| Matt Blunt | |
|---|---|
| Official photo as Governor of Missouri. | |
| 54th Governor of Missouri | |
| In office January 10, 2005 – January 12, 2009 |
|
| Lieutenant | Peter Kinder |
| Preceded by | Bob Holden |
| Succeeded by | Jay Nixon |
| 37th Missouri Secretary of State | |
| In office January 8, 2001 – January 10, 2005 |
|
| Governor | Bob Holden |
| Preceded by | Bekki Cook |
| Succeeded by | Robin Carnahan |
| Personal details | |
| Born | November 20, 1970 Springfield, Missouri |
| Political party | Republican |
| Spouse(s) | Melanie A. Blunt |
| Children | William Branch (age 6) and Brooks Anderson (25 months)[1] |
| Residence | Springfield, Missouri |
| Alma mater | United States Naval Academy |
| Profession | Navy Officer |
| Religion | Southern Baptist |
| Military service | |
| Service/branch | United States Navy |
| Rank | Lieutenant Commander |
| Battles/wars | Operation Support Democracy Operation Enduring Freedom |
| Awards | Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal (4) |
Matthew Roy Blunt (born November 20, 1970) served as the 54th Governor of Missouri from 2005 to 2009. Before his election as governor, Blunt served ten years in the United States Navy, was elected to serve in the Missouri General Assembly in 1998 and as Missouri's Secretary of State in 2000.
A Republican, Blunt was elected governor on November 2, 2004, carrying 101 of Missouri's 114 counties. At age 33, he became the second youngest person ever elected to that office after Kit Bond. Blunt was the youngest governor in the United States until Bobby Jindal was sworn in as Governor of Louisiana on January 14, 2008. Blunt did not seek a second term as governor, announcing his decision in an address to Missourians on January 22, 2008.[2] He was selected to serve as the president of the American Automotive Policy Council in 2011.[3]
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Born in Strafford, Missouri, He is the son of U.S. Senator Roy Blunt and his first wife, Roseann Ray Blunt. After graduating from Jefferson City High School in Jefferson City, Missouri, Blunt was accepted into the United States Naval Academy where he received a bachelor's degree in history in 1993.
As an officer in the United States Navy, Blunt went on to serve as an engineering officer aboard the USS Jack Williams and as the navigator and administrative officer on the USS Peterson.
His active duty service included participation in Operation Support Democracy, involving the United Nations blockade of Haiti, missions to interdict drug traffic off the South American coast, and on duties involved in the interdiction of Cuban migrants in 1994. During his Naval career, Blunt received numerous commendations, including four Navy and Marine Corps Achievement medals.
Following the September 11, 2001 attacks, Blunt was called into active military service. Blunt completed a six-month tour of duty in Great Britain during Operation Enduring Freedom, during which time he continued to work full-time as Missouri Secretary of State. He was a Lieutenant Commander in the Navy Reserve. In accordance with Pentagon regulations and the Missouri Constitution, if Blunt was called for military duty while Governor, he would have been required to either transfer his gubernatorial powers to Lieutenant Governor Peter Kinder, or resign from the Naval Reserve.[4]
As Commander-in-Chief of the Missouri National Guard, Governor Blunt visited Missouri National guard troops serving in Afghanistan, Iraq, Kosovo, Kuwait, and on the Mexican Border.[5][6][7]
In 1998, Blunt was elected as a Republican to the Missouri House of Representatives to represent the 139th legislative district for a two-year term. In 2000, he was elected Missouri Secretary of State; although only a first-term state representative, Blunt defeated the Speaker of the Missouri House of Representatives, Steve Gaw. Blunt was the only Republican elected to statewide office in Missouri in 2000. On November 2, 2004, he defeated then-State Auditor (and current U.S. Senator) Claire McCaskill 50.8% – 47.9% and was elected Governor of Missouri. Blunt carried 101 of the state's 114 counties.
