Lipke loses position as committee chairman

State Rep. Scott Lipke was the only returning committee chairman who wasn't put in charge of a House committee when Speaker Rod Jetton announced his selections last week.

Lipke, R-Jackson, lost his job leading the House Committee on Crime Prevention and Public Safety and wasn't given another chairmanship despite an increase in the number of House committees from 35 to 48. Lipke has already introduced a series of bills aimed at continuing the work he has done over the past two years leading the committee. Those measures deal with crime victims' rights, tracking potential abuse of prescription drugs and redefining DWI laws to include testing for drug use by impaired drivers.

Jetton, a Marble Hill, Mo., Republican who is serving his second term as speaker, has used his power over chairmanships to remove people who disagree with him, most notably in late 2005 when he took the unusual step of replacing the Budget Committee chairman midway through the term. Chairmanship changes are more regular as the Missouri Legislature organizes itself after an election, but removal of a sitting chairman for reasons other than retirement or for a better assignment runs against tradition.

Lipke wouldn't say whether he has strains in his relationship with Jetton. "Basically, every chairman serves at the pleasure of the speaker," Lipke said. "All I can say is I was disappointed I wasn't going to be chairman."

Messages seeking comment left at Jetton's home number, on his mobile phone or with House communications director Aaron Willard were not returned.

Under the House rules, committee chairmen are named by the speaker, as are all majority party members of committees. A rules fight brewing this week pits minority Democrats against the GOP leadership over the number of committee slots their party will receive and the creation of numerous special committees, with rules giving Jetton power to name which Democrats sit on those panels as well as the Republican members.

Lipke said he needs to study the issues involved before commenting on the proposed rules.

The personal agenda he was developing for the crime prevention committee won't change, Lipke said. "My background is in that area, and that was what I was working on -- continuing the things we accomplished over the past two years. We can still move with them."

So far, no other assignments other than chairmanships have been announced.

A full slate of committee memberships, however, was announced in the Senate, with state Sen. Jason Crowell, R-Cape Girardeau, gaining reappointment to all but one of the committee assignments from 2006. Crowell will be chairman of the Pensions, Veterans Affairs and General Laws Committee, vice-chairman of the Financial, Governmental Organizations and Elections Committee and have seats on the Gubernatorial Appointments Committee and the Economic Development, Tourism and Local Government Committee.

Crowell will no longer sit on the Judiciary and Civil and Criminal Jurisprudence Committee, an assignment he said he gave up because the night meetings interfered with other work.

rkeller@semissourian.com

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