Blunt Defends State Senator Over Military Leave

A State Senator in hot water over some time off from his part-time job is defended by another state official who faced a similar situation. Senator Jon Dolan of Lake St. Louis has come under fire and could be facing disciplinary action from the military for getting leave from military duty at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to cast what turned out to be deciding votes in the veto session. Fellow Republican Secretary of State Matt Blunt says this is just a partisan political attack by Governor Bob Holden’s advisors. Military policy does not allow active duty members to hold political office, and guard and reservists can’t hold office if they are ordered deployed for more than 270 days. Dolan’s orders were for up to a year, but Blunt, who was deployed as a Naval Reservist during the war in Afghanistan says everyone’s orders are for at least that long, although the actual deployment might be shorter. Blunt says he had the same interpretation of the 270-day rule that Dolan had – that as long as you weren’t actually deployed for that long, you could still hold political office.