Missouri's Democrats have annointed their nominee for House Speaker. Rich Kurz reports from the State Capitol:
The Democrats chose a farmer, Representative Sam Leake of Laddonia.
The conservative Leake had been tied with liberal St. Louis Representative Sheila Lumpe, before winning.
Leake says this split between the liberal and conservative Democrats is not a problem:
But unity was not apparent at the Democratic Caucus where five Democrats refused to participate saying they wanted promises of change before they would support their party's candidate.
The next step is for the entire House to vote when the legislative session begins in January.
I'm Rich Kurz at the State Capitol.