The primary is over. On to the general election, when final selections will be made. Missouri will have a new governor. First, a word about the departing incumbent.

Republican Matt Blunt has been a good governor. Controversial from time to time, but leadership implies controversy, and Blunt has been a leader.

His move to pare Medicaid rolls became a rallying cry for opposition Democrats, and it was arguable enough, but it was not stupid or venal. It was a budget decision made for sound, defensible fiscal reasons. Subsequently, he worked to rebuild eligibility rolls - not fast enough to suit detractors but within reason.

Matt Blunt was not the main culprit in the MOHELA funding disaster two years ago. He had supported Amendment 2, guaranteeing the right of researchers to work with embryonic stem cells produced in laboratories, but when Right to Life pressure possessed his party’s legislative majority, he got mashed and lost the chance to fund his top priority, the medical research building at the University of Missouri.

He leaves office with a budget surplus that should be the envy of scores of other states struggling with deficits. He accomplished several other priorities - some questionable, such as tort reform, but all reasonable initiatives from his moderately conservative perspective.

However, the time has come for change, as the popular national electoral refrain has it. A primary element of that change is to install a Democrat in the governor’s office who will thwart the worst potential Right to Life instincts of a continuing Republican legislative majority.

Jay Nixon, the Democrat, fills this bill. Kenny Hulshof, the staunch Right to Life Republican, does not.

Of course, nobody can predict whether a Right to Life issue will arise next year, but given the current predilections of too many members of the General Assembly, an anti-prohibitionist in the top chair would be a comfort.

Moreover, Nixon has valuable experience as a top statewide officeholder. As Missouri attorney general, he has been involved with the issues of state government. He has proved himself to be a competent, energetic officeholder.

And he is combative, sometimes to a fault. Now, as he aspires to the most powerful job in state government, is a good time for him to learn to be a bit more accommodating. Thankfully, an abiding human characteristic is to become more conservative in the use of power as it accumulates.

Nixon would be a champion for progressive Democratic policies worrisome to conservative Republicans, but balance between the governor and legislature would work beneficially here as well. If Nixon would keep the worst instincts of a culturally prohibitionist GOP legislature at bay, that restrictive legislature would temper his most socially liberal initiatives.

Shall we issue another little cheer for gridlock?

If Hulshof were not the type of politician who would make public policy based on Christian-right conservative beliefs, he would be a fellow many more of us could support. Give him credit for standing by his personal principles, but don’t put him in public-policymaking office.

Yes, it is time to elevate this issue to prominence in Missouri politics. Legitimate liberalism has suffered enough. It is a valid ingredient in the mixture of civic governance.

There are no more pestiferous people on Earth than those who, clothed in a little brief authority, seek to misuse it by forcing us unfortunate subjects to conform to their own narrow ideas of conduct.

- editorial, the Dial, 1910

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