House cracking down on flip-flopping votes

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- The days of the do-over are apparently over in the Missouri House of Representatives.

By long-standing practice, how members' votes on a particular bill are recorded in the House Journal haven't necessarily been the same as how they actually voted when it counted. Lenient rules enabled lawmakers to vote one way on the floor in order to ensure a particular result but -- if that vote might cause political trouble down the road -- reverse it after the fact so long as the action didn't alter the outcome.

Under a draft of new chamber rules House Speaker Rod Jetton, R-Marble Hill, unveiled Thursday, a lawmaker's floor vote is his only vote. And if lawmakers miss a vote, they will no longer be able to register it later, as is currently permitted.

That is just one of a number of sweeping changes Jetton hopes will improve how the House conducts business.

Another will prohibit the filing of substitute bills on the House floor that often make significant changes to legislation from what was approved in committee.

Floor substitutes have been a way for lawmakers to sneak in pet provisions without scrutiny.

"I think that is going to drastically improve the process," Jetton said.

The new rules, which the House is expected to debate this week, also shift more power to committees. Jetton said the purpose is to let the experts on a particular issue do most of the work and reduce the amount time the full House needs to spend on bills.

Two changes intended to protect the interests of minority Democrats would set aside equal debate time for both sides of an issue and provide lawmakers with advance notice as to what bills will be brought up.

The later change, Jetton said, will prevent the majority from trying to catch their opponents unprepared.

House Minority Floor Leader Jeff Harris, D-Columbia, said the changes appear promising but he want to give them more thorough study to ensure there aren't any unintended consequences.

Court vacancy?

Supreme Court Chief Justice Ronnie White said he has made no decision about whether he will remain on the bench once his two-year stint as court leader ends June 30.

"I'm not sure what I'm going to do," White said. "I expect I'll continue as a Supreme Court judge until I decide to pursue other interests."

White, the state high court's first and so far only black member, has been on the court for more than nine years. His current term runs through 2008.

President Bill Clinton nominated White to the federal bench in the late 1990s. Then-U.S. Sen. John Ashcroft, however, delayed Senate action on the appointment for more than two years before ultimately engineering its defeat.

White later testified against Ashcroft when the Republican was nominated as U.S. attorney general.

White said he and Ashcroft discussed their past differences during last week's inauguration of Gov. Matt Blunt but declined to divulge what was said.

"I would rather he explain what he said to me if he wants to share that with the public," White said.

Political tides

Republicans jubilant about the future with one of their own as governor working with a friendly legislature and the prospect of a long run as Missouri's dominant party might do well to keep in mind just how quickly political tides can turn.

In 2000, Democrats filled all six statewide elected executive branch offices and 105 of 197 seats in the legislature. Today, only three statewide officeholders and 77 lawmakers are Democrats.

The last time Missouri had a Republican governor and a GOP-controlled legislature was in 1921. Twelve years later, Democrats were back in charge of the executive branch and the Republican numbers in the legislature had dwindled from 123 of 176 in 1921 to a mere 17 of 184 in 1933.

mpowers@semissourian.com

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