There will be a new Number Two in the Missouri Senate next month.
Sen. Tony Luetkemeyer, R-Parkville, was selected by his GOP colleagues to take over as Majority Floor Leader. It’s a powerful position, as he’ll get to decide which bills reach the Missouri Senate floor for debate.
“Oftentimes the floor leader is…at the center of negotiations on legislation before it passes the Senate and gets over to the house,” he said. “I’m looking forward to working with all of my Republican colleagues to help them get their individual priorities for their districts done and then also get some of the big conservative things done that we all want to get done as Republicans.”
Luetkemeyer admits it’s no secret the Senate Republican Caucus has had difficulties in the last few sessions.
“We’ve had a little bit of dysfunction or discord within the Republican caucus in the Senate over the last several years,” he said. “The commitment that I made to all of my caucus members whenever I ran for this position is my number one priority is not even necessarily legislative. My number one priority is Senate functionality.”
He added that Republican in-fighting the last few sessions kept good bills from passing.
“I think a lot of what we saw in terms of dysfunction in the Senate – I mean, it can be blamed on a whole bunch of different things – but a lot of it was just a breakdown in communication,” Luetkemeyer said. “People just flat out stopped talking to each other.”
He said he hopes the Republican Caucus can resume the traditional practice of working out differences in private, behind closed doors: “Not on the floor of the Senate with a microphone in front of you and a bunch of TV cameras pointed on you.”
Luetkemeyer will be second in leadership behind incoming Senate President Pro-tem Cindy O’Laughlin, R-Shelbina. The Missouri legislative session begins January 8th.
Brent Martin of KFEQ in St. Joseph contributed this report.
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