Free Republic

Missouri Governor Matt Blunt signed into law today legislation that will make it harder for illegal aliens living in the state to receive benefits and harder to find jobs. The new legislations requires all public employers to use the E-Verify system to verify the legality of a potential employee and requires and individual to prove their citizenship status before receiving state benefits such as food stamps and housing. The bill also punishes those localities that adopt policies to not cooperate with federal immigration authorities. Missouri joins Arizona, Oklahoma, and Georgia in instituting state-wide anti-illegal immigration laws. So far, the laws...

The Democrats held the vote open after they had lost. They strongarmed three Democrats, apparently, to change their vote to help create an extra layer of bureaucracy. Matt Blunt and other Republicans are yelling "Parliamentary Inquiry!" Republicans are asking why the Democrats changed the rule and then did NOT follow the rule

Gov. Matt Blunt abruptly announced Tuesday that he will not seek a second term, leaving Republicans without a candidate in a race the incumbent had stockpiled millions of dollars for. The 37-year-old said he had decided not to seek a second term in November because he had accomplished virtually everything he set out to do when he ran for governor four years ago. Blunt has trailed in the polls, however, behind Democratic Attorney General Jay Nixon, who has been campaigning against him for several years.

Gov. Matt Blunt unleashed his latest proposal Monday in a flurry of legislation aimed at cracking down on illegal immigration. The proposed law, Blunt said at a news conference held at the Cape Girardeau Police Department, would specifically prohibit illegal aliens from obtaining driver's licenses, penalize those who are here illegally and punish those who help illegals obtain licenses. The state already has safeguards intended to prevent illegal immigrants from getting driver's licenses, but Missouri lacks a specific law prohibiting it, Blunt said. The penalties are still open for discussion, but Blunt suggested making the first offense a class B...

Jefferson City, MO (LifeNews.com) -- Missouri Governor Matt Blunt has called for a new state task force to examine the myriad of ways abortions hurts women by causing either medical, mental health or other problems. Blunt has put together the Governor's Task Force on the Impact of Abortion on Women at a time when abortion advocates say abortion benefits women. Blunt answered questions about the new task force at a press conference Monday."This is a very informal group of good people who believe in advancing the cause of life and believe that we should minimize the impact of abortion...

JEFFERSON CITY | Citing an “unnatural influx” of illegal immigrants, Gov. Matt Blunt on Monday ordered state troopers to start checking the immigration status of every person they arrest. Blunt pointed to the case of an illegal immigrant from Peru who was charged in the Aug. 4 murders of three college students in New Jersey. The man already had been arrested for child rape and assault charges but was out on bail. Had law enforcement officers checked his immigration status, critics have said, he would have been detained and the killings would not have occurred. Blunt said that while Americans...

Missouri Governor Signs Bill Into Law With New Regulations on Abortion Providers Friday , July 06, 2007 AP JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — Missouri abortion providers will face new regulations for their clinics and new restrictions on teaching sex education classes under a bill Gov. Matt Blunt signed into law Friday. The measure places more abortion clinics under government oversight by classifying them as ambulatory surgical centers. Planned Parenthood has said the law could force it to spend more than $1 million on remodeling, plus some extra staffing costs. The law also bars people affiliated with abortion providers from teaching or...

Referring to the organization as an “abortion clinic,” Gov. Matt Blunt announced Monday that he was pulling taxpayer funding for a statewide women’s preventive health program from Planned Parenthood offices in Joplin and Springfield, and moving the funding to other area agencies. Blunt stopped the remainder of Planned Parenthood of Southwest Missouri’s annual $27,000 funding for the Show Me Healthy Women Program. The program was formed 15 years ago to provide free breast-cancer and cervical-cancer screenings, and Planned Parenthood of Southwest Missouri has been a provider since its inception. Jessica Robinson, Blunt’s press secretary, said the funding has been transferred...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) -- A fired federal prosecutor said Friday he doubted his investigation into Missouri Gov. Matt Blunt's administration was connected to his dismissal. Former U.S. Attorney Bud Cummins, a federal prosecutor in Arkansas, was removed from his job in December -- one of eight U.S. attorneys replaced in recent months by President Bush's administration. Cummins in October publicly cleared Blunt's administration of wrongdoing in the awarding of Missouri license office contracts, saying he closed an investigation without pursuing criminal charges. Cummins said the Justice Department told him he was being fired to make room for someone...

The Cato Institute in Washington, D.C. gave Gov. Bill Owens a D grade for his fiscal performance during his last year in office in a report released this week. The Libertarian-leaning think tank releases a report card every two years for all 50 governors based on 23 criteria gathered from various sources, such as the U.S. census and budget data provided by state governments. According to the report, Owens “engineered one of the biggest falls from grace in this report card’s 16-year history.” The institute blasted Owens for his support of Referendum C, which was passed by voters last November...

