By Susan Redden
sredden@joplinglobe.com
The “Mr. Speaker” title won’t be official until Jan. 7, at the next opening session of the Missouri House of Representatives.
But state Rep. Ron Richard, of Joplin, for practical purposes, became speaker of the House on Tuesday when the Republican Party maintained the majority in the Missouri House.
Members of the House Republican Caucus will meet today to elect officers for the legislative session that begins in January, Richard said Wednesday in a telephone interview from Jefferson City.
The vote will involve all positions except speaker, a post won by Richard more than a year ago. A former Joplin mayor and councilman, he will be the first Joplin-area House speaker since Richard Webster, of Carthage, held the post in the 1950s before he was elected to the state Senate.
Richard on Tuesday was elected without opposition to his final House term. He said he is interested in seeking the Missouri Senate seat that will be vacated in two years by Sen. Gary Nodler, of Joplin.
“And, I’ve had some people talk to me about statewide office, but I haven’t made any decisions there,” Richard said.
House Republicans lost four seats and gained one, ending up with 89 on the GOP side of the 163-member body.
Richard was voted speaker-elect in September 2007 as part of a plan proposed by then-Speaker Rod Jetton to fast-track training for party leaders in the face of term limits. For the past 14 months, Richard has been campaigning and raising funds on behalf of House Republicans, and he said he was pleased with the election outcome.
“I thought we did a great job holding the seats we did,” he said.
Voters also returned a Republican majority to the Missouri Senate, at the same time they elected Democrat Jay Nixon to the governor’s office. Nixon, the state’s longest-serving attorney general, got 58 percent of the vote to defeat U.S. Rep. Kenny Hulshof, who ran after Republican Gov. Matt Blunt decided not to seek a second term.
Richard said he will meet soon with the governor-elect, “to see where we agree and disagree.”
He said he has no reservations about working with a Democratic governor, saying he worked with former Gov. Bob Holden, a Democrat, on economic-development projects.
“I carried all of his economic-development legislation and traveled with him on economic-development trips,” he said.
Richard said he plans discussions today with newly elected House members concerning committee assignments and to plan the “freshman tour” of state buildings and operations. As House speaker, Richard will make the appointments and select those who will chair the House legislative and oversight committees.
Some of his priorities for the next legislative session will be held over, Richard said, from his work as chairman of the House Committee on Job Creation and Economic Development.
“I’ll want to get the consensus of the caucus, but we have to stay active in economic development and job creation. The economy demands it,” he said. “We’re also going to have to work on health care, to find a coverage that’s available and affordable for the people who need it.”
Other priorities, he said, will be keeping taxes low while still funding education “and making sure higher education isn’t penalized any more than it has been.”
He said lawmakers will have to prepare for a tough state budget in fiscal 2010, but he said the state this year has a surplus and is in better financial shape than many others.
State transportation also will be an issue, he said, citing challenges with highway funding down the road.
Council service
Ron Richard served on the Joplin City Council from 1990 to 1997, and was mayor from 1994 to 1997.
