The Executive Branch
There are six statewide executive officials elected in the state of Missouri, all of whom serve four-year
terms. Though each of these officials heads an office of several employees, by far the largest number of
executive branch employees are in the 15 executive departments and the Office of Administration. Each
of these departments is headed by either a Director or a multimember Commission, appointed by the
governor with the approval of the Senate. (Typically, the terms of the members of the commissions are
both specific and staggered, and the commissions must be bipartisan.) These appointees don’t really
constitute a “cabinet” per se, though the governor interacts with them in varying degrees to try to
coordinate policy. Governors typically can exercise more influence over departments headed by a
director than those headed by a commission. Directors generally serve at the pleasure of the Governor, in
contrast to commissions, whose definite terms of service and bipartisan nature may mean that they are
better equipped to insulate the department from direct political pressure from the Governor.
The size of the departments ranges from about 300 employees in the Department of Agriculture,
to about 11,150 in the Department of Corrections. (The Department of Higher Education has over 27,000
employees, counting all of the employees of the public four-year colleges and universities.)i Most of the
employees of state government are hired through a merit system, though there is a small percentage hired
through the patronage system of political appointment. Most patronage employees are found in the
Departments of Agriculture and Revenue.
Missouri Executive Departments
Agriculture
Conservation*
Corrections
Economic Development
Elementary and
Secondary Education*
Health and Senior Services
Higher Education*
Insurance, Financial Institutions,
and Professional Registration
Labor and Industrial Relations*
Mental Health*
Natural Resources
Public Safety
Revenue
Social Services
Transportation*
Office of Administration
* Departments headed by a multimember commission. All others are headed by individual
directors.
Governor
The position of governor in the state of Missouri is fairly comparable to that in other states. The
constitution establishes age, citizenship, and residency qualifications for the office, and spells out some of
the formal powers of the position. Those include a broad appointment power for executive officials and
members of almost 200 regulatory or advisory boards or commissions (and some judges, subject to the
state’s Nonpartisan Court Plan, discussed below), the power to remove executive appointees, the power as
commander-in-chief of the state militia, the clemency power (the power to issue pardons, reprieves, and
commutations), the power to call the legislature into special session, and the power to veto pieces of
legislation, subject to an override by 2/3 vote of both houses of the legislature.
The governor has a great deal of power with respect to the state’s budget, probably far more than
the President has with the federal budget. First of all, every year the governor requests or recommends to
the legislature a specific level of funding for each agency and/or program in the state. As the budget
works its way through the legislative labyrinth, the governor and his/her staff can try to influence the
decisions of the legislators along the way. Eventually, when the specific appropriations bills emerge from
the legislature, the Governor can either veto whole bills or specific line items from them.ii The governor
is required to keep the state’s budget in balance, and to that end, the Constitution gives him/her the power
to either temporarily or permanently withhold appropriated funds as the fiscal year runs its course. This
means that an agency can not be guaranteed to receive what it was appropriated, especially if the state’s
revenues are lower than expected.
The governor is required by the constitution to carry out the laws, to keep the peace, and to
annually give the legislature information on the state of the government. This obligation is typically met
by the Governor’s annual address to the legislature, often referred to in the media as the “State of the
State” speech, in which the governor sets out his or her priorities for the upcoming year, much as the
president does in the annual State of the Union speech.
It is also important to realize that much of the governor’s power is informal in nature, owing to
the high visibility of the office. The governor can utilize the “bully pulpit” to help shape public opinion
and thereby advance his or her agenda. The prestige of the office also enables the governor to cajole or
persuade others and to negotiate attractive compromises between policy makers with different points of
view. The governor’s prominence in his or her political party also provides some influence in working
with the party’s leaders in the legislature, and that can help the governor accomplish his or her policy
objectives.
Several items in the state constitution that have to do with the governor were virtually copied
from the U.S. constitution’s provisions concerning the president. For example, Missouri has a two-term
limit for governor (and for the state’s treasurer) that reads very much like the 22nd Amendment term limit
for president. In addition, there is a disability provision under which the governor can voluntarily (or
involuntarily) temporarily turn over the responsibilities of the office to the lieutenant governor. The
mechanisms of this process are very much like those in the 25th Amendment presidential disability
procedures.
Order of Succession to the Governorshipiii
Lieutenant Governor
President Pro Tem of the Senate
Speaker of the House
Secretary of State
Auditor
Treasurer
Attorney General
Lieutenant Governor
The Missouri Constitution gives the lieutenant governor, as in most states, relatively few formal
responsibilities. This person is designated by the state constitution as the “President of the Senate,” much
as the vice-president of the United States is made the president of the U.S. Senate. This means that the
lieutenant governor can preside over the senate, and in that capacity can do many of the things that a
presiding officer would be expected to do, such as recognize members to speak, rule on points of order,
etc. In addition, the lieutenant governor can cast a tie-breaking vote, as the U.S. vice-president can. But
as in the case of the vice-president, the lieutenant governor has historically seldom been found actually
presiding, except for ceremonial occasions or when the party leadership has expected a close vote for
which the lieutenant governor might be asked to be present in order to break a tie. Some anecdotal
evidence, however, seems to indicate that the lieutenant governor may be presiding more frequently now
than in the past. One possible explanation may have to do with the implementation of term limits. A
Lieutenant Governor may feel that presiding would allow him or her to contribute some experience and/or
direction to a Senate whose members are likely to be less experienced than in the past. In addition,
presiding over at least a portion of a day’s session means that the Lieutenant Governor’s name would be
included in the Senate journal for that day, and therefore might provide some inoculation against a charge
from political opponents that he or she was “not doing the job.”
