Former Missouri Senate President Pro Tem Ed Quick (D-Kansas City) is being praised as a public servant and a “man of his word” by Lt. Governor Peter Kinder (R). Quick died Saturday.
Missouri Lieutenant Governor Peter Kinder
“Ed Quick was a man of integrity. He was a soft-spoken gentleman of the old-school”, Kinder says.
Quick and Kinder served in the Missouri Senate together for 12 years, from 1992 to 2004.
Kinder says while he didn’t always agree with Senator Quick, he always respected him. Kinder recalls the first few weeks in January 2001, where Quick and Kinder served as co-President Pro Tems. That’s because Republicans had 16 seats after the November 2000 election, while Democrats had 15 with three vacancies. Kinder credits Quick with putting the people’s business first.
“Other states had not been able to organize the Senate. We were able to work through that. And it was because of Ed Quick’s reasonable nature, I think, that made a lot of it possible,” Kinder says.
Republicans won two of the three special elections (John Cauthorn, R-Mexico, and Dan Klindt, R-Bethany) in January 2001, giving them an 18-seat majority and making Kinder the first GOP Senate President Pro Tem in 53 years. Quick became Senate Minority Leader, and Kinder says he worked closely with Quick on the Senate Administration Committee.
Kinder says Quick’s legacy includes the Democrat’s work to pass a major health insurance program for poor and uninsured children in the 1990s. Then-Governor Mel Carnahan (D) signed that bill.
Quick’s final year in the Senate was 2004. He was the last Democratic Senate President Pro Tem. He also served as Clay County Presiding Commissioner.