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Politically Speaking: As Greitens steps aside, Missouri faces new political chapter

Gov. Eric Greitens walks back into the Civil Courts Building in downtown St. Louis after delivering a statement on May 14 to reporters.
Carolina Hidalgo | St. Louis Public Radio
Gov. Eric Greitens walks back into the Civil Courts Building in downtown St. Louis after delivering a statement on May 14 to reporters.

On the latest edition of Politically Speaking, St. Louis Public Radio’s Jason Rosenbaum, Jo Mannies and Rachel Lippmann reflect on Gov. Eric Greitens’ decision to resign from office.

The move marks a stunning end to what appeared to be a fast-rising political career that began with presidential ambitions and ended with a wave of scandal.

Greitens announced on Tuesday that he would step down at 5 p.m. on Friday. It came amid two separate criminal charges and an increasing likelihood that the Missouri House would impeach him. And it also came after a Cole County judge ruled that Greitens had to turn over documents about A New Missouri, a politically-active nonprofit that’s attacked Greitens’ opponents without revealing its donors.

Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker is still looking into allegations of sexual misconduct against the woman with whom Greitens had an affair. But as a part of a deal for him to resign, St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner dropped felony computer data tampering charges related to how Greitens obtained a fundraising list from The Mission Continues.

With Greitens departing, Lt. Gov. Mike Parson will take over as governor. Unlike Greitens, Parson has extensive experience in local and state government — and members of both parties hope he can deal with Missouri’s vexing problems.

Some of the topics talked about on this show include:

  • Reaction to Greitens’ resignation from lawmakers.
  • A breakdown on why Gardner dropped The Mission Continues charges.
  • Why lawmakers are still interested in finding out about “dark money” that helped and hurt Greitens.
  • Some of the broader takeaways from five months that upended Missouri politics.


Follow Jason on Twitter:@jrosenbaum

Follow Jo on Twitter:@jmannies

Follow Rachel on Twitter:@rlippmann

Music: “Wake Up” by Arcade Fire

Copyright 2021 St. Louis Public Radio. To see more, visit St. Louis Public Radio.

Since entering the world of professional journalism in 2006, Jason Rosenbaum dove head first into the world of politics, policy and even rock and roll music. A graduate of the University of Missouri School of Journalism, Rosenbaum spent more than four years in the Missouri State Capitol writing for the Columbia Daily Tribune, Missouri Lawyers Media and the St. Louis Beacon.
Jo Mannies has been covering Missouri politics and government for almost four decades, much of that time as a reporter and columnist at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. She was the first woman to cover St. Louis City Hall, was the newspaper’s second woman sportswriter in its history, and spent four years in the Post-Dispatch Washington Bureau. She joined the St. Louis Beacon in 2009. She has won several local, regional and national awards, and has covered every president since Jimmy Carter. She scared fellow first-graders in the late 1950s when she showed them how close Alaska was to Russia and met Richard M. Nixon when she was in high school. She graduated from Valparaiso University in northwest Indiana, and was the daughter of a high school basketball coach. She is married and has two grown children, both lawyers. She’s a history and movie buff, cultivates a massive flower garden, and bakes banana bread regularly for her colleagues.
Rachel Lippmann
Lippmann returned to her native St. Louis after spending two years covering state government in Lansing, Michigan. She earned her undergraduate degree from Northwestern University and followed (though not directly) in Maria Altman's footsteps in Springfield, also earning her graduate degree in public affairs reporting. She's also done reporting stints in Detroit, Michigan and Austin, Texas. Rachel likes to fill her free time with good books, good friends, good food, and good baseball.