BY: ANNELISE HANSHAW
Missouri Independent
State Sen. Mike Moon spent most of the night holding up the confirmation vote of the former senate president who once punished him for wearing overalls in the chamber
A Republican state senator spent hours Wednesday trying to block the appointment of his former colleague to a county office over a grudge that goes back more than seven years.
Shortly after 1 a.m., the filibuster sputtered and the appointment was confirmed by the Missouri Senate.
State Sen. Mike Moon, an Ash Grove Republican, sought to prevent former Senate President Pro Tem Dave Schatz from being confirmed to a spot on the Franklin County Commission.
Schatz was appointed to the job earlier this year by Republican Gov. Mike Kehoe.
Moon said he tried to work behind the scenes to express his distaste for the appointment. But he said no one listened, so he chose to force the issue.
“I’ve tried,” Moon said on the Senate floor. “My words and my thoughts were not well taken.”
He began his filibuster Wednesday afternoon, laying out grievances against Schatz and reading emails from people he said were residents of Franklin County who wanted the Senate to support another candidate.
But in the end, the one-man filibuster only lasted until soon after midnight, when Moon began offering procedural motions that were repeatedly defeated by his GOP colleagues. After numerous failed attempts to set the appointment aside, the Senate confirmed Schatz around 1 a.m., briefly adjourned and returned to approve its journal and head home for the week.
The Moon-Schatz rivalry dates back to 2018, when Schatz added a provision to a bill that placed a gas tax increase on ballots statewide. Moon joined a conservative activist in an unsuccessful lawsuit, saying the amendment was beyond the bill’s original scope.
The Missouri Constitution states that: “No bill shall contain more than one subject which shall be clearly expressed in its title.”
Moon is a stickler for keeping bills to a single subject, sometimes voting against conservative legislation to send a message to abide by the state’s foundational document.
In 2022, Schatz’s last year in the legislature, he booted Moon from his committee assignments after Moon wore overalls on the Senate floor. Schatz had told Moon to change earlier in the day, but he pushed back.
“If someone comes to me and threatens me with infractions, or ramifications, for me just coming to the chamber, and doing the duty that I was called to do, that’s unacceptable,” Moon said at the time.
Schatz at the time called Moon’s reaction childlike.
It is rare for a senator to lose committee assignments, though it happened last year when Missouri Freedom Caucus members slowed the Senate to halt. A House member lost her spots on committee in 2021 after being indicted on federal medical fraud charges and another was censured after lying about a relationship with an intern.
Moon, who is prone to procedural skirmishes with Senate leadership, led a faction in 2021 that hoped to override then-Gov. Mike Parson’s veto and reimburse owners of wedding venues for legal fees in their fight with the Department of Revenue.
He hoped to buck tradition and call for a vote to override the veto, something that is traditionally done by the budget chair. Kehoe, who was lieutenant governor at the time, didn’t recognize Moon for the motion.
Schatz became the intermediary, eventually ruling in favor of Kehoe. For Moon, it was another sign of the chasm between Republican Senate leadership and the chamber’s conservative caucus.
Moon said he was standing up for Franklin County residents.
“You think I’m here to prove something else,” he said. “I’m not.”
Moon, seasoned in filibustering, held the floor for multiple hours Wednesday with periodic quorum calls approximately every 20 minutes to bring fellow senators back to the chamber.
Some senators’ offices received calls in support of Moon, asking them to turn down the nomination.
Moon read emails from Franklin County residents opposing Schatz. Many asked for Franklin County Clerk Tim Baker to be nominated instead. The Franklin County Republican Central Committee wrote letters in February asking Kehoe to pick Baker.
“How many more emails until you wake up and do the will of the people,” Moon said.
Facebook pages, such as “Patriot Mama Bears” and “Liberty Link Missouri PAC,” posted requests for followers to email Moon.
Schatz did not comment on Moon’s filibuster.