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Major Candidate Drops Speaker's Race

January 17, 2000
By: Francine Krantz
State Capital Bureau One of three potential candidates for speaker of the house during the next legislative session says he is not interested in the office. Francine Krantz has that story from Jefferson City.
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Ralls County Representative Sam Leake says he does not want to be a candidate for speaker of the House for the 2001-2002 legislative session, although he had expressed interest in the job earlier.

Leake said that term limits, which will begin to take effect next year, played a major role in his decision to not seek the job:

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Contents: [135K WAV file - Rep. Sam Leake says whoever is elected speaker for the next probably will be just a one-term speaker because of term limits.]

With Leake out of the running, Columbia Representative Tim Harlan and current Speaker Pro Tem Jim Krieder are the only two announced candidates for the job.

With term limits set to take effect next year, chances are that the next House speaker will only be able to serve for one term.

But that doesn't bother current Speaker Pro Tem Jim Kreider, who announced last June that he would seek the position. He says since 80 percent of House members won't be there after 2002, it will be his job to leave the chamber in good hands.

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Contents: Kreider says he thinks he can do a better job knowing he has a job to do and will have to keep things moving.

So far, Kreider and Columbia representative Tim Harlan are the only two Democrats who have formally announced their intentions to run for speaker. From the state capitol, I'm Francine Krantz.