State Rep. Jay Barnes wants Republican attorney general candidate Josh Hawley to explain his legal experience.
Barnes, R-Jefferson City, an attorney, issued an open letter to Hawley on Tuesday, posting it on his campaign and Facebook sites and sending a copy to Hawley's office at the University of Missouri-Columbia Law School.
Barnes began his letter noting he chairs the House Committee on Government Oversight and Accountability, then wrote: "As a Missourian, I want to be certain that those in charge of state agencies have the experience necessary to actually perform their job."
He is one of more than 100 lawmakers who have endorsed state Sen. Kurt Schaefer's bid for the attorney general's office. Hawley and Schaefer - both from Columbia - are the two GOP candidates seeking the nomination in the Aug. 2 primary election.
But, Barnes told the News Tribune Wednesday, Schaefer's campaign didn't ask for the letter.
"I wrote the letter because I have heard from numerous people that he's never set foot in an actual Missouri courtroom - whether it's to try a case, argue an appeal or simply show up for a simple motion hearing," he explained. "My letter provides Professor Hawley with an opportunity to dispel these rumors."
Also, he said, his support for Schaefer shouldn't affect how people see the letter.
"Forget the messenger and focus on the actual substance of the message," Barnes said. "My request raises a substantive question that should be asked of every candidate for attorney general. I think Missouri voters should ask themselves if they'd hire someone to represent them in a Missouri courtroom who has never actually handled a case - for any real party in interest."
Neither Hawley nor his campaign responded to a request for comment. Barnes said he hasn't heard from Hawley either.
On his website, joshhawley.com, Hawley points to his background as "a conservative constitutional attorney who has been to the Supreme Court and won."
He also says he is "a leading national expert on the issue of religious freedom."
Hawley says he was "Senior Counsel for The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty" and points to his work as "co-counsel on the landmark Supreme Court case Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores, the most important decision on our First Amendment liberties in decades."
Barnes wrote to Hawley: "You claim to have argued the Hobby Lobby case in front of the Supreme Court. The public record reflects otherwise: you sat in the gallery, not at counsel's table."
Barnes said it's important for Missourians to know about Hawley's legal background.
"Unlike faculty lounges where professors can pontificate without consequence, the attorney general makes decisions that impact lives," Barnes wrote. "Directing a criminal prosecution or protecting Missouri consumers from charlatans is not a theoretical exercise, and the office of attorney general is not the place for on-the-job training for a person who has never tried a case or argued an appeal.
"It's a place where Missourians need someone who has been tested by the fire of having an actual client (and can) depend on their ability as a lawyer in a real-world courtroom."
Hawley's online biography says he's a Lexington native who graduated from Kansas City's Rockhurst High School, then earned his bachelor's degree from Stanford University in California and his law degree from Yale University in Connecticut.
"At Yale Law School, he led the conservative Yale Federalist Society," the online biography reports, "and earned clerkships at the U.S. Court of Appeals, 10th Circuit" - which covers Oklahoma, Kansas, New Mexico, Colorado, Utah and Wyoming - "and subsequently, the United States Supreme Court."
But the bio doesn't list any local or state connections other than his professorship at the MU Law School.
Barnes reminded Hawley the easiest way to dispel the rumors about his lack of experience is for Hawley to "simply name some cases for which you are listed as counsel of record in Missouri."