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Politically Speaking: Rep. Mitten on missed opportunities of Greitens investigation

Missouri state Rep. Gina Mitten
Jason Rosenbaum I St. Louis Public Radio
Missouri state Rep. Gina Mitten

Missouri state Rep. Gina Mitten returns to the Politically Speaking podcast to talk about serving on the committee that investigated former Gov. Eric Greitens.

The Richmond Heights Democrat represents Missouri’s 83rd District, which includes portions of St. Louis and eastern St. Louis County. She is running unopposed in 2018 for what will be her last term in the Missouri House.

Mitten was one of three Democrats who were members of a committee that looked into Greitens conduct. The committee ended up releasing a bombshell report in April where Greitens was accused of sexual and physical abuse, which he denied. But the personal and campaign finance allegations against Greitens prompted lawmakers to convene a special session to consider possible impeachment.

Ultimately, Greitens resigned in early June — which effectively brought the committee’s work to a close. That short-circuited efforts to find out who contributed to a politically-active nonprofit known as A New Missouri that assisted Greitens — or who supplied a newspaper publisher with cash to the lawyer of the man who exposed the scandal.

Here’s what Mitten talked about during the show:

  • She went into detail about state Rep. Jay Barnes’ ethics complaint, which among other things contends that Greitens purposely evaded campaign donation limits by steering money to a politically-active nonprofit known as A New Missouri.
  • She was disappointed that the committee disbanded before it could discover the funding for A New Missouri. “Missourians deserve to know how we got to where we are,” she said.
  • Mitten said the Greitens saga should provide the legislature with incentive to require politically-active nonprofits to disclose their donors.
  • She also believes that nonprofits that donate to causes, such as a ballot initiative to raise the minimum wage, should be up front about where their money is coming from.


Follow Jason Rosenbaum on Twitter: @jrosenbaum

Follow Jo Mannies on Twitter: @jmannies

Follow Gina Mitten on Twitter: @gcmitts

Music: “Closing Time” by Semisonic

Copyright 2018 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. Since moving to St. Louis in 2010, Rosenbaum's work appeared in Missouri Lawyers Media, the St. Louis Business Journal and the Riverfront Times' music section. He also served on staff at the St. Louis Beacon as a politics reporter. Rosenbaum lives in Richmond Heights with with his wife Lauren and their two sons.
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.