Holden, GOP leaders rush to claim issues

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- It's a wonder someone didn't get trampled last week as Democratic Gov. Bob Holden and Republican leaders in the legislature rushed to lay claim to issues they hope will appeal to voters.

The Great Issues Race began when Holden called on the GOP-led legislature to pass a law banning cross burning.

Within hours, Senate President Pro Tem Peter Kinder, R-Cape Girardeau, filed legislation identical to what the governor proposed. Kinder said he had pursued the matter independently of the governor.

Two days later, the House of Representatives granted first-round approval to a bill that would toughen criminal penalties for identity theft.

Minutes after the vote, the governor's office issued a news release in which Holden proposed the same thing. Mary Still, the governor's top spokeswoman, said she was unaware the House was already acting on the matter.

The bill later became the first of the year to clear a legislative chamber when the House sent it to the Senate on a 152-2 vote.

A Republican strategy memo last month suggested GOP lawmakers stake out popular positions in advance of Holden's State of the State address on Wednesday so they can score political points by claiming the governor had adopted their priorities. Holden seems to be trying to stay in front by announcing portions of his legislative agenda prior to the speech, the traditional time a governor sets his goals for the session.

House Speaker Catherine Hanaway, R-Warson Woods, said there was no political strategy at work and that the bipartisan consensus on the cross burning and identity theft issues was a positive sign.

"If there is a race, it is a great race to have," Hanaway said.

Budget amendment

The State of the State speech also includes the governor's proposed state budget for the coming fiscal year. Like last year's proposal, Holden is expected to ask lawmakers to approve tax increases, some of which would require a public vote, to cover suggested spending in excess of Missouri's current $19.1 billion budget.

Aiming some advance criticism at the plan, Kinder proposed a constitutional amendment that would bar governors from including unapproved spending in future suggested budgets.

The Missouri Constitution currently requires a governor to submit a budget based on anticipated revenue collections along with any laws necessary to provide money sufficient to cover expenditures.

That provision, however, predates a 1996 constitutional change that stripped the legislature of the authority to enact significant taxes without voter approval. Kinder said his measure would prevent the potential financial catastrophe that could occur if lawmakers endorsed a spending plan that counted on taxes voters later rejected.

"In effect, it would require our budget be based on real, rather than imaginary, revenue," Kinder said.

Roy Temple, a Democratic Party consultant and Holden adviser, said "the law of minimum political courage" renders Kinder's amendment unnecessary. No governor is going to propose something as universally unpopular as new taxes unless the consequences of slashing the budget far outweigh the resulting political fallout, Temple said.

While a governor's budget proposal outlines how much he wants to spend in the next fiscal year and where to get the money, nothing currently prevents the legislature from rejecting those suggestions, as lawmakers did last year.

Blunt shots

Count on Democrats making a major issue of Secretary of State Matt Blunt's age in this year's gubernatorial election campaign.

The state Democratic Party has long pegged the Republican with the derisive nickname "Baby Blunt," claiming he owes his political status to his father, powerful U.S. Rep. Roy Blunt, R-Stafford.

When Blunt, 33, formally announced his candidacy for governor, Democrats fired off a list of questions for him. Coming in at No. 1: "After you lose the governor's race, what are you going to be when you grow up?"

If elected, Blunt, at age 34 upon taking office, wouldn't be the youngest governor in Missouri history. That distinction would still belong to Republican Kit Bond, who was 33 when inaugurated in 1973.

mpowers@semissourian.com

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