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November 26, 2009

In our view: Webster's solution

Anonymous The Joplin Globe Thu Nov 26, 2009, 09:59 PM CST

Missourians shouldn’t be surprised if a Democratic governor and a Republican lieutenant governor can’t play nice.

Politics not only can make strange bedfellows, as a pundit once observed, but they also can create a climate unlikely to foster cooperation between potential rivals in the state’s next gubernatorial election.

The strained relationship between Gov. Jay Nixon and Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder began, according to an Associated Press story, when the governor canceled the appointment of Kinder made by former Gov. Matt Blunt as chairman of the state’s 2010 census committee. Nixon put the panel under his administration commissioner.

Kinder then was removed as chairman of the Missouri Development Finance Board, and the position was filled by the governor’s economic development director. The lieutenant governor also stepped down as chairman of the Missouri Tourism Commission after Nixon made tourism budget cuts.

This is political game-playing, an attempt to push a potential rival in 2012 out of the public’s eye and into the shadows. Such are the vagaries of statewide politics and the prerogatives of a governor.

Other Missouri governors and their lieutenant governors have had their problems working together. One Democratic chief executive didn’t want to leave the state out of concern for what his Republican lieutenant governor might do in his absence.

The genesis of Missouri’s ongoing problem between Nixon and Kinder is the fact that the governor and lieutenant governor are not elected as a team, but rather separately. The yoking of political adversaries for four-year terms is a formula for political sniping and clashes.

The late state Sen. Richard Webster of Carthage wanted to reform Missouri’s approach to electing its two top executives. He proposed that the candidates for the two offices appear together as a unit on the ballot, thus encouraging a spirit of cooperation and heading off the sort of political gamesmanship evident now.

Eighteen states elect their governors and lieutenant governors individually. Although the top executives often manage to submerge their political agendas to get their jobs done, the potential for confrontation and controversy always exists.

We think it is time for the General Assembly to give consideration to Dick Webster’s idea. Given what is happening now in Jefferson City, it certainly couldn’t hurt.

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