The folks at the conservative-leaning Cato Institute have published their annual report card on the fiscal policy of the nation's governors. And they've dropped Arnold Schwarzenegger's budget score from an 'A' to a 'D.' The Cato report is here. It uses about two dozen different measures of fiscal performance, generally grading spending cuts and tax cuts as better, and spending and tax hikes as worse. So why did they drop his grade? "After one year of of aggressive budget cutting, " the report says, "he has let the big spenders in Sacramento get to him." The Cato report says California's...

Jefferson City, MO (LifeNews.com) -- Missouri Gov. Matt Blunt signed a bill allowing donors to crisis pregnancy centers to be eligible for state tax breaks provided the donations go to groups that do not perform abortions or refer women to abortion centers. The legislation will help pregnant women, but Planned Parenthood opposes it because it would likely lose money as a result.The legislation allows a tax write-off of half of the value of a donation made between $100 and $50,000. The state would limit the tax write-offs to a total of $2 million in donations annually."These are resource centers that...

BAGRAM AIR BASE, Afghanistan, May 27, 2006 – A delegation of U.S. governors arrived here yesterday to visit with servicemembers. Missouri Gov. Matt Blunt visits with servicemembers serving here in Afghanistan in Operation Enduring Freedom May 26. Blunt and fellow governors Brian Schweitzer, of Montana, and Mitt Romney, of Massachusetts, shared lunch with servicemembers to check on the welfare of their constituents. Photo by Staff Sgt. Robert R. Ramon, USA  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Govs. Brian Schweitzer, of Montana; Matt Blunt, of Missouri; and Mitt Romney, of Massachusetts, shared lunch with servicemembers to check on their constituents...

Jefferson City, Missouri THERE'S A SUREFIRE WAY for a Republican governor to lose favor with the public, the press, and Democrats: wipe out a state's budget deficit without raising taxes. This inevitably involves trimming spending on Medicaid, the out-of-control health care program for the poor that's become the largest expenditure in virtually every state's budget. Faced with a $1.1 billion deficit last year, Missouri governor Matt Blunt chose to restrain spending--especially Medicaid spending--and not to increase taxes. For months, he was pilloried in the Missouri media for cutting off Medicaid recipients. And his approval rating dropped in one poll to...

...Some 20 states... already have anti-price-gouging laws on their books-- and many governors have declared emergencies to invoke them. These de facto price controls typically place ceilings of between 10% and 25% on how much companies can raise prices in the wake of a natural disaster. In almost all cases such laws are wrong-headed, because they exacerbate supply problems by short-circuiting the price system that matches supply with demand. ...If governments will not allow the price system to ration the demand for gas, a new "price" system will emerge called gas lines.... Let's explain why prices have been rising. Katrina...

...[I]n almost every other consumer industry-- booksellers, retailers, home appliances, insurance, banking, stock brokers-- the introduction of Internet and discount sellers has been a phenomenal financial benefit to customers.... Economists call this process of squeezing out transaction costs "disintermediation." If any industry is ripe for this, it is the $70 billion-a-year real estate brokerage market. Yes, fees have fallen modestly to about 5.1% on average in recent years. But a new study... concludes that in an unimpeded free market, fees should be dropping much faster -- particularly amid a real estate boom that has doubled home values over the past...

The NAACP expressed outrage Saturday over Missouri Gov. Matt Blunt’s order to fly the Confederate flag over a state historic site, and asked the public to rally against it. Blunt ordered the flag flown today, for one day only, at the Confederate Memorial State Historic Site near Higginsville in honor of Confederate Memorial Day. The order came after Rep. Mike McGhee, an Odessa Republican, made the request on behalf of local residents. Mary Ratliff, the president of the Missouri State Conference of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, said she had already written the governor to ask...

The Confederate flag is rising again in Missouri, and an NAACP leader is vowing a "drastic" response. Republican Gov. Matt Blunt has ordered the Confederate flag to fly Sunday at the Confederate Memorial State Historic Site in Higginsville, where an afternoon graveside service is planned to mark Confederate Memorial Day. The flag will fly for only one day, but a Blunt spokesman said Friday the governor also supports a scholarly review of whether it would be appropriate to again fly the Confederate flag regularly at the historic site. Mary Ratliff, president of the Missouri State Conference of the National Association...

A new direction for Missouri From fewer patients on Medicaid to less regulation of your electricity bill, Missouri Gov. Matt Blunt is making good on his promise of a government that does less. In the legislative session that just ended, social services and mental health programs shrank, economic development funding was cut and higher-education spending dropped. Many programs, including education programs at three prisons and management of motor vehicle offices, will be taken over by private contractors or volunteers — or eliminated entirely. Power companies will be able to pass their fuel costs to customers without seeking approval from state...

