Former Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon returns to Politically Speaking to discuss a multitude of issues, including the state of St. Louis’ education system and the challenges of gubernatorial leadership.
Nixon served as governor from 2009 to 2017. He is one of four men (Mel Carnahan, John Ashcroft and Warren Hearnes) to be elected to two consecutive terms as Missouri’s chief executive. He also was elected to four terms as attorney general and to a Jefferson County-based Senate seat.
Since leaving office, Nixon and his wife have moved to University City. He’s a partner at Dowd Bennett, where he’s handled some high-profile cases. One involved the Grain Belt Express transmission line,which plans to deliver wind powerthroughout Missouri. Nixon successfully argued that a denial of the project should be overturned.
While Nixon has generally stayed out of the political fray since leaving office, he has sounded off both in the media and through Twitter. He talked about some of those topics on the show, including:
- Nixon emphasized that Missouri governors need to have a productive working relationship with the news media. That became a source of major tension during former Gov. Eric Greitens’ tenure, especially because the GOP official routinely didn’t take questions after public events.
- He has warm words for Gov. Mike Parson, adding that he worked with the Republican chief executive when he was a state senator. Nixon said Missouri governors need to be a bulwark against potentially harmful policies that come out of the Missouri General Assembly. “I think you don’t find, generally, great creative ideas on how to run government from legislators — it’s just not their position,” he said. “They think of the budget as expending money and executives think of it as moving the needle on issues.”
- Nixon, who faced criticism for how he handled Ferguson protests, says he’s happy Missouri policymakers did not shy away from dealing with thorny public policy issues stemming from Michael Brown’s death in 2014. “I think a lot of people have learned about the difficult issues involving race relations, policing and all those various things,” he said. “And I think that conversation continues.”
- He said St. Louis residents missed a big opportunity in 2017 when they didn’t vote to publicly fund a proposed Major League Soccer stadium. Nixon also disputed St. Louis County Executive Steve Stenger's comments that backers of thestadium didn't talk with him. Stenger spokesman Cordell Whitlock said "although there were conversations, no financial plan or request for money was ever presented to the county executive regarding a soccer stadium in St. Louis."
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Music: “Downfall” by TRUSTcompany
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