In the general election on November 7, 2000, Blunt defeated Democratic opponent Steve Gaw with 51.4% of the vote, to Gaw's 45.1%.[8] Blunt was 29 on election day, 30 at the time he assumed office, making him the youngest ever to win statewide office in Missouri. His father had been elected to the same office at age 34.[9]
As Secretary of State, Blunt promoted a state election reform bill in 2002, which won support of the Republican-controlled Senate and Democratic House. In 2004, Blunt required all electronic voting machines purchased by the state to produce a voter-verified paper ballot.[10]
Shortly after the attacks of September 11, 2001, Blunt was called into active military service for a six month tour of duty during Operation Enduring Freedom and served in the United Kingdom, where he continued to fulfill his duties to the state of Missouri.[9]
When Blunt took office on January 10, 2005, it was the first time in Missouri since 1921 that a Republican held the Governor's office with Republican majorities in both houses of the State Legislature. Blunt and his allies in the Missouri General Assembly moved quickly to enact legislation that they said would create a positive business climate in the state and result in job growth.[11] Aided by a Republican-led legislature, Blunt enacted almost all of his policy proposals.[12] Among the legislation passed were tort reform measures that overhauled the state's legal system,[13] and changes in the state's workers compensation laws. In September 2009, a report was issued showing malpractice claims in Missouri at a 30 year low, a direct result of Blunt's enactment of tort reform in 2005.[14]
Handling the state's financial crisis by reducing spending was Governor Blunt's first task in office.[15] Along with the Republican leadership in the General Assembly, Blunt trimmed state spending in order to keep the budget balanced without raising taxes. Particularly controversial were provisions eliminating parts of the state's social entitlement programs. After some minor changes to the Governor's original requests the final version was passed.[16] Many Missourians previously enrolled with Medicaid were no longer eligible for benefits. Approximately 90,000 Missourians had their health benefits cut off due to these legislative actions.[17] Two years later, with an election almost a year away, Governor Blunt implemented the MO HealthNet Initiative, Senate Bill SB577.[18] Missourians were able to leave the Medicaid system or have coverage restored for the new coverage which was intended to offer them more choices and more rewards for healthy behavior.[19]
In July 2007, Blunt signed an executive order launching the Missouri Accountability Portal (MAP)[20] which provides Missourians with free, immediate, online information about how the state spends taxpayer money.[21] MAP was one of the nation's first comprehensive and searchable databases of financial records based on real-time data. Blunt's initiative has become a model for other states and nations seeking to improve government transparency. British Conservative Party leader, David Cameron, called Blunt's MAP "a powerful tool to control public spending."[22]
Blunt repeatedly stated that education was his highest budget and public policy priority. As governor, he provided annual increases for K-12 education, signed legislation authorizing $335 million for college construction, expanded college scholarships and enacted a new school funding method.[23] Blunt proposed selling Missouri's student loan agency, known as MOHELA, and using the proceeds to pay for endowments and new construction for the state's public universities.[24] In the area of elementary and secondary education, Blunt has proposed that school districts be required to spend at least 65% of their budgets on student instruction. After the proposal was criticized, Blunt suggested that the 65% threshold should be a goal, rather than a mandate.[25]
Prior to assuming office Missouri had been losing jobs at an astonishing rate.[26] Blunt and the Missouri General Assembly passed several job creation initiatives including tax cuts, tort reform and workers' compensation reform. Blunt also created the Quality Jobs program,[27] an initiative that continues to be expanded by his successor, Governor Jay Nixon.[28] Under Blunt, Missouri saw a 70,000 net increase in jobs over 4 years.[29]
Blunt is an avid outdoorsman and hunter, and a member of the National Rifle Association. As governor, he advocated for and signed bills improving Missouri's right-to-carry law, allowing citizens to better defend their homes from intruders, safe-guarding shooting ranges from frivolous lawsuits, and protecting vital wildlife habitat and hunting lands from over-development.[30][31] Blunt signed legislation prohibiting the seizure of firearms during declared states of emergency at the NRA's annual meeting, held in St. Louis in 2007.[32]
Abortion and stem cell research have also been contentious issues during Blunt's term. Blunt opposes abortion, but has also opposed efforts to ban research procedures such as somatic cell nuclear transfer. There were efforts to pass such a ban in the Missouri General Assembly during the 2005 session. Disagreements among Republicans over the stem cell issue held up efforts to pass restrictions on abortion, such as a 24-hour waiting period, and a restriction on helping minors cross state lines to avoid Missouri's parental consent requirement. In September 2005, Blunt called a special session of the General Assembly specifically to address abortion. The General Assembly passed the above-noted restrictions, and Blunt signed them into law.[33]
