Tony Luetkemeyer

Luetkemeyer is a lifelong Missourian. He grew up in Southeast Missouri in Farmington.[2]

Luetkemeyer attended college at the University of Missouri, where he graduated with Bachelor of Arts degrees in history and political science, magna cum laude.[3] During college, he was elected president of the undergraduate student government, the Missouri Students Association.[4] During the summer after college, Luetkemeyer served as an intern in Washington D.C. at the White House, where he worked in the Domestic Policy Council during the administration of President George W. Bush.[2]

Luetkemeyer attended law school at the University of Missouri, where he earned his Juris Doctor, magna cum laude, and was inducted into the Order of the Coif.[2] While in law school, he was appointed by former Missouri Governor Matt Blunt to serve as the Student Representative to the University of Missouri Board of Curators.[3]

After law school, Luetkemeyer clerked for the Honorable Patricia Breckenridge on the Supreme Court of Missouri.[2] He began his law practice as an attorney at Shook Hardy & Bacon in Kansas City, where he focused on defending individuals and businesses in tort litigation.[5] He is now senior corporate in-house counsel for a Kansas City-based company.

Luetkemeyer lives in Parkville, Missouri and is married to Lucinda H. Luetkemeyer.[6][2]

Committees

Luetkemeyer was sworn into the Missouri Senate on January 9, 2019, as a member of the 100th General Assembly.[7] His service in the senate has included membership on the following committees:[8]

• Judiciary and Civil and Criminal Jurisprudence, Chairman
• Government Reform
• General Laws
• Gubernatorial Appointments
• Rules, Joint Rules, Resolutions and Ethics

Senate Leadership

In November 2020, Luetkemeyer was elected by the Missouri Senate Republican Caucus to serve as the Senate Majority Whip for the 101st General Assembly.[9]

Legislation

Senate Bill 600 - Violent Crime

During the 2020 legislative session, Luetkemeyer sponsored Senate Bill 600, an omnibus criminal law bill aimed at curbing the rise of violent crime in Missouri.[10] The bill passed on a largely partisan vote in the House of Representatives on the last day of the 2020 session.[11] The bill was introduced in the wake of Missouri's three largest cities—St. Louis, Kansas City and Springfield—being listed among the top 15 most dangerous cities in America, according to USA Today.[12] Shortly after the USA Today report, Luetkemeyer wrote an opinion piece in the Kansas City Star, where he stated: "Without commonsense reforms to Missouri’s sentencing laws and criminal code, to give prosecutors and law enforcement more tools to fight violent crimes, our cities will continue to languish on the list of the country’s most dangerous."[13] The major components of Senate Bill 600 include provisions:

• Limiting the ability of judges to grant probation to certain dangerous felons;

• Enhancing penalties for the offenses of armed criminal action and unlawful possession of a weapon;

• Modernizing the state's criminal conspiracy law;

• Creating the Missouri Criminal Street Gangs Prevention Act (similar to the federal RICO law); and

• Establishing the new felony offense of vehicle hijacking.[10]

The bill was supported broadly by state and local law enforcement agencies and prosecutors.[14] On February 20, 2020, Luetkemeyer was named Legislator of the Year by the Missouri Association of Prosecuting Attorneys for his efforts to "protect and defend the rights of crime victims, the profession of prosecution and the criminal justice system." [15] The bill was signed into law on July 6, 2020.[16]

Senate Bill 676 - Tax Reform

In 2019, homeowners across Missouri saw dramatic increases in their real property tax assessments, leading to a record number of assessment appeals.[17][18] Many property owners received late notice of those increases, effectively depriving them of the ability to challenge the assessments.[19] In response to those concerns, Luetkemeyer filed Senate Bill 676. As finally passed, the legislation put in place several key protections for homeowners, including extending the time for homeowners to appeal assessments and requiring a physical inspection of the property when an assessment increases by 15% or more. In the event of a 15% or greater assessment increase, the bill also shifts the burden of proving the accuracy of the assessment from the taxpayer to the assessor.[20]

The bill also included a provision exempting from state income tax the individual stimulus checks many Missourians received as a part of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act.[21] Due to the structure of the state's tax code, Missouri was one of only six states that could have taxed the stimulus checks.[22] The measure enjoyed broad bipartisan support, passing the Senate (31-0)[23] and the House of Representatives (147-4).[24] The bill was signed into law on July 14, 2020.[25]

Senate Joint Resolution 14 - Term Limits

During the First Regular Session of the 100th General Assembly, Luetkemeyer sponsored Senate Joint Resolution 14.[26] The SJR passed the Missouri Senate 31-3 and the House of Representatives passed the measure on the last day of the 2019 legislative session.[27] SJR 14 proposed amending the Missouri Constitution to impose term limits on all state elected officials. It was the only proposed amendment to the state constitution passed by the General Assembly during the 2019 legislative session.[28] Since the 1990s, term limits of two four-year terms applied to members of the legislature, governor and state treasurer. Other statewide officials, including the lt. governor, secretary of state, auditor, and attorney general, were exempt from term limits.

SJR 14 was placed on the Nov. 3, 2020 ballot as Amendment 1.[29] It narrowly failed in a statewide vote, 48.026% (Yes) to 51.974% (No).[30] Historically, term limits have been broadly supported by Missouri's electorate, with term limits for governor passing by more than 72% in 1965, and legislative term limits passing by an even wider margin in 1992.[31] Some believe Amendment 1 failed due to voter confusion, because another measure on the ballot—Amendment 3, which dealt with legislative ethics and redistricting—was opposed by millions of dollars on a "Vote No" campaign.[32] No money was spent supporting Amendment 1.[33]

Senate Bill 224 - Civil Discovery Rules

During his first year in office, Luetkemeyer sponsored Senate Bill 224, a measure that passed the Missouri legislature in the 2019 legislative session.[34] SB 224 was modeled off several provisions of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure relating to discovery, the process by which parties to a lawsuit gather evidence to support their case. The major features of SB 224 place certain presumed limitations on discovery, including the scope of discovery, the number and length of depositions, the number of interrogatories and requests for production, and discoverability of electronically stored information (ESI). SB 224 was championed by the business and tort reform communities as an efficiency measure to reduce the cost and length of litigation. Of the measure, Luetkemeyer stated: “These reforms will expedite lawsuits, ensure more timely resolution of disputes and reduce costs for all parties involved.”[35] The bill was signed into law on July 10, 2019.

For his work on pro-business policies, Luetkemeyer was later recognized by the Missouri Chamber of Commerce and Industry as its 2019 Freshman Legislator of the Year.[36]

Luetkemeyer was elected to the Missouri Senate in the November 7, 2018 general election, after advancing from the August 7, 2018 primary.

Primary

In the primary, Luetkemeyer faced Republican challenger Harry Roberts, the then-Presiding Commissioner of Buchanan County. In one of the most hotly contested state primaries of the 2018 cycle, Luetkemeyer won the Republican nomination with 53.7% of the vote to Roberts’ 46.3%.[37]

General

In the November 7, 2018 general election, Luetkemeyer faced Democrat challenger Martin T. Rucker II, a former NFL player and All-American tight end at the University of Missouri. In what ended up being the most competitive state senate general election of the year, Luetkemeyer won the race with 52.5% of the vote, compared to Rucker’s 47.5%.[39][1]