Nodler

UPDATE: Sen. Charlie Shields, R-St. Joseph, the president pro tem of the Senate, is expected to name a replacement for Nodler as Senate budget chairman sometime today. The odds on favorite is budget vice chairman, Sen. Rob Mayer, R-Dexter. In a conference call, Nodler said Mayer would be “an excellent chairman.”

JEFFERSON CITY — After being asked the question for several months, Sen. Gary Nodler, R-Joplin, finally revealed his intentions today. He will step down as Senate appropriations chairman while he runs for Congress in southwest Missouri’s 7th District.

“We play by the rules in the Missouri Senate and the members of the Appropriations Committee are determined to avoid any appearance of conflicts of interest,” Nodler said in a news release. “I decided to become a candidate after the last legislative session ended, and I am leaving the committee before the work for the next session begins so there can not be even the appearance of political considerations compromising the integrity of our budget process.”

Nodler had been coy about his intentions, in part not to make his fellow Republican, Allen Icet, look bad for making the opposite decision. As I wrote about in this column, Icet, a Wildwood Republican, is keeping his job as House budget chairman while running for state auditor in a primary against Thomas Schweich of St. Louis. That decision rankled some Republicans who felt that Icet could use his budget position to raise money from lobbyists.

The Senate’s budget hearings on next year’s budget begin Dec. 7.