St. Louis rightly is concerned with one set of
appointments that the Missouri governor is empowered to make,
namely the four citizen colonel positions on the St. Louis Board of
Police Commissioners.
At the moment Gov. Jay Nixon has his hands full
with the need to fill two open seats on this controversial
governing body. Julius K. Hunter’s term expired on January 21, and
on Monday Vincent J. Bommarito resigned after a public scandal
involving his direct interference with a police sergeant after a
Bommarito nephew had been taken into custody under suspicion of
drunken driving.
There are bills pending before the Missouri
Legislature that would take from the governor the authority to
appoint police commissioners in St. Louis, and give governance of
the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department to the City Department
of Public Safety, as per the City Charter. It is only right that
these bills have received a large amount of public discussion. And,
whatever the flaws in the City Charter and our lack of confidence
in the current city administration, we endorse local control – we
endorse withdrawing from the governor the authority to make this
set of four appointments.
At the moment, however, we would like to draw
attention to a different bill before the Legislature that also
targets a set of the governor’s authorized appointments. House Bill
1497, filed by state Rep. Jason Smith, would take away from the
governor the authority to make appointments to vacated statewide
seats. If passed, it would require special elections to fill
vacancies in the offices of Lieutenant Governor, Attorney General,
Secretary of State, State Auditor, State Treasurer and United
States Senator. Smith is a Republican from Salem, and as such
probably doesn’t consider African Americans a core constituency.
However, Democratic legislators must bear in mind that black voters
are a crucial base for their party. African-American elected
officials are part of that base and a primary instrument for moving
the base to act (and vote). Black politicians in Missouri see their
ambitions limited much more than their mainstream counterparts for
many reasons relating to being in the minority when elections are,
of course, decided by a majority vote. For this reason,
appointments always loom as a major factor in the ambitions of
African-American officials – and the success of their ambitions
often leads to better representation for the black base from which
these officials emerge.
Especially at a time when Robin Carnahan may be
leaving vacant the statewide office of Missouri Secretary State,
Missouri Democrats should organize an effort to preserve the
governor’s authority to fill these key statewide seats if they are
left vacant in mid-term. Republicans can score some points across
the aisle, and among well-informed black voters, by opposing this
bill. And working in a Legislature that is nowhere near finished
slashing budgets, no legislator should back a bill that wold force
the State to incur unneeded new expenses in running statewide
special elections. Though well intentioned, House Bill 1497 should
be defeated.
