The Republican civil war in the Missouri Senate reached a new crescendo of strife Tuesday, when Senate President Pro Tem Caleb Rowden stripped four members of their committee chairs and declared he was acting against “a small group of swamp creatures.”
The action toward members of the newly formed Freedom Caucus took away traditional prerogatives of senior legislators and even relegated the targeted four to parking spots as far from the Missouri Capitol building as possible.
Rowden said he was forced to act after caucus members tied up the Senate for 11 hours on Thursday in an unsuccessful attempt to force action on bills making it harder to pass an initiative petition.
“The beginning of the 2024 legislative session in the Missouri Senate has been nothing short of an embarrassment,” Rowden said at a news conference. “A chamber designed to be occupied by civil, principled statesmen and women, has been overtaken by a small group of swamp creatures who all too often remind me more of my children than my colleagues.”
Members of the Freedom Caucus responded in a news conference of their own, then took their complaints to the Senate floor. For almost four hours, they filibustered approval of the journal and complained about Rowden’s punitive measures.
Rowden, said Sen. Rick Brattn of Harrisonville, is “somebody that wants to go out and say that we’re bringing peace, yet wants to bring nothing but war.”
Both sides accused the other of using public attention on the fight to win votes in statewide primaries later this year. Three of the members who were stripped of chairmanships – Sens. Bill Eigel, Denny Hoskins and Andrew Koenig – are seeking statewide office, as is Rowden.
Rowden and Hoskins, a Warrensburg Republican, are both running for secretary of state.
“The chaos caucus has chosen to use the Missouri Senate as a place to try and salvage their languishing statewide campaigns and intentionally destroy the institution in an effort to claim that the game is rigged against them,” Rowden said.
Hoskins, however, saw the action as a desperate attempt by Rowden to revive his campaign.
“Senator Rowden is using the same playbook that Joe Biden is using on President Trump on me to try and silence me and win and beat me in a statewide race by using his position of power to be punitive,” Hoskins said.
When the afternoon floor session ended, it did not silence either side.
Rowden held a second news conference of the day outside his office, but not before Eigel approached reporters to get his version told.
“It’s never been about policy for them,” Eigel said. “It’s been about individuals trying to preserve power at the expense of what we believe are the issues that Republicans sent us to Jefferson City for.
Rowden suggested every rule to propel debate forward could be invoked, including a rarely used motion to cut off filibusters.
“Everything is on the table,” Rowden said. “We are going to get this place working again.”
The committee changes Rowden announced are:
• Hoskins lost a seat on the Senate Appropriations Committee and chairmanship of the Economic Development and Tax Policy Committee.
• Eigel, a candidate for governor, was removed as chairman of the Veterans, Military Affairs and Pensions Committee.
• Brattin was removed as chair of the Select Committee on the Protection of Missouri Assets from Foreign Adversaries and vice chairmanships of Veterans, Military Affairs and Pensions Committee and Education and Workforce Development.
• Koenig, a candidate for state treasurer, was removed as chairman of the Education and Workforce Development Committee.
The Freedom Caucus includes six Republican senators — most of whom were part of the disbanded conservative caucus that tied up floor action in 2021 and 2022. The other two – Sens. Jill Carter of Joplin and Nick Schroer of Defiance – did not lose any committee seats or their parking spots.
After the news conferences, Eigel held the Senate floor for much of the next four hours, questioning several of the members who appeared in support of Rowden.
When Eigel asked if it was policy differences that led to the new schism, Rowden said it was the Freedom Caucus tactics.
“What you did last week was aimed at undercutting the floor leader,” Rowden said.
The filibuster on Thursday was intended to force a committee referral of a bill making it harder to pass a constitutional amendment by initiative petition. When that failed, members of the Freedom Caucus filibustered a list of Gov. Mike Parson’s appointees and complained that very few bills of any kind were being referred to committees and that GOP priorities were being lost.
Rowden offered on Tuesday to take that issue off the table by referring every bill introduced so far in the session to a committee.
“I’m willing to take the bullet out of my gun, which is me having the power to say I’m going to refer or not refer,” Rowden said.
Eigel said it was too late for peacemaking, since the gun was already empty.
“You fired it when you fired four members from the chairmanship of their committees,” Eigel said. “You just fired the biggest bullet you had in your gun.”
Eigel asked state Sen. Rusty Black of Chillicothe about Rowden’s decision to strip chairmanships and whether it will benefit the Senate.
“Short term, you go through hell,” Black said. “In the end, you have to decide whether it was worth it or not.”
A privilege for senior members of the Senate is a parking spot in the Capitol basement. Eigel chuckled when he realized his parking spot had been reassigned.
“Oh no, they’ve done it now,” he said. “The swamp is going to win. They’ve taken our parking spots.”
While the 24 Republicans fought, the 10 Democrats in the chamber stayed mainly quiet. Senate Minority Leader John Rizzo of Independence said the GOP fight created headlines that expose their weakness.
“The Republicans’ fighting is masking their failures, as they are failing to address the issues Missourians truly care about,” Rizzo said.
The state needs action on healthcare funding, education and childcare, Rizzo said.
“Or,” he said, “they can keep stumbling down the dead-end-road of personal attacks and partisan pandering.”
