Sen. Bill Eigel, R-Weldon Spring, begins a filibuster on the Missouri Senate floor Tuesday afternoon (Annelise Hanshaw/Missouri Independent).
The Republican civil war in the Missouri Senate reached a new crescendo of strife Tuesday, when Senate President Pro Tem Caleb Rowden stripped four members of their committee chairs and declared he was acting against “a small group of swamp creatures.”
The action toward members of the newly formed Freedom Caucus took away traditional prerogatives of senior legislators and even relegated the targeted four to parking spots as far from the Missouri Capitol building as possible.
Rowden said he was forced to act after caucus members tied up the Senate for 11 hours on Thursday in an unsuccessful attempt to force action on bills making it harder to pass an initiative petition.
Tempers flare in Missouri Senate during GOP fight over initiative petition changes
“The beginning of the 2024 legislative session in the Missouri Senate has been nothing short of an embarrassment,” Rowden said at a news conference. “A chamber designed to be occupied by civil, principled statesmen and women, has been overtaken by a small group of swamp creatures who all too often remind me more of my children than my colleagues.”