GOP attacks distort congressional challenger’s record on sex offender laws – STLtoday.com

ST. LOUIS — U.S. Rep. Ann Wagner and Missouri Republicans have attacked Democratic challenger Jill Schupp for her votes as a state representative on a handful of bills meant to revise the sex offender registry — without noting one of them received unanimous, bipartisan support.

Wagner, in her first television advertisement ahead of the Nov. 3 election between her and Missouri Sen. Jill Schupp, accused Schupp of spending “her entire political career siding with dangerous criminals.”

Jean Evans, executive director of the Missouri Republican Party, repeated the criticisms in a news release, citing a handful of votes by Schupp in the Missouri Legislature on proposed revisions to the state sex offender registry.

Schupp, in response, said the attacks, which began with a television advertisement Aug. 16, use isolated votes to distort her record and are meant to distract from Wagner’s record on other issues, like expanding health care coverage.

The race between Wagner, R-Ballwin, and Schupp, D-Creve Coeur, has received national attention as part of congressional Democrats’ bid to flip competitive House seats in the Midwest. Wagner, who was elected to Congress in 2012, represents a suburban St. Louis district that includes parts of St. Louis, St. Charles and Jefferson counties and has favored Republicans in past years, but the nonpartisan Cook Political Report, which analyzes the competitiveness of congressional contests, has rated the race a “toss-up,” citing Schupp’s recent fundraising haul and electoral record as one of a few Missouri Democrats to win a high-profile race in the last several election cycles.

One of the bills the Wagner camp has cited is House Bill 301, a 2013 measure that passed the House unanimously and the Senate by a 28-4 vote, drawing support from Republicans, including Gov. Mike Parson, then a state senator. The bill was vetoed by Gov. Jay Nixon, a Democrat.

The bill would have removed from the public sex offender registry anyone who was under 18 when convicted, while keeping their names visible to law enforcement. They could petition for complete removal from the list five years after finishing their sentences.

Supporters of the bill argued the registry was severe because offenders were placed on the list for life, regardless of the severity of the original crime or the offender’s age at the time. In his veto, Nixon argued it didn’t separate minor offenders from those who used force or violence and warned it could endanger the public by hiding the whereabouts of violent sex offenders. The Legislature did not pursue an override of Nixon’s veto.

The vote on the bill is an example of how sex offender laws generally draw wide support, said Jessica Seitz, public policy director for Missouri KidsFirst, a nonprofit that lobbies for laws designed to protect children.

Legislation on the sex offender registry is introduced almost every year, Seitz said, and most bills in recent years have proposed technical changes to the sex offender registry or further limits on offenders, like exactly how close they can live to a school, Seitz said. Isolated votes may not reflect the nuances of policy debates over the registry, she said.

“Whether sex offenders are held accountable for their actions is a bipartisan issue,” said Seitz, who noted the group does not comment on political candidates. “That has been shown by multiple bills in past years.”

Schupp noted the same criticisms were levied against her in 2014 by Jay Ashcroft, her