In October 2005, Blunt announced his support for an initiative petition, prominently supported by former Senator John Danforth, that would amend Missouri's Constitution to prohibit a ban on somatic cell nuclear transfer. Because constitutional amendments can only be approved by the voters, this would effectively remove the issue from the Legislature.[34] Due to his position on this initiative, Missouri National Right to Life Committee announced that it no longer considers Blunt a pro-life politician.[35] However, Blunt continued proposing, passing and signing restrictions on abortion. He proposed and signed legislation providing income tax credits for contributions to qualified pregnancy resource centers, removing taxpayer funding for abortion providers, banning Planned Parenthood from Missouri classrooms, requiring medical standards for abortion clinics, and funding for the alternatives to abortion program.[36][37][38][39][40] Blunt has also offered his support for measures that would allow pharmacists to refuse to fill prescriptions for emergency contraception, in contrast to Illinois, which enacted legislation requiring pharmacies to fill such prescriptions.[41]
In 2005, Blunt signed legislation to limit sales of pseudoephedrine and ephedrine products, the key ingredients needed to make methamphetamine.[42] In the 2006 legislative session, Blunt's stated priorities included enacting a version of "Jessica's Law" requiring a minimum 25 year sentences for child sex offenders one of his legislative priorities.[43] In 2008, Blunt joined with Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) to strengthen Missouri's law requiring ignition interlocks for drunk drivers who commit two or more drunk driving offenses.[44][45] He signed legislation to lower the legal intoxication limit for boaters from .10 to .08 percent.[46] Blunt changed the system that had required many victims of sexual assault or rape to pay for their own forensic examinations, commonly known as rape kits. He secured $2.8 million in the state budget to pay for the rape kits.[47] Blunt also secured funding which led to the creation of the new Springfield Crime Lab.[48][49]
Blunt signed a wide-ranging immigration reform plan prohibiting sanctuary cities in Missouri; requiring verification of legal employment status for public employees through E-verify; allowing cancellation of state contracts for contractors that hire illegal immigrants; requiring public agencies to verify the legal status of applicants before providing welfare benefits; criminalizing the transportation of illegal immigrants for exploitative purposes; and enacting provisions to punish employers that willfully hire illegal immigrants.[50]
In 2006, Blunt signed legislation requiring gasoline sold in Missouri to contain 10% ethanol.[51] Despite these advances, Missouri’s per capita carbon dioxide emissions have increased 15% since 1990, a development largely due to lack of incentives for reducing dependence on coal. Missouri's per-person CO2 emissions have increased faster during this period than have those of all but four other U.S. states, however Blunt was not governor for 14 of the 17 years covered by the study.[52] Blunt often discussed his efforts to reduce pollution from energy production, and was a supporter of biomass, biofuels, wind power and solar energy.[53]
In his 2008 State of the State address, Blunt proposed a Show-Me Green Sales Tax Holiday to create a one-week state sales tax exemption on Energy Star certified new appliances. Missouri became just the fourth state in the nation to enact such a tax break.[54] Also in 2008, Blunt and Arkansas Democratic Governor Mike Beebe signed an historic bi-state water quality agreement to protect watersheds and aquifers that cross state lines.[55]
Blunt has promoted Missouri as a potential hotspot for bioscience, although he has been criticized for restricting science funding for controversial research such as that involving stem cells—a decision seen as discouraging the science community at large from working in the state.[56][57]
As Monsanto's home state, Missouri has vast numbers of programs supporting the development of genetically modified food crops and the science that helps create the fee based seeds driving the industry. In 2005 Governor Blunt created the Missouri Life Sciences Trust Fund to take monies from the Tobacco Settlement fund and apply them to biotech efforts. In January 2006 Gov. Blunt created the Lewis and Clark Discovery Initiative (LCDI) designed to spread biotechnology across the State. The LCDI takes funds from the Missouri higher education learning assistance fund (MOHELA).
Among the many efforts are Executive Orders[58] and programs created by Blunt delivering university cooperation, tax relief, research funds and seed capital for "life science" start up firms and an innovative program to reward insurance companies and other large institutional investors for putting their money in funds that hold biotech stocks.[59]
Criticism from both the left and the right made Blunt's first year in office difficult. In February 2006, a poll conducted by SurveyUSA showed him with a 33% job approval rating, the fifth lowest of any governor in the nation.[60] His approval among Republicans polled was 62%, but his rating among Democrats was only 12%.[61] This was one of the greatest partisan divides of any governor.
