Jason Rosenbaum at the Columbia Tribune Political Blog offers an in-depth interview of new Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Gary Nodler and it's not likely to leave anyone feeling they are seeing a new kinder, gentler Nodler.
In the interview, Nodler addresses the increasing power of southwest Missouri Republicans, including the governor, Rep. Ron Richard, R-Joplin, and Nodler himself:
That shift shouldn't come as a surprise, Nodler said, because the area is a solid bastion for Republicans, just as St. Louis or Kansas City are major areas of support for Democrats.
"One of them is simply that hopefully individuals rise to positions of leadership based on merit and ability," Nodler said. "That’s certainly one of the things that’s certainly an element of the decision making process. It is also true that the southwest portion of the state — really historically over the last 40 years — the fastest growing in terms of population. When an area of the state grows disproportionately, it shouldn’t be surprising that some of the shift in the political influence. Most Missourians probably don’t realize that the combined population of Joplin’s metropolitan area and Springfield’s metropolitan area is considerably larger than the City of St. Louis. I don’t know if people think about that. City of St. Louis is 380,000 and Greene County is almost 300,000 by itself."
In a revealing section of the interview, Nodler talks about how last year his focus was on this district and now as budget chairman his focus must be statewide:
In recent weeks, some have criticized Nodler for his decision making during the MOHELA debate. Columbia lawyer Craig Van Matre wrote "Nodler sent was that other legislators must either bend to his will or suffer accordingly. This is a form of extortion only a jaded politician could respect. But Graham, who stood up to this, is being criticized. The extorters are being lauded for their political cunning and power."
Nodler took note of some of this criticism emanating from Columbia, saying that "that’s not where my constituency was during the session, so I guess those kind of misconceptions are OK."
"But at this point, the chairman of the Appropriations Committee does have a statewide constituency and a statewide responsibility," Nodler said. "I think it could be useful for people in the Columbia area to understand that first of all I was perfectly prepared to respect the governor’s request for the $85 million, which I voted for on at least three occasions. The fact that the final vehicles that we were able to get passed didn’t include those projects and that the removal projects was in part responsible for gaining the majority support for the funding that we did get. It is in no way any indication that I oppose any of those projects — which I didn’t and I don’t."
"I talked to Sen. Graham at length through the session. And I understand that he is in a challenging political position," Nodler added. "This was not an easy session for him and these were difficult issues. He was communicating to multiple constituents and multiple pressures from a partisan perspective. And I understand that. For him, the whole philosophical issue of the stem cell research became part of his motivation for the stance he took and the directions in he went. I spent a lot of time talking to him about trying to find a way to both allow him to pursue."
It is comforting to know that Nodler was not acting in a partisan fashion during the 2007 legislative session.
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