Missouri

Missouri has a six-member plural executive, all elected statewide and independently of one another: the Governor, the Lieutenant Governor, the Secretary of State, the State Treasurer, the State Auditor, and the Attorney General. Because each runs on their own, Missouri’s Lieutenant Governor is elected separately rather than on a ticket with the Governor, so the two can, and often do, come from different parties.

The State Auditor is worth noting: in Missouri it is the only one of these offices elected on a different cycle (a holdover producing midterm-year auditor races), and it functions as an independent watchdog over how state money is spent. The Governor appoints the heads of the executive departments that aren’t separately elected and leads the rest of the bureaucracy, but shares the executive branch with five other elected officials.

The Missouri General Assembly is bicameral: a 34-seat State Senate (four-year terms) and a large 163-seat House of Representatives (two-year terms). It is a hybrid legislature, members spend more than two-thirds of a full-time job legislating but earn too little to live on without outside income, with pay of $41,770 a year plus a $142.40 daily per diem.

Missouri has strict term limits: a legislator may serve at most eight years in the House and eight in the Senate, for a hard lifetime cap of 16 years in the General Assembly total, one of the tighter limits in the country. The constitution fixes the session calendar, convening in early January and adjourning by mid-May, so the body’s work is compressed into the first half of each year.

A bill is introduced, referred to committee, and, if it advances, voted on the floor of each chamber, with differences reconciled before final passage. The Governor can sign a bill, veto it, or let it become law, and holds a line-item veto over appropriations; a veto override takes two-thirds of each chamber.

Missouri also has a strong tradition of direct democracy. Citizens can enact statutes and propose constitutional amendments by initiative and overturn laws by referendum, each by gathering enough valid signatures and winning a majority at the ballot. Big-ticket Missouri policy, from the minimum wage to Medicaid expansion to redistricting, has repeatedly been decided this way, sometimes reversing or constraining what the General Assembly preferred.

The Governor appoints the heads of the non-elected departments, proposes the budget, can call special sessions, holds broad emergency powers, and wields a line-item veto. The Governor also holds the clemency power. Within the executive branch the Governor shares authority with five other independently elected officers, Lieutenant Governor, Secretary of State, Treasurer, Auditor, and Attorney General, who can pursue their own agendas and span both parties.

The other significant check is the electorate: Missouri’s active initiative and referendum process means voters can write law and amend the constitution over the General Assembly’s objection, so neither the Governor nor the Legislature has the last word on the issues that reach the ballot.

Missouri is the birthplace of the "Missouri Plan," the merit-selection method now used in some form by many states. For the Supreme Court, the Court of Appeals, and the trial courts in its largest metropolitan areas, a nonpartisan commission screens applicants and sends the Governor a short list; the Governor appoints from that list, and the judge then faces periodic up-or-down retention votes. Trial judges in other parts of the state are elected. The Supreme Court of Missouri sits at the top of the system, which gave its name to a model copied nationwide.