State Rep.-Elect Hopes To Be 'Speed Bump' in Jefferson City

When she is sworn in next week to represent Missouri's 71st district in the Missouri House of Representatives, Sue Meredith will find herself as one of only 53 Democrats in the body, very much in the minority compared to the more than 100 Republicans sitting in the House.

Voters elected a veto-proof Republican majority in November, but since then Governor Nixon appointed one GOP lawmaker to a state post and there is an unresolved House race. Meredith, who defeated incumbent Tracy McCreery in last August's primary and didn't face GOP opposition in November, knows the chances of getting legislation with her name on it passed this session are unlikely.

A "Freshman getting a bill passed is kind of phenomenal, actually," she said in an hour-long interview with Patch this week. Meredith who served as a state capitol intern in Jefferson City 30 years ago, has been spending time since August getting refamiliarized with her legislative surroundings, and more recently since November, with her freshman colleagues on bus tours around the state. In part because of the political reality of being in the minority and also by her own nature, she won't arrive next week with a specific laundry list of goals to accomplish.

"I haven't proposed any bills," she said instead choosing "to see what's on the stove...see what's cooking...what's on the front burner, what's on the back burner. Maybe there's something here that's already in process, see what's there, see if I agree with it or not," she said, adding that given the situation, she may try to serve as something of a speed bump for the GOP majority.

Meredith knows she'll be on the House Appropriations Committee for Health, Mental Health and Social Services and will get other committee spots in the session. Her experience as a volunteer Court Appointed Special Advocate in St. Louis County has given her a window into a system that has "a tremendous amount of waste. The state is the guardian and the state makes one crappy parent, to put it mildly," she said.

She is convinced that despite the tough economic environment, there is money to be found in the state budget, even if it means "scaring the crap" out of people to make tough choices.

She's hopeful that the freshmen who bonded on the bus getting to know the state and eachother since November can use a sense of collaboration they built then can carry over once the gavel opens the legislative session Wednesday.