JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) -- After eight years of push-and-pull with outgoing Democratic Gov. Jay Nixon, Missouri's Republican-led Legislature will start the 2017 session Wednesday with a new ally: GOP Gov.-elect Eric Greitens.
This will likely smooth the path for top GOP priorities blocked by Nixon, namely a right-to-work law barring mandatory union fees that Greitens pledged to sign on the campaign trail. He takes office Jan. 9.
Republicans last controlled the Missouri House, Senate and governor's mansion under Gov. Matt Blunt, who held office from 2005-09. Nixon's election brought an end to that.
Greitens, GOP House Speaker Todd Richardson and Senate President Pro Tem Ron Richard all want to pass tort-reform measures that would restrict liability lawsuits with the hope of helping businesses. Greitens also wants so-called regulatory reform, which Richard and Richardson say they support.
Other measures face challenges despite across-the-board Republican leadership. While Richardson and Greitens want to ban lobbyist gifts to elected officials, a proposal to do so died last year in the Senate. Pressure from the new governor, who campaigned on ethics reform, could help the bill pass.
The session also could test Greitens on abortion policies. The governor-elect said on the campaign trail that he is anti-abortion, but the political action committee of Missouri Right to Life -- one of the state's most influential anti-abortion groups -- did not endorse him.
His first time acting on an abortion measure as governor could happen within months if Republican lawmakers send him bills to restrict or further regulate the procedure this session.
The session lasts roughly five months and ends in mid-May.