Tagged: Shane Schoeller

Missouri House members have chosen Tim Jones (R, Eureka) as their speaker for the next few months.

Jones had served as the chamber's majority leader for the past two years. His selection Wednesday fills the vacancy created when former Speaker Steven Tilley (R, Perryville) resigned from the House in August to work as a paid consultant.  House members will decide in January whether to keep Jones for two more years as Speaker, assuming that he is re-elected in November and the GOP holds onto the Missouri House as expected.  Jones said Wednesday he wants to encourage job creation by streamlining government, offering tax relief and paring back government regulations. He also wants to focus on energy independence and education policy.

Lawmakers are returning to Jefferson City for their annual veto session, which begins Wednesday at noon.

House and Senate leaders will attempt to override Governor Jay Nixon’s (D) veto of a bill that levies local sales taxes on out-of-state vehicle purchases.  The issue has heated up, as Nixon’s supporters are running radio ads urging Missouri citizens to call their lawmakers and tell them not to override the Governor’s veto.

Nixon calls the bill a retroactive tax hike on anyone who’s bought a vehicle outside of Missouri this year, while GOP leaders say it will provide much-needed revenue to local police and fire departments and encourage car and boat buyers to shop in Missouri.  Speaker Pro-tem Shane Schoeller (R, Willard) admits the chances of overriding the veto of the vehicle sales tax bill are slim.

Updated 6:07 p.m. with comments from House Maj. Floor Leader Tim Jones.

Updated 2:32 p.m. with letter.

Updated 12:47 p.m. with details from Tilley press release.

Steven Tilley (R, Perryville) is resigning today as both a member of the Missouri House and as Speaker, effective this evening at 11:59 p.m.

It took about 18 hours to tally the results, but Shane Schoeller (R, Willard) appears to have won the Republican primary for Missouri Secretary of State.

It was a close race the whole night, with fellow GOP contenders Scott Rupp (R, Wentzville) and Bill Stouffer (R, Napton) occasionally grabbing the lead – but in the end Schoeller came in first with 35.3 percent of the vote.  The Secretary of State's office confirmed the unofficial results shortly after 1:00 p.m. today.

“We sensed that we had the number of votes we needed, but we didn’t want to declare victory until the final results came in and we were confident that they would trend our way, and we’re just grateful that they did," Schoeller said.