Susan Montee

BREAKING: Peter Kinder has tweeted something reasonable. 

Democratic Party Chairman Susan Montee outlined the Party's proposal to reduce the size of the Missouri House to 103 members from its existing 163 in an op-ed for the Missouri Record here. The Beacon has more here.

In 1990, then-Gov. John Ashcroft endorsed an initiative petition that would reduce the size of the Missouri House to 103. 

Saturday, the Missouri Democratic State Committee selected Susan Montee by acclimation to be the Party's new Chair. 

"I look forward to working with Democrats in all corners of Missouri as we strengthen the Missouri Democratic Party," Montee said in a statement. "I know that 2010 was a challenging election cycle for Democrats in our state, and now, more than ever, we need to unify as we work towards a successful election in 2012. We have strong leaders like Governor Jay Nixon and Senator Claire McCaskill who look out for the best interest of our state, and I will work tirelessly to ensure they have the support they need to continue representing Missourians."

Posted to YouTube today:

Just posted to the SusanMontee4Auditor YouTube channel: "Missouri State Auditor Susan Montee is a CPA, a lawyer and the independent watchdog Missouri needs to protect its tax dollars from waste, fraud and abuse. As the best-qualified person for the job, Susan Montee has earned your vote on November 2nd."

Published yesterday in The News-Press:

We endorse Susan Montee for a second term as Missouri’s state auditor.

Ms. Montee, a St. Joseph native, is both a certified public accountant and a lawyer. Her opponent, also a lawyer, has disagreed with Ms. Montee about whether the auditor needs to be a CPA. But the fact remains she is and he isn’t.

As for the other major point of disagreement, we have not observed that Ms. Montee, a Democrat, has politicized her office. We agree with her that audits should be narrowly focused on “Are the dollars being spent the way they should be spent?” and that the reports should be made public as soon as they are completed.

Ms. Montee’s office has been particularly helpful in examining state tax credit programs and pointing out problems requiring legislative corrections.

The Post-Dispatch endorsed Auditor Susan Montee this weekend:

Ms. Montee, who is seeking a second term, has taken a less flamboyant approach to the job than did Ms. McCaskill, her predecessor and now a Democratic U.S. senator. Ms. Montee often goes into the field and does hands-on auditing.

Mr. Schweich accuses her of politicizing the office, but there’s little evidence to support that charge. Ms. Montee says the audits are released when they are complete. Mr. Schweich promises a full audit of the state’s use of federal stimulus funds. Ms. Montee says such audits have been underway since the funds began flowing to the state in 2009.

What politics we’ve noticed in the auditor’s office come from the Republican-controlled Legislature cutting the size of Ms. Montee’s staff.  Perhaps that’s just because of state budget problems, but Ms. Montee has streamlined the office to make sure the work gets done.

Either candidate would make a fine auditor, but we’re not sure the auditor’s office can contain Mr. Schweich’s ambitions. He toyed with making a run for the U.S. Senate this year, and Ms. McCaskill will need a Republican opponent in 2012.

Voters should re-elect Susan Montee so that Mr. Schweich can begin full-time campaigning for the job he really wants.

Posted today at JoplinGlobe.com: "Our nod goes to Montee because she has shown us that she does look for fraud in state government. Her work for the taxpayers should not be interrupted. The position of state auditor is a nonpartisan one. We’ve talked with politicians on both sides of the aisle, and they agree that Montee has done a good job. Let’s keep her in office."

h/t The Star

Thomas Schweich, on stage with "the sedentary, uncreative Republican leadership in this state" (his words) in Kansas City today, said that "what you’re seeing in the current auditor [Susan Montee] is a hyper-partisan auditor, protecting the Obama agenda, flip-flopping on the issues and also issuing politically motivated audits.”

Really?  This is the same guy who promised Republican donors one short year ago that he would use the office of the Auditor to "aggressively" pursue Gov. Jay Nixon "leading up to the 2012 gubernatorial election."  In Schweich's words, "There's an important policy reason that this auditor's race is so important, and there's also a very significant reason from a political standpoint if you're a loyal Republican."  Talk about a change in approach. 

And I just can't get over the idea of Schweich making a huge deal of his campaign fly-around with John Ashcroft, Kit Bond, Jack Danforth, Margaret Kelly, Peter Kinder and Jim Talent after calling out said group of GOP leaders for their backroom deals and "sedentary, uncreative" leadership.  "The Missouri Republican Party seems to have no plan for responsible Missourians. Just saying no to what Obama or Nixon wants is not a plan," he wrote in March 2009.  Then he makes a deal to excuse himself from the US Senate race and secure financial and political support for a lower office, and his skewering of the MOGOP disappears from memory and the press coverage of the race. 

Pretty soon, I expect Schweich to say that revenge candidacies and rock and roll will be the downfall of our democracy.

What in the world is this all about?

So nine months before Thomas Schweich wins the GOP Auditor primary – to say nothing of actually knocking off Susan Montee -- he can't commit to KY3's Dave Catanese that he'll serve his entire term because he might need to extract revenge in 2012? 

In today's Post-Dispatch:

State Rep. Allen Icet, R-Wildwood, says he sees no problem serving as chairman of the powerful House Budget Committee while he runs for statewide office next year. Of course he doesn’t.

Read More »

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Ed Martin's self-described nuisance lawsuit against the Secretary of State Robin Carnahan, Attorney General Chris Koster and State Auditor Susan Montee was dealt a serious setback today. 

Looking at the claims of Martin and the other plaintiffs, Cole County Circuit Court Judge Patricia Joyce dismissed the legal challenges to Carnahan's ballot summary, and declared the language put forward by the Secretary of State's office "promoted an informed understanding of the probable effect of the proposed initiative petition."

Here is Judge Joyce's conclusion:

Plaintiffs do not write summary statements; Defendant Carnahan, in her official capacity as Secretary of State, does.  Plaintiffs' exercise in repeatedly challenging Secretary of State Carnahan's summary statement as compared to language they prefer is a misapplication of the standards by which the sufficiency and fairness of a summary statement is determined. The important and only test is whether the language fairly and impartially summarizes the purposes of the measure, so that the voters will not be deceived or misled. The Secretary of State prepared a summary statement that is fair and sufficient as it promoted an informed understanding of the probable effect of the proposed initiative petition. For this reason, and the analysis already discussed above, Plaintiffs have failed to carry their burden of showing that Secretary of State Carnahan's summary statement is insufficient or unfair. [Judge Patricia Joyce's Order and Judgment can be found here.]

This may shock you, but voters are less likely to support an accurate description of Ed Martin's ballot initiative than a simplistic description crafted by his GOP  pollster.

The Missouri Roundtable for Life and President Ed Martin are currently engaged in a legal battle (proudly described by Martin as a "nuisance" lawsuit) with the Secretary of State, Attorney General and State Auditor to rework the ballot summary language for their proposed constitutional amendment to ban public money for abortions and embryonic stem cell research.  Desperate for some media attention (garnering free media is one of Martin's main goals with the lawsuit), Martin released the organization's poll data (presented in court weeks ago), which was dutifully picked up by the press.  The polling data is presented as evidence that the summary put forward by SOS Robin Carnahan is unfair -- except there's no actual evidence in the polling that the ballot summary is unfair.