Repeal of gay sex ban caused Lipke's ouster, reps say

Missouri House Speaker Rod Jetton was justified in removing state Rep. Scott Lipke as chairman of an important crime-fighting committee, two lawmakers said in a letter to the Southeast Missourian written at Jetton's request.

Reps. Mike Parson, R-Bolivar, and Kenny Jones, R-California, wrote that Jetton was forced into the action. "Due to a chain of events that occurred in the committee, the speaker had no choice but to remove Lipke as chair," they wrote.

Those events, Parson and Jones said in interviews, involved the repeal of Missouri's law banning homosexual acts. The law was unenforceable because of an U.S. Supreme Court ruling in 2003, and Lipke included the repeal in a bill, known as Jessica's Law, that set tough new penalties for predators who commit sex crimes against children.

Lipke, R-Jackson, was the only returning House member who chaired a committee in 2006 who was not named a chairman or vice chairman of a committee this year. Jetton, R-Marble Hill, has sole authority over chairmanships and committee assignments for Republicans. Lipke retained a seat on the panel, the Crime Prevention and Public Safety Committee.

Jetton has not responded to repeated requests from the Southeast Missourian for an interview about the decision to oust Lipke. A report about the ouster resulted in letters supporting Lipke from Cape Girardeau County Sheriff John Jordan and John Lichtenegger, a Jackson lawyer who is married to a woman Lipke defeated for the 157th District seat by 25 votes in the 2002 Republican primary.

When asked if Jetton requested he and Jones write the letter of support, Parson at first denied it. But he then said Jetton didn't dictate the contents. The letter was needed, Parson said, because he and Jones are former sheriffs and needed to reply to Jordan.

"I don't want to say the speaker didn't ask us to write a letter," Parson said. "But as far as going over here and saying 'Representative Parson, I want you to write A, B, C, D,' he didn't."

Lipke has received high praise for his work as chairman. For his work on the sex-crimes bill and other crime legislation, he was honored by the Missouri Association of Prosecuting Attorneys, the Missouri Judicial Conference and the Missouri Sheriff's Association.

'It is kind of puzzling'

Lipke said Friday that Jones and Parson told him they were writing the letter, a request from Jetton they couldn't refuse. "I understand the predicament Jones and Parson are in," he said.

The rebuke from his fellow lawmakers hurt, Lipke said. "It is kind of puzzling to me because both of those guys said they thought I had done a great job."

Parson and Jones both served on the committee last year under Lipke. This year, Parson has a seat on the powerful Rules Committee, which directs the order of legislation on the House floor, and Jones is chairman of the Administration and Accounts Committee, which assigns offices and parking spaces to lawmakers.

"Those are two of the most powerful committees in the House," Lipke said. "I am sure they thought they would lose those spots. It is disappointing."

The repeal of the ban on gay sex was included in the first version of the bill introduced during the 2006 session and was included in most versions considered in committee and on the House floor. But it received little notice until after the bill was on Gov. Matt Blunt's desk for signing.

The law needed to be repealed, Lipke said, because the statutes should reflect current law. "The point of having statute books is that is the only place Missourians can go to find out what is against the law and what is not."

Lipke said Jetton told him that the repeal caused his ouster, though it was the right thing to do "legislatively and legally."

"He didn't elaborate on what other motivation there might have been," Lipke added.

'Obligated to inform'

Though the legislative record shows the bill included the repeal from the beginning, Jones said Jetton should have been specifically informed about the repeal. "The chairman of a committee is obligated to inform the speaker of anything in a bill that might be controversial," Jones said.

The bill was passed with broad support. But both Parson and Jones said the repeal wasn't welcome in their districts.

"I am in a conservative district, and the conservatives just did not want that pulled out of the law," he said.

The only tangible impact of the repeal was Attorney General Jay Nixon's decision to drop his defense of the state's ban on homosexual foster parents in a case before the Missouri Supreme Court. The Missouri Division of Family Services had used the law as a statement of state policy against homosexuality in attempting to deny a foster parent license to a lesbian.

A longtime lobbyist for conservative social issues, Kerry Messer of the Missouri Family Network said the repeal was of little consequence to his group or others with similar agendas. "We didn't make hay over that legislation," he said.

While his group would have preferred the law remain on the books, he said, "it just didn't rise to the level of a fight." And no other social conservative group made much noise about the repeal, either, Messer said.

'No telling what happened'

Lipke, Messer said, has strong credentials with social conservatives. "We have no reason whatsoever to question the integrity of Scott Lipke or challenge his motivations. It is not something you would hang him out to dry on."

For Messer, the ouster of Lipke goes deeper than the repeal of the gay sex ban. "I doubt this is a primary motive on behalf of the speaker. There is so much politics that goes on in that building there is no telling what happened."

rkeller@semissourian.com

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