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John Britton, Most Powerful Lobbyist In Jefferson City, Has Died

St. Louis Public Radio | By Jo Mannies
Published August 5, 2014 at 2:24 PM CDT

Legendary Missouri lobbyist John Britton died today, touching off a torrent on Twitter of condolences from top officials around the state.

Tweeted Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder, a Republican:

#RIP my great and irreplaceable friend, John Britton. There'll never be another. #classic #moleg— Peter Kinder (@PeterKinder) August 5, 2014

Britton, 88, was so powerful that legislators made an exception for him when a no-smoking ban went into effect years ago in the halls of the state Capitol. Britton, a chain smoker, was granted his own floating smoking zone.

A key reason for his clout? Britton's huge client list included some of the state's most influential businesses, notably Anheuser-Busch Cos. Inc., which he represented for decades.

Jane Dueker, a Democratic activist and corporate lobbyist, praised Britton’s expertise and his grace. “I adored him. He was extremely well read, incredibly brilliant and a strategic thinker,’’ she said. “He’s forgotten more than any other lobbyist will ever know.”

Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster, a Democrat running for governor in 2016, issued a statement that underscored Britton's popularity and influence.  Koster called Britton "a giant among those who walk the halls of the Capitol."

" John was an authentic member of the Greatest Generation, giving heroic service in the liberation of Europe," Koster said. "John’s career was the stuff of legend -- a paratrooper with the 101st Airborne on D-Day and the Battle of the Bulge, Harvard graduate, and a respected Missouri lobbyist for more than half a century."

Missouri House Speaker Tim Jones, R-Eureka, said in a statement later Tuesday: "Through his decades of work within the halls of the state Capitol and across the State of Missouri, he became an iconic figure who set the standard by which all other lobbyists are measured.  Our state will deeply miss this great man who was a war hero, a scholar, a philosopher, and a defender of the individual liberties of all Missourians."

St. Louis Public Radio will have more details later.

Copyright 2014 St. Louis Public Radio
Tags
Politics The StatehouseJohn Britton
Jo Mannies
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.
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