Republicans hold super-majorities in both the House and Senate of the Missouri legislature, yet they huffed and puffed failed to blow down many houses they set a target upon.
Confident that control of the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department could be seized from city voters, GOP legislative members paraded representatives of the Ethical Society of Police through the Capital during the session.
However, ESOP’s puzzling relationship with conservative lawmakers blew up in the organization’s face when a vote on the issue or floor debate never occurred.
It was the second time Mayor Tishaura Jones and city officials, including Police Chief Robert Tracy, turned back the antebellum antics of Republicans, which were backed by ESOP, an organization originally founded to support Black police officers and staff.
“The Missouri State legislature has ended its 2024 legislative session, and the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department remains under local control,” Jones said in a statement.
“This legislation would have put SLMPD under the control of a corrupt, Confederate-era state board that would have our chief answering to five different bosses and take away resident’s insight and oversight into law enforcement.”
“I’m proud and thankful for Chief Robert Tracy, my Chief of Staff Jared Boyd, and the many representatives and senators who fought to preserve local control.”
Jones noted that as the takeover attempt was underway, St. Louis experienced its lowest homicide rate in a decade and the largest year-over-year reduction in crime in 90 years.
Juvenile shootings have been reduced by 50%, and there has been a 36% reduction in car thefts over the last year.
State senate Democrats, including Karla May and Brian Williams, helped squash a Republican effort to change how initiative petitions could reach the ballots. The GOP pushed a bill that would require any constitutional amendment to pass in five out of eight congressional districts in addition to winning a statewide majority.
A record-setting Democratic filibuster stalled the bill and Republican infighting over ballot language led to 2024 session ending on May 17, 2024, without a vote.
St. Louis Public Radio reported that Senate Minority Leader John Rizzo (D-Independence) said “Democrats and Republicans came together this past week and said enough is enough of this hyperbole.”
Rizzo thinks Republicans will not give up on changing the initiative petition process, “And it might come back with a vengeance honestly.”
The Republican effort targeted an upcoming vote in the state of Missouri that would codify abortion rights. Far more signatures were collected than needed to put a question on the August or November ballot, which spurred GOP fury.
House Minority Leader Crystal Quade, who is running for governor, said the abortion legalization measure will pass and help reduce or break the GOP supermajority.
“This is something that Missourians want, because they’re tired of Republican overreach,” Quade said.
“They’re tired of politicians in their doctor’s offices and telling them how to live their lives.”
How futile was this session for Republicans?
Just 28 non-budget bills were passed in 2024. Only 31 bills passed in 2020 because the legislative session was upended by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The legislature did renew a more than $4 billion Medicaid program that had been blocked for months by the GOP’s ultra-conservative Freedom Caucus. Its members withheld votes to pressure Republican leaders to pass a bill kicking Planned Parenthood off the state’s Medicaid program. That bill also passed and was signed by Gov. Mike Parson.