In October 2006, Governor Blunt earned the highest score of any US governor from the libertarian Cato Institute. Blunt received a grade of 'A' – the only governor to do so – by reducing Missouri's budget, limiting Medicaid spending, and making the state government smaller.[62]
On July 24, 2007, Blunt had a 48% approval rating.[63] A February–March 2008, poll by the Republican polling firm American Viewpoint showed Blunt with an approval rating of 57%.[64]
In September 2007, Missouri Attorney General Jay Nixon appointed a team of investigators to look into the governor's following of office policy, regarding the storage and deletion of emails. According to the state's sunshine laws, any documents that are sent through the governor's office are public records and must be accessible. Former Deputy General Counsel, Scott Eckersley claimed publicly that he was fired from the governor's office for bringing to attention the office's mishandling of emails, though the Blunt administration says his employment was terminated for disciplinary infractions.[65] In unprecedented response, the governor's office distributed large packets of emails and documents from Eckersley's computer to four major newspapers around the state of Missouri, without request, in effort to support their claims that Eckersley used his state computer for private work without permission, had registered for a "group sex Internet site", and had been questioned about illegal drug use.[66]
On May 22, 2009, the Missouri Attorney General's office announced that Eckersley's lawsuit against Blunt and others had been settled for $500,000, and had cost the state's legal defense fund $1.3 million in the sixteen months since the lawsuit was filed. The settlement included no admission of wrongdoing by the Blunt administration.[67][68][69]
Eckersley later switched parties and ran for Congress as a Democrat using $100,000 he received from the settlement to help fund his campaign.[70] Eckersley lost the election for Missouri's 7th congressional district to Billy Long by 33 percent of the vote.[71] Eckersley said he would not concede until the Department of Justice finalizes an investigation into a bogus e-mail sent to the media announcing he was dropping out of the campaign.[72]
On January 22, 2008, Blunt announced he would not run for re-election.[73] He was succeeded on January 12, 2009 by Attorney General of Missouri Jay Nixon.
Since leaving office, Blunt has taken jobs as member of the board of Copart, an auto salvage company in Fairfield, California; an advisor for Solamere Capital, a suburban Boston private equity firm started by Tagg Romney; and a consultant for Cassidy & Associates, a Washington, D.C. lobbying firm,[74] and a partner with the Ashcroft Group, the Washington, D.C. and St. Louis-based consulting firm founded by former U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft. Blunt has continued to advocate for greater transparency in government spending,[75] state and national lawsuit reform[76] and improving public education.[77] Blunt has been critical of cuts to education funding arguing that they will erode Missouri’s future. Blunt wrote, “States will either be welfare states that protect welfare programs, or they will be education states that prepare for the future.”[78] He has also questioned the proposal to cut state scholarship funding for private colleges, writing in an op-ed, “I have been surprised to see those private schools and their students become a scapegoat as the state cuts education funding and scholarships.”[79]
In February 2011, Matt Blunt was appointed president of the American Automotive Policy Council (AAPC). The AAPC, is a policy association created by Chrysler Group LLC, Ford Motor Company and General Motors Company . The AAPC is a bipartisan 501(c)6 based in Washington DC and its mission is to promote the unique and significant economic contribution of the U.S. based auto companies to the American economy. Blunt’s leadership at one of the United States' top automobile and component producing states is a major reason he was chosen to lead the policy initiatives of Chrysler Group, Ford Motors and General Motors Company.
Blunt is a member of the State Historical Society of Missouri, the American Legion, and the Missouri Farm Bureau. As Governor, he was a member of the National Governors Association, Southern Governors' Association, and the Republican Governors Association. Blunt and his wife, Melanie, were married in May 1997. The couple has two sons, William Branch Blunt who was born on March 9, 2005, and Brooks Anderson Blunt, who was born on January 1, 2010.[1]
| Missouri Gubernatorial Election 2004 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
| Republican | Matt Blunt | 1,382,419 | 50.8 | ||
| Democratic | Claire McCaskill | 1,301,442 | 47.9 | ||
| Missouri House of Representatives | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Phillip Wannenmacher |
State Representative for the 139th District of Missouri 1998–2001 |
Succeeded by Brad Roark |
| Political offices | ||
| Preceded by Bekki Cook |
Missouri Secretary of State January 8, 2001 – January 10, 2005 |
Succeeded by Robin Carnahan |
| Preceded by Bob Holden |
Governor of Missouri January 10, 2005 – January 12, 2009 |
Succeeded by Jay Nixon |
|
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