The complaint that the Missouri Board of Accountancy filed against Missouri’s Democratic Auditor Nicole Galloway is purely political, according to St. Louis University political science professor Kenneth Warren.
“It's continuing the typical divisions between Republicans and Democrats,” Warren said. “In this case, there's not too many Democrats left, particularly holding public office in Missouri on the state level.”
As previously reported by the St. Louis Post Dispatch, Galloway analyzed Sen. Josh Hawley’s use of public money while he was state attorney general and alleged he may have misused state resources while campaigning for the U.S. Senate, according to a 2020 audit, and since then the Missouri Board of Accountancy has been threatening to discipline Galloway.
Hawley is currently one of two Republican U.S. senators representing Missouri.
“The reality is that the Republicans are in control of state apparatus in Missouri and if a Democrat comes out and attacks a Republican, they're going to unite pretty much lockstep behind the Democrat who is attacking a fellow Republican,” Warren told the St. Louis Record.
The Missouri Board of Accountancy, too, is largely made up of Republicans.
“They’re coming to the defense of Josh Hawley,” Warren said. “Five of the members of the board are Republican. There's only two Democrats. All these people are appointed and appointed in a partisan way.”
In response, Galloway filed a lawsuit in the Cole County Court, however Warren doesn’t foresee the CPA getting much traction in the legal arena.
“Unfortunately, it's tough for her because she has made an appeal to the Cole County judge and, of course, that judge is a Republican who has already handed down a decision against mask mandates and vaccinations, which has caused quite a stir," he said. "I wouldn't expect her to get much relief from the Cole County Court.”
Galloway announced last year that she will not seek to be re-elected.
“She’s just fed up and doesn't want run in a state that's enemy territory, the way she perceives it,” Warren added. “The state legislature is veto proof. You have a Republican governor. You have two Republican senators. She's the only Democratic statewide office holder.”
The professor blames the current state of political affairs on former President Trump.
“The 2016 election changed everything almost overnight,” he said. “Trump won by 18.51%. Trump had long coattails and swept all these Republicans into office. Since then, the state has been very, very, very red. It already was getting red within the state legislature after redistricting.”