By Barbara Shoun
Contributing Writer
JEFFERSON CITY – “The gambling industry has succeeded in creating gambling venues in Missouri, even though the state constitution – to this day – still says gambling should not be authorized in Missouri.
“Over a period of 15-16 years, the legislature systematically succeeded in altering the constitution to say that various forms of gambling did not constitute gambling,” said Kerry Messer, longtime lobbyist for Missouri Baptist Convention’s Christian Life Commission.
“If that statement doesn’t seem to make sense, it is because we live in a post-modern culture where concepts of truth are sometimes whatever you want them to be,” he added.
Messer commented on a number of legislative trends he has seen in the 25 years he’s been walking the halls of the State Capitol and talking to Missouri senators and representatives on behalf of Missouri Baptists.
“Prior to 2002,” he said, “the pro-life debate in the State Capitol was comparable to pushing a 20-ton boulder up a steep hill. Since 2002, it is comparable to rolling a one-ton rock down a hill scattered with 20-ton boulders in the way.
“While there are hundreds of ways to throw an obstacle in front of a bill during this process, there is only one way to pass a bill into law, and that includes avoiding the hundreds of obstacles being thrown at it.”
The strategy, he observed, is often changing policy with incremental steps over a period of years, and sometimes even generations.
“Sometimes a bill is passed for no other reason than that the sponsor and supporters have ‘shoved on their boulder’ year after year after year until the political climate avails itself to the passage of the bill,” said Messer.
“I have seen bills pass this Legislature for no other reason than that a legislator is retiring. The lawmaker has invested so much of their life in the issue that the other lawmakers feel compelled to support the bill on behalf of the retiring legislator.”
For example, he recalled Rep. Dr. Tommy McDonald, who tried for years to make the Capitol smoke free. When he retired, his fellow legislators made it happen.
Like the anti-smoking legislation, pro-life bills are introduced and discussed every year. “The basic trend here has always been to figure out which of those proposals would have the greatest impact in saving lives versus which ones are politically viable at this point in the state’s history,” said Messer.
Drugs and alcohol is another category that comes up for discussion on a regular basis, and the emphasis has changed over the years.
“While there are organizations and lawmakers who advocate for looser policy on illegal drug use,” he said, “we still remain a conservative state regarding that subject.
“However, when it comes to alcohol abuse – which causes more damage than all the illegal drugs combined – the Legislature has never seemed to understand the significance of the problems caused by legal alcohol abuse.”
Nevertheless, over the last six to eight years, the Legislature has been more serious about holding people accountable for anti-social behaviors and damages due to alcohol abuse. Various laws have been passed regarding the providing of alcohol to minors, drunk driving, and drunk voting.
This year, Rep. Bryan Stevenson, R-Joplin, is sponsoring a comprehensive DWI (driving while intoxicated) bill which is being supported and encouraged by Gov. Jay Nixon. This bill would close many loopholes that exist between municipal and state court convictions, and Messer said it seems to enjoy fairly broad support throughout the House and Senate.
In the area of education, Messer said, trends are set by an army of lobbyists, with the education industry enjoying the largest number of registered and active lobbyists in the entire state. “The trends generally track funding issues and labor issues while everybody pretends they are talking about classroom quality,” he said.
With the number of home schools increasing since the middle 1980s, Messer said, the Legislature has had to be continually reminded of how education proposals may have unintended consequences on home schoolers.
“The biggest clash in the general field of education legislation is when policies span the gulf between the people’s constitution requiring a free public education system to proposing policies which create criminal functions against parents who choose not to educate their children in this free system,” Messer said.
Moral issues have also changed considerably over the last 25 years, and one of those issues has been the evolving attitude toward homosexuality.
“In the early to mid-90s, Missouri citizens in certain areas of the state began electing representatives and senators regardless of those candidates’ self-proclaimed identifications. Having members of the General Assembly who are themselves openly homosexual has increased the comfort level of the Capitol culture to be not just more tolerant, but more accommodating of policies promoting or defending homosexual lifestyles.
“Every year, I find myself fighting proposed bills and amendments which would advance a homosexual agenda,” he noted.
Messer finds pornography policies among the most frustrating.
“Missouri has enough laws to close down every sex shop in the state, but currently there are no state prosecutors who are willing to enforce these laws in the face of a secular media which, by default, defends this industry. The more significant legislative proposals are related to the sex crimes associated with the free flow of pornography.
“This year, our focus will once again be on attempting to regulate sexually-oriented businesses,” he said, noting that Sen. Matt Bartle, R-Lee’s Summit, has introduced legislation that would allow child pornography victims to sue anyone found guilty of child pornography in which he or she was one of the victims.
Messer said the pornography industry has grown so bold as to hire professional lobbyists on the industry’s behalf and give money to candidates, thus enhancing their effectiveness.
Messer does not let trends like these discourage him. He keeps his eye on how he can influence public policy over the years.
“One of the things I do, representing Missouri Baptists,” said Messer, “is to focus my attention not just on today’s challenges but to constantly review what kinds of impact proposed ideas may have 10 to 20 years down the road.”