JEFFERSON CITY — House Speaker Dean Plocher said “keep wondering” when asked Thursday why he named embattled Democratic state Rep. Sarah Unsicker to the Special Committee on Government Accountability.
“I’m just conducting the business of the House,” the Republican leader told the Post-Dispatch when asked whether he was trying to antagonize Democrats.
Minority Leader Crystal Quade had removed Unsicker from her previous committee posts in December.
Quade, who is running for governor, stripped Unsicker of her committee assignments Dec. 7 amid uproar over the Shrewsbury Democrat’s public association with an alleged Holocaust denier and a conspiracy theorist.
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“She has chosen to use social media to promote individuals who espouse baseless conspiracies and racist and anti-Semitic ideologies,” Quade said in her decision.
Unsicker drew further condemnation after she sent what she described as a “criminal complaint” to the Missouri secretary of state accusing her then-opponent in the attorney general’s race, who is Jewish, of working for the Israeli government.
Democrats expelled Unsicker from their caucus on Dec. 21. She had been running for attorney general, but announced a campaign for governor earlier this week.
Plocher, as a reporter followed him down Capitol stairs to a committee room Thursday, didn’t say whether Unsicker’s associations or statements concerned him.
“Hey listen, I don’t have time for you. Appreciate it,” he said.
Unsicker, in a text message, said “I am happy the Speaker appointed me to the Special Committee on Government Accountability.”
She said Quade had recommended her for the committee years ago but that then-Speaker Rob Vescovo didn’t support the appointment.
“I look forward to using my position on this committee to ensure government officials are doing their job for the benefit of Missourians,” Unsicker said.
House records show Plocher placed Unsicker on the government accountability committee on Jan. 4.
Though Plocher was tight-lipped about his decision, state Rep. Peter Merideth, D-Ƶ, said Plocher might be trying to elicit controversial public statements from the embattled state representative.
“I think it’s very possible that he’s hopeful that she will say things that look bad, or that are bad, that he can paint as if they’re from a Democratic perspective, when very clearly she no longer represents the Democrats,” Merideth said.
Like Unsicker, Plocher has also faced criticism from within his party in recent months after he pushed for a no-bid IT contract and acknowledged filing false expense reports.
A handful of his Republican House colleagues have called on him to resign as speaker. Plocher is facing an investigation by the House Ethics Committee, which meets behind closed doors.