Blaine Luetkemeyer

William Blaine Luetkemeyer /ˈluːtkəˌmaɪər/ (born May 7, 1952) is an American politician currently serving as the incumbent U.S. Representative for Missouri's 3rd congressional district, a seat he has held since 2009. The district, numbered as the 9th Congressional District from 2009 to 2013, contains most of east-central Missouri, including the state capital of Jefferson City and some of the southern and northern St. Louis suburbs and exurbs. Luetkemeyer is a member of the Republican Party.

Luetkemeyer was born in Jefferson City on May 7, 1952. He attended Lincoln University in Jefferson City and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science and with a minor in business administration. A lifelong farmer who is the fourth generation of his family to own their farm, Luetkemeyer has also owned several small businesses, as well as running a bank and serving as an insurance agent. He also served on the Board of Trustees for the village of St. Elizabeth.

In 1998, Luetkemeyer was elected to the Missouri House of Representatives from the 115th Legislative District. During his time as a state representative, Luetkemeyer served as chair of the Financial Services Committee and as House Republican Caucus Chairman. During his time in the state legislature, Luetkemeyer co-sponsored the statewide constitutional amendment defining marriage as being between a man and a woman, which was overwhelmingly approved by Missouri voters statewide in 2004 by a margin of 71-29. He also worked on legislation which allowed Missourians to carry concealed firearms, banned partial-birth abortions, and reformed worker compensation laws. In addition, he has supported the deregulation of the financial industry—specifically the lending industry.

In 2004, he did not seek reelection but instead was one of seven Republicans who ran for the office of State Treasurer. He finished second in the Republican primary, losing to Sarah Steelman who went on to win the general election. In 2005, Luetkemeyer was appointed by former Governor Matt Blunt to serve as Missouri Tourism Director, a post he held until running for the U.S. House of Representatives in 2008. One of his projects was working with Blunt and Lt. Governor Peter Kinder to start the Tour of Missouri, a cycling event modeled on the Tour de France.

Elections

2008

Luetkemeyer became a candidate for the open seat in the 9th Congressional District following incumbent Republican Kenny Hulshof’s resignation in his unsuccessful bid for Governor. In the Republican primary, Luetkemeyer won with 39.7% of the vote against rivals state representatives Bob Onder and Danie Moore, as well as Brock Olivo and Dan Bishir. Luetkemeyer managed to eke out a narrow win in the general election to keep the seat in Republican hands.

2010

Luetkemeyer defeated Charles Baker in the Republican primary. He faced token third-party opposition as the Democratic Party did not field a candidate for the district's seat and received over three-fourths of the total vote.

2012

Missouri was reduced to eight districts after the 2010 U.S. Census determined that the state's population growth was slower than that of the national average. Luetkemeyer's district was renumbered as the 3rd Congressional District. It lost most of its northern portion to the newly drawn 6th Congressional District. To make up for the loss of population, it was pushed slightly to the west, gaining all of Jefferson City. Luetkemeyer already represented the share of the capital located in Callaway County, but picked up Cole County in the redistricting process.

Luetkemeyer easily won the general election in his first run in the newly created district.

2014

In the August primary, Luetkemeyer defeated two rivals with almost 80% of the vote. He proceeded to easily win the general election.

Committee assignments

• Committee on Financial Services
  • Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit
  • Subcommittee on Domestic Monetary Policy and Technology
• Republican Study Committee
• Tea Party Caucus

Legislation

On October 23, 2013, Luetkemeyer introduced the bill To enhance the ability of community financial institutions to foster economic growth and serve their communities, boost small businesses, increase individual savings (H.R. 3329; 113th Congress) into the House. The bill would direct the Federal Reserve to revise certain regulations related to small bank holding companies (BHCs). Current regulations allow BHCs with assets of less than $500 million that satisfy other tests to incur higher amounts of debt than larger institutions in order to acquire other banks. H.R. 3329 would apply the less-stringent standard to more BHCs by raising the asset limit to $1 billion, and the bill also would allow savings and loan holding companies to qualify.

On June 26, 2014, Luetkemeyer introduced H.R.4986, that would end the controversial Operation Choke Point which was designed to limit the activities of money launderers, but has come under criticism for alleged abuse. Later, on November 20, 2014, in a further effort to end Operation Choke Point, Luetkemeyer introduced additional legislation that would require federal banking agencies to put in writing any suggestion or order to terminate a customer’s banking account.

Luetkemeyer has been married since 1976 to his wife Jackie. They have three children. He has one granddaughter, Riley, and two grandsons, Luke and Evan. Luetkemeyer is a member of the Knights of Columbus, the Eldon Chamber of Commerce, the Farm Bureau, the National Rifle Association, and attends St. Lawrence Catholic Church.