From fewer patients on Medicaid to less regulation of your electricity bill, Missouri Gov. Matt Blunt is making good on his promise of a government that does less. In the legislative session that just ended, social services and mental health programs shrank, economic development funding was cut and higher-education spending dropped. Many programs, including education programs at three prisons and management of motor vehicle offices, will be taken over by private contractors or volunteers — or eliminated entirely. Power companies will be able to pass their fuel costs to customers without seeking approval from state regulators. And insurance companies will...

Missouri is open for business. Republican lawmakers left the 2005 legislative session on Friday touting their attempts to improve Missouri's economy. And so did the business lobbyists. "Lawmakers have sent the message to employers in our state -- and beyond -- that Missouri is serious about providing a climate that will enable (them) to grow and create jobs," said Dan Mehan, president of the Missouri Chamber of Commerce and Industry, in a statement.

Republican governors in a few spots across the country are angering state employees by removing one of organized labor's strongest tools — the right to collective bargaining. Governors in three states who've taken the step say it's about making government more efficient or being fair to non-union workers. Critics say it's political payback for labor's traditional support of Democrats and part of a wider shift to undermine workers in favor of big business. Within hours or days of taking office this year, Mitch Daniels in Indiana and Matt Blunt in Missouri eliminated collective bargaining agreements for state employees, affecting about...

Republican governors in a few spots across the country are angering state employees by removing one of organized labor's strongest tools — the right to collective bargaining. Governors in three states who've taken the step say it's about making government more efficient or being fair to non-union workers. Critics say it's political payback for labor's traditional support of Democrats and part of a wider shift to undermine workers in favor of big business. Within hours or days of taking office this year, Mitch Daniels in Indiana and Matt Blunt in Missouri eliminated collective bargaining agreements for state employees, affecting about...

There were discovered as many as 788 illegally registered voters at Baptist Bible College in Springfield Missouri. The Local Election Authority (Richard Struckhoff) was notified as well as the Secretary of State (Matt Blunt). The voters were never required to properly register because the election authority was unwilling to make the politically charged decision. This voter fraud may have been occurring since 1979. According to RSMO 115.175, any person who knowingly or willfully gives any false information for the purpose of establishing his eligibility to register to vote or who conspires with another person for the purpose of encouraging his...

Gov. Matt Blunt says parents of severely challenged infants and toddlers should rely on insurance and Medicaid to pay for the services now provided by Missouri's First Steps program. State taxes, he says, should be used as a last resort. But insurance plans generally do not cover therapy for children with birth defects served by First Steps. And when they do, the coverage they offer is limited, according to industry experts and parents. Eliminating the $23.3 million birth-to-3 program would cost the state $10.5 million in federal funding. A House committee will hold a hearing today on First Steps, and...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) -- Gov. Matt Blunt banned video games from the state's prisons Monday, a month after a newspaper reported some of Missouri's most violent inmates were allowed to play games simulating murders, carjackings and the killings of police officers. Blunt, a Republican who took office two weeks ago, called video games "a luxury that inmates should not be allowed to enjoy." "Our penitentiaries are punitive institutions where those who have committed crimes against society are sent to pay for their actions. They are not meant to be arcades," Blunt said in a statement. The ban applies to...

“Over the next four years, we will be bold. We will be willing to experiment.” Missouri Gov. Matt Blunt JEFFERSON CITY – Matt Blunt became Missouri's 54th governor at noon Monday, declaring that “change begins today, at this hour, in this place.” On a blustery day under gunmetal skies, Blunt was sworn in by Missouri Supreme Court Judge Stephen Limbaugh, his hand on a pair of family Bibles held by his wife, Melanie. In a succinct inaugural address, Blunt called for a renewed commitment to public education in the context of smaller, more responsive government. He also encouraged Missouri lawmakers...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) -- Republican Gov. Matt Blunt has fired more than a dozen upper-level state employees left over from Democratic Gov. Bob Holden's administration, hinting there could be more to come. When a new governor takes office, agency directors are expected to turn over. But some former governor's staff members say it's unusual for a new governor to turn out the next tier of employees this quickly.

Republicans take over offices of Governor, Lieutenant Governor, and Treasurer, while reelecting the U.S. Senator and losing the office of Secretary of State. A recount is possible in the Lieutenant Governor's race.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. - As a navigator on a Navy destroyer, Matt Blunt learned to chart a course with precision and discipline, never failing to keep his ship safe and on time. His work won him glowing praise. But Blunt set aside a promising Navy career to pursue his family's political trade, mapping a path to Missouri's governor's mansion. Now, just shy of his 34th birthday, he has arrived at his destination. On Tuesday, the Republican secretary of state defeated Democratic State Auditor Claire McCaskill to become Missouri's second-youngest elected governor. His victory comes just six years after he left...

