Top Missouri Republican under ethics investigation launches bid for secretary of state

The embattled top Republican in the Missouri House who faces allegations of ethical misconduct filed to run for state secretary of state on Tuesday, dropping out of the race for lieutenant governor.

House Speaker Dean Plocher, a St. Louis-area Republican, made the switch on the last day of candidate filings on Tuesday. The announcement also came the same day the Missouri House Ethics Committee is scheduled to hold another hearing in its ongoing investigation into Plocher.

Plocher in an emailed campaign announcement made only one vague reference to a slew of scandals that have enveloped his time as speaker and sparked calls for him to resign from members of his own party.

“The liberal press can attack me all they want,” he said in the statement, “but as your Speaker and when I am your Secretary of State, I will never stop fighting for the people of Missouri.”

The top Republican joins a crowded Republican primary that includes political newcomer Valentina Gomez; Greene County Clerk Shane Schoeller; Sen. Denny Hoskins of Warrensburg; Rep. Adam Schwadron of St. Charles; and Jamie Corley, a former congressional staffer who led a Republican effort to overturn the state’s abortion ban.

Plocher’s decision to run for secretary of state comes a week after Senate President Pro Tem Caleb Rowden, a Columbia Republican, dropped out of the race. Rowden’s departure has left a candidate pool that leans more staunchly to the right.

Hoskins, for example, is a member of the Senate’s hard-right Missouri Freedom Caucus. And Gomez has faced backlash for a video she posted in which she burned books with a flamethrower.

Plocher’s opponents will likely seize on the behind-closed-doors ethics probe he faces. The Ethics Committee’s exact focus is unclear, but it comes as he confronts a series of scandals including revelations that he received government reimbursements for trip expenses already paid by his campaign.

He also faces scrutiny over the firing of his chief of staff, who may have been a whistleblower, and alleged threats against a top House staffer related to his push for the House to contract with an outside company to manage constituent information.

Plocher largely sidestepped those controversies in his campaign announcement and instead touted a commitment to “ensuring only American citizens vote in state elections.” Missouri Republican Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft currently serves as the state’s top election official. Ashcroft is mounting a campaign for Missouri governor.

The announcement also championed Plocher’s legislative record on abortion, gun rights and tax cuts. The top Republican has for the past several years pushed to make it harder for Missourians to amend the state constitution through the century-old initiative petition process.

Plocher last year was one of the first major Republicans to directly connect that effort to a need to stop a campaign from abortion rights groups who are seeking to overturn the state’s ban on abortion.

A lawyer by trade, Plocher became a member of the Missouri House in 2016 after former House Speaker John Diehl was forced to resign after The Star reported that he had been sending sexually-charged messages with an intern.

On the other side of the aisle, Rep. Barbara Phifer from Kirkwood, Monique Williams of St. Louis and Haley Jacobson of St. Louis are the three Democrats running for secretary of state.

The House Ethics Committee is scheduled to hold another closed-door hearing connected to Plocher Tuesday evening.