Caucus Secretary (expected to be Rep. Genise Montecillo (D-St. Louis).
Senate Republicans will caucus in Jefferson City on Thursday, November 6 to discuss leadership, organization and administrative issues. President Pro Tem Tom Dempsey (R-St. Charles), Majority Floor Leader Ron Richard (R-Joplin), Assistant Majority Floor Leader Mike Kehoe (R-Jefferson City), Majority Caucus Chair Eric Schmitt (R-St. Louis County) and Majority Caucus Secretary Jay Wasson (R-Nixa) are expected to be re-elected by the caucus to those respective positions. The office of Majority Whip is open and will be filled on Thursday.
Senate Democrats will also caucus on Thursday and will elect a new Minority Floor Leader. Senator Joe Keaveny (D-St. Louis) and Senator Paul LeVota (D-Independence) have both announced their candidacy for that position. It is likely that Senator Kiki Curls (D-Kansas City) will continue to serve as Assistant Minority Floor Leader and Senator Gina Walsh (D-St. Louis) will continue to serve as Minority Caucus Secretary. Democrats will fill the position of Minority Caucus Chairman.
Constitutional Amendments:
Amendment 2
Shall the Missouri Constitution be amended so that it will be permissible to allow relevant evidence of prior criminal acts to be admissible in prosecutions for crimes of a sexual nature involving a victim under eighteen years of age?
If more resources are needed to defend increased prosecutions additional costs to governmental entities could be at least $1.4 million annually, otherwise the fiscal impact is expected to be limited.
YES: 71%
NO: 28%
Amendment 3
Shall the Missouri Constitution be amended to:
require teachers to be evaluated by a standards based performance evaluation system for which each local school district must receive state approval to continue receiving state and local funding;
require teachers to be dismissed, retained, demoted, promoted and paid primarily using quantifiable student performance data as part of the evaluation system;
require teachers to enter into contracts of three years or fewer with public school districts; and
prohibit teachers from organizing or collectively bargaining regarding the design and implementation of the teacher evaluation system?
Decisions by school districts regarding provisions allowed or required by this proposal and their implementation will influence the potential costs or savings impacting each district. Significant potential costs may be incurred by the state and/or the districts if new/additional evaluation instruments must be developed to satisfy the proposal’s performance evaluation requirements.
YES: 23%
NO: 76%
Amendment 6
Shall the Missouri Constitution be amended to permit voting in person or by mail for a period of six business days prior to and including the Wednesday before the Election Day in general elections, but only if the legislature and the governor appropriate and disburse funds to pay for the increased costs of such voting?
State governmental entities estimated startup costs of about $2 million and costs to reimburse local election authorities of at least $100,000 per election. Local election authorities estimated higher reimbursable costs per election. Those costs will depend on the compensation, staffing, and, planning decisions of election authorities with the total costs being unknown.
YES: 29%
NO: 70%
Amendment 10
Shall the Missouri Constitution be amended to require the governor to pay the public debt, to prohibit the governor from relying on revenue from legislation not yet passed when proposing a budget, and to provide a legislative check on the governor’s decisions to restrict funding for education and other state services?
State governmental entities expect no direct costs or savings. Local governmental entities expect an unknown fiscal impact.
YES: 56%
NO: 43%
Dates of Interest
December 1, 2014 – Pre-filing of legislation for 2015 legislative session
January 7, 2015 – 2015 Session begins
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