Rather than presiding over the Senate, lieutenant governors in the past have usually spent their
time in a self-directed manner, working on matters of personal interest. Missouri statutes designate the
lieutenant governor as a member of several commissions and advisory bodies, but those responsibilities
are not terribly time demanding. In some cases, the governor may ask the lieutenant governor to work on
certain special projects. However, since the governor and lieutenant governor are elected separately (and
not as a team, as are the president and vice-president), those chosen by the voters may not actually
function as a team. In fact, it is not uncommon for the governor and lieutenant governor to be from
different parties. Of the six Governors elected since 1980, half have had a Lieutenant Governor of
another party during at least part of their time in office. In such a scenario, it is unrealistic to expect the
highest-ranking state official of one party to assign any significant responsibility to a potential competitor
from another party, thereby helping increase that person’s political stature and reputation. Instead, the
lieutenant governor in such situations usually has a great deal of free time to work on his or her own
personal agenda.
The lieutenant governor position is so short of genuine formal responsibilities that it was not until
the 1970s when it even began to be considered a full-time job. In reality, the main responsibility of the
lieutenant governor is to be available to step in in the case of the disability or death of the governor, as did
Lieutenant Governor Roger Wilson when Governor Mel Carnahan died in a plane crash during the fall of
2000.
Secretary of State
Most people who are at all aware of the position of secretary of state are probably familiar with its
responsibilities regarding elections, and in recent years, election reform. Though the secretary of state is
the chief election official of Missouri, the position has other responsibilities, as well.
The secretary of state is in charge of keeping the official documents and records of the state of
Missouri. These items are maintained in a large, modern building just west of the Capitol, where the state
archives and library may be visited and utilized by Missourians. Related to the responsibility of record
keeping, the secretary of state also publishes the biennial Official Manual of the State of Missouri,
informally known as “the Blue Book,” for its historically-blue covers. In the past, it was physically
published and widely distributed across the state. Today, it is “published” online, and is available on the
web page of the Secretary of State. The Official Manual is a source for a great deal of information about
Missouri government, elected officials, state employees, etc.
In the capacity of chief election official, the secretary of state provides information and training to
local election officials, certifies statewide ballot issues and candidates for state office, and certifies the
election results. In addition, the secretary of state may choose to lobby the state legislature for changes in
the election laws.
Auditor
Though all of the other statewide executive officials are elected in presidential election years, the auditor
is elected two years later in the mid-term elections. This relates to the responsibility of the auditor to
verify that the expenditures of certain governmental offices and agencies were proper. From a practical
matter, it would be impossible to audit the books of an outgoing administration if the auditor were leaving
office at the same time.
For several decades dating from the 1970s there was a string of certified public accountants
chosen to be state auditor. Though this is not a formal constitutional qualification for the office, several
candidates during that time found it both convenient and effective to campaign on their status as a CPA,
and over time, being a CPA appeared to have become an informal qualification to be elected. Claire
McCaskill, a non-CPA lawyer and former legislator and prosecutor from the Kansas City area, broke that
string with her election in 1998. When she was elected to the US Senate in 2006, however, Missourians
elected a CPA, Susan Montee, to be Auditor. She was challenged and defeated by a non-CPA, Thomas
Schweich, in 2010.
The constitution prohibits the legislature from assigning any non-financial responsibilities to the
auditor,iv but auditors may voluntarily choose to expand their activities. For example, in recent years the
auditor has also investigated how well state and local public agencies comply with the requirements of the
state’s open records law. It remains to be seen whether the role of the auditor will expand further into
non-financial investigations.
Treasurer
The treasurer is the only elected executive official other than the governor whose terms are limited. (Both
are limited to two terms.) Conventional wisdom is that term limits were applied to the Treasurer position
so that person would not develop too cozy a relationship with the billions of dollars of state money.
Though there are several programs for which the treasurer is responsible (including the unclaimed
property program and the MOST college tuition savings program), the main responsibility of the treasurer
is to deposit the state’s receipts into various savings institutions, and then pay the bills and obligations of
the state in a timely manner. The minimal policy discretion of this position has affected the nature of
campaigns of those running for election to it. Most campaigns center on candidates’ qualifications and
experience in state government or in dealing with large budgets. One unusual campaign during the 1980s
revolved around the two major candidates’ different ideas over where the state’s money should be
deposited, whether it should be in out-of-state banks that paid higher interest or in Missouri banks where
the money might earn less interest, but would be available to Missouri customers for mortgages, business
loans, etc.
Attorney General
The attorney general is the state’s chief lawyer. Interestingly, there is virtually nothing in the constitution
about the position of attorney general, and very little in the state statutes. It is the attorney general’s
responsibility to represent the state in court when, for example, a state law is being challenged.
In addition to representing the state in court, the attorney general’s office provides legal advice to
certain government officials. If an official or governmental body is contemplating taking a certain course
of action but is in doubt about its legality or constitutionality, that person or entity can request an advisory
opinion from the attorney general. The staff of the attorney general’s office researches the relevant
statutory and case law, and issues a written opinion on the matter to provide direction in that case. The
attorney general’s opinions are routinely published and made available to legal firms and law libraries,
where lawyers can consult them for guidance in preparing their case.v
i
Agency personnel count provided in on-line version of Official Manual, State of Missouri, 2011-2012
edition, on web site of Secretary of State: http://www.sos.mo.gov
ii
The President has no such item veto power. During the 1990s, Congress passed a statute giving the
president that power, but a subsequent Supreme Court decision declared that law unconstitutional, saying
that an item veto would have to be established by constitutional amendment.
iii
Missouri Constitution, Article IV, Section 11(a).
iv
Article IV, Section 13.
v
A 1974 state Supreme Court case held, however, that the opinions of the attorney general are entitled to
no more weight than that given the opinion of any other competent attorney. (Gershman Investment Corp.
v. Danforth, 517 S.W. 2d 33)