AREA LAWMAKERS REFLECT ON MORIARTY VOTE

Area state representatives agonized last week over whether to vote articles of impeachment against Secretary of State Judith Moriarty. Whether they voted for all of the articles, none or some, they agreed the process was painful.

"No one liked doing what we did, but we did what we had to do," said Rep. Dennis Ziegenhorn, D-Sikeston, who voted for all of the articles presented against Moriarty.

"I was just uncomfortable all the way through," said Rep. David Schwab, R-Jackson, who opposed all votes on impeachment. "There were too many conflicting statements. and I just did not see enough evidence at all that I could vote to impeach her."

Six articles of impeachment were considered and three passed.

Rep. Mary Kasten, R-Cape Girardeau, voted for one of the articles that passed but opposed all the others. Like many of her colleagues, including Schwab, Kasten believed Moriarty's legal avenues should be exhausted in court before impeachment was considered.

Kasten sat in on many of the hearings before a special impeachment committee. She said much of the testimony conflicted.

"I think she is incompetent in many ways and made some dreadful mistakes, but they are not mistakes to be impeached for," said Kasten. "You don't impeach people for being careless."

Kasten believes the House will look foolish if the Missouri Supreme Court decides later this year that Moriarty is innocent of any offenses that would remove her from office.

But Rep. Larry Thomason, D-Kennett, disagreed. He said the House did what it was supposed to do. The governor called a special session for the House to consider impeachment.

"Our vote was to say there are grounds to impeach; we did not say she was guilty," said Thomason. "Our action was comparable to a preliminary hearing. We felt there was enough evidence to hold a trial."

Thomason said the entire House was "somber" during deliberations.

Schwab said he had no difficulty deciding to vote against impeachment because of the many questions and confusion. He also felt impeachment actions were premature.

"I'm not sure she did anything wrong that was worthy of impeachment. There certainly was a lot of mismanagement in her office," said Schwab.

Rep. Mark Richardson, R-Poplar Bluff, who served on the impeachment committee, and Thomason agreed that when final votes were taken on Moriarty in the House lawmakers acted on their own beliefs and not in a partisan way.

"I insisted in our caucus proceedings that it not be made a partisan issue," said Richardson. "Republicans were told to vote the way they want."

Thomason said that when it came down to the final decision, members were not looking to party leaders for guidance.

"There was no joy in what we did," said Thomason.

Ziegenhorn said Moriarty, as the chief election officer, violated election laws by the way she handled her son's filing paperwork for state representative.

"She should have known better and now she has to suffer the consequences," said Ziegenhorn.