JEFFERSON CITY - Candidate Jay Nixon’s planned response to next week’s State of the State Address has more to do with promoting his political ambitions and very little to do with improving the lives of hard-working Missourians.

“While Gov. Matt Blunt plans to offer a bold vision for improving the lives of hard-working Missourians, Jay Nixon is seeking to exploit the situation in order to promote his own political ambitions,” said Paul Sloca, communications director for the Missouri Republican Party. “Nixon’s role as responder has very little to do with sound policy and everything to do with shameless self-promotion because as everyone knows, the attorney general has absolutely no role to play in the passage of legislation.”

In fact, Nixon’s politically-motivated response could very well undermine his role as the state official charged with defending our state laws in court, even though that would be nothing new for the Democrat. Nixon’s recent failure to competently defend the voter identification law in court clearly shows his willingness to support his party’s political agenda rather than perform his constitutional duty as attorney general.

“It should come as no surprise that Jay Nixon would choose to launch a political attack rather than take the time to understand responsible public policy,” Sloca said. “He has done it before, and he is preparing to do it again.”