© 2024 University of Missouri - KBIA
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Politically Speaking: Rep. Caleb Jones Gives The Majority's View Of Veto Session

Jason Rosenbaum, St. Louis Public Radio

This week's edition of Politically Speaking is fully focused on Wednesday's veto session. St. Louis Public Radio's Jason Rosenbaum and Jo Mannies welcomed state Rep. Caleb Jones, R-Boone County, to our St. Louis studio to tell us what to expect. 

Credit Jason Rosenbaum, St. Louis Public Radio

A Moniteau County native, Jones was immersed in politics at a young age. His father Kenny Jones was the longtime sheriff of Moniteau County and served as a state representative for four terms. Before he won election to the Missouri House in 2010, Jones worked for former U.S. Rep. Kenny Hulshof, R-Columbia, and in the Department of Agriculture. 

Jones is considered a rising star in the Missouri Republican Party. The University of Missouri-educated attorney is the chairman of the House General Laws Committee, which often handles high-profile legislation. He has also sponsored or passed a number of prominent bills himself, including a recent measure to allow a form of hemp oil to combat epilepsy.

During the show, Jones said:

  • Even though Jones' father was an elected sheriff for 20 years, "he never really had a race." He said his earliest memory of being in politics was throwing bubble gum out of a pick-up truck during a parade.
  • He worked on President George W. Bush's re-election effort in 2004. He recalled an animated conversation former Missouri Republican Party chairman Lloyd Smith had with Bush's political advisers about keeping the president's political operation in the state to help down-ballot candidates.
  • The success of veto session could depend on what happens in the Missouri Senate since many of the vetoed bills originated there. 
  • The unrest in Ferguson will have a big impact over the veto session. It's possible, he said, that Democrats may take time to talk about the issues related to Michael Brown's death -- which in turn could slow down efforts to override bills. 
  • He also expected the legislature to respond next year to the turmoil in Ferguson. One thing in particular is reconfiguring municipal courts, which came under intense scrutiny since Brown was shot and killed. "I think it's something the legislature is going to address," he said.  

Follow Jo Mannies on Twitter@jmannies

Follow Jason Rosenbaum on Twitter@jrosenbaum

Follow Caleb Jones on Twitter: @CalebMJones

Copyright 2021 St. Louis Public Radio. To see more, visit St. Louis Public Radio.

Since entering the world of professional journalism in 2006, Jason Rosenbaum dove head first into the world of politics, policy and even rock and roll music. A graduate of the University of Missouri School of Journalism, Rosenbaum spent more than four years in the Missouri State Capitol writing for the Columbia Daily Tribune, Missouri Lawyers Media and the St. Louis Beacon.
Jo Mannies has been covering Missouri politics and government for almost four decades, much of that time as a reporter and columnist at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. She was the first woman to cover St. Louis City Hall, was the newspaper’s second woman sportswriter in its history, and spent four years in the Post-Dispatch Washington Bureau. She joined the St. Louis Beacon in 2009. She has won several local, regional and national awards, and has covered every president since Jimmy Carter. She scared fellow first-graders in the late 1950s when she showed them how close Alaska was to Russia and met Richard M. Nixon when she was in high school. She graduated from Valparaiso University in northwest Indiana, and was the daughter of a high school basketball coach. She is married and has two grown children, both lawyers. She’s a history and movie buff, cultivates a massive flower garden, and bakes banana bread regularly for her colleagues.
Related Content