Nixon makes stop in St. Joe

by Alyson Raletz

Attorney General Jay Nixon invited St. Joseph Democrats to the largest potluck dinner the state has ever seen.

That is, if he makes it to the 2009 governor’s inaugural celebration.

Affordable higher education, quality public education and accessibility to health care poured from Mr. Nixon’s lips on the eve of his Northwest Missouri fundraising tour.

He speaks again at 8 a.m. today at the Holiday Inn before hitting up Savannah, Maryville, Albany and Plattsburg.

If he unseats Gov. Matt Blunt in the 2008 election, he pledged to restore Medicaid eligibility. He stood in the hometown of the two Republican legislators who handled the governor’s MO HealthNet program - Sen. Charlie Shields and Rep. Dr. Rob Schaaf - and called it a "Band-Aid approach" to health care.

He criticized the governor’s Lewis and Clark Discovery Initiative, which will bring $54.4 million to universities in Northwest Missouri through the sale of student loan assets. Mr. Nixon told the News-Press he didn’t fault local St. Joseph Democratic representatives Martin Rucker and Ed Wildberger’s open support of the initiative. But he said the asset sale, currently being challenged in court, was the "wrong trade" for students, arguing the money should be used to make college more affordable, not for capital improvements.

"Welcome to the world, you get to start behind," he said of recent college graduates, who begin their careers deep in debt.

Like other Democrats, Mr. Nixon opposed the special session Mr. Blunt called. The session, which is aimed at addressing legislation on economic development and bridges, starts Monday. He said it would’ve been less wasteful for legislators to deal with those issues during the September veto session.

While in St. Joseph, Mr. Nixon also responded to a recent request from Mr. Shields.

Earlier this week, Mr. Shields had called on Mr. Nixon to launch an investigation into the Judicial Appellate Commission’s compliance with the Missouri Sunshine Law. A three-member panel allegedly met in secret in July to interview candidates to fill a Supreme Court vacancy.

Mr. Nixon told the News-Press that he didn’t believe the situation warranted an investigation, claiming that the facts already were evident. He said he believed the process in place for selecting judges has worked for decades, but recently has become controversial because of political interests.

He did, however, say he’d be willing to work with Mr. Shields to make sure the process is as open as possible.
 
Source: St. Joseph News-Press