Just got home from a Republican rally at the Jackson County Republican HQ. In attendance were Kit Bond, Matt Blunt, Chris Byrd, Catherine Hanaway, Pete Kinder, Jeanne Patterson, Jim Talent and Bucky Bush. They were here on a state wide tour and let me tell you, the room was packed, the crowd was pumped up beyond belief.....the Republicans in Jackson County Missouri are psyched beyond anything I've ever seen since Reagan ran for re-election in 1984. I've never felt this good about an election before...call it a gut feeling...call it whatever you want.....this election is gonna go Republican....and Missouri will...

Latest poll of the MO Governor's race: Matt Blunt 50% (R), Claire McCaskill 44% (D), Undecided 6%. THIS IS GOOD NEWS FR!!!!

This year's campaign for governor offers Missouri voters a distinct choice. From style and personality to age, experience and gender, Matt Blunt and Claire McCaskill offer significantly different alternatives for the state's next chief executive. Blunt, 33, is the epitome of the Generation X Republican. His meteoric rise through the party ranks has been fueled by a steadfast opposition to taxes, a strong military record, an appeal to traditional values and a well-connected family name. McCaskill, 51, is a classic baby-boomer Democrat, a lawyer who came of age in the heyday of the women's movement. She climbed the political ladder,...

Republican Matt Blunt and Democrat Claire McCaskill are locked in a dead heat for the governor's office, with independent voters poised to pick the winner in November, according to a Post-Dispatch/KMOV-TV (Channel 4) poll. With six weeks to go before the vote count, the survey of 801 likely voters showed Blunt with 46 percent, McCaskill with 45 percent and 9 percent undecided. The poll has a margin of error of 3.5 percentage points, which means that any individual number could be that much higher or lower. Based on the numbers, pollster Del Ali predicted the Nov. 2 election would be...

As he was flying to Boston Saturday for his party's presidential convention, U.S. Rep. William Lacy Clay Jr. of St. Louis was preparing to make a bit of news back home. Clay, the state's most prominent African-American official, said he was prepared to join in a suit to allow Missouri voters to cast early ballots in the presidential contest.

St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay appears headed toward a court showdown with Secretary of State Matt Blunt over whether voters will be allowed to cast their ballots in advance of November's general election. City officials say they want to open polling places two weeks early to avoid the long lines and chaos the city experienced at ballot boxes in 2000. Blunt's office said the sudden drive for early voting appears to be "an orchestrated political effort" to encourage a larger turnout of Democratic voters.

HANNIBAL, Mo. - In a polite but tension-filled encounter, Gov. Bob Holden and primary challenger Claire McCaskill shared a stage Saturday before Democrats for the first time since both filed for an August showdown in the governor's race. Holden showed off the influence of incumbency, introducing New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson as keynote speaker for a party banquet and welcoming the endorsement of his fellow Democratic governor. McCaskill, the state auditor, was introduced long after Richardson's exit and - standing at the microphone next to the seated Holden - acknowledged at the outset: "I know this is a little tense."...

<p>JEFFERSON CITY - When Missouri Gov. Bob Holden walked into the House chamber to give his State of the State message Wednesday, lawmakers gave him a polite standing ovation.</p> <p>But by the time Holden, a Democrat, was halfway into his address, Republicans were no longer clapping. And politeness had gone by the wayside.</p>

<p>Matt Blunt (Republican) son of Roy Blunt, Congressman from Missouri is running for governor. Poll from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Please freep.</p>

Campaign finance records show that Matt Blunt, the son of House Majority Whip Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), received significant contributions from out-of-state sources during his successful 2000 race for Missouri secretary of state. Many of the contributors seemingly lacked a direct interest in the down-ballot state race but had significant interests pending before Matt Blunt's father. At the time that the contributions to his son's campaign occurred, Roy Blunt was a rising GOP star and an aggressive fundraiser. After the elevation of J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) to Speaker in 1999, Blunt was named chief deputy whip. He also won a seat...

Top Missouri Republicans are rallying around Secretary of State Matt Blunt as their likely nominee for governor. Blunt says he's pondering the governor's race but isn't ready to announce his candidacy for the 2004 general election. But fellow Republicans say he has already shared his gubernatorial ambitions with them. Saturday, Blunt didn't confirm he is running for governor. But he told an applauding Republican audience: "We need to re-take the chief executive office of the state of Missouri." Blunt appeared at Lincoln Days, the annual GOP gathering, in Kansas City. Governor Holden is expected to seek a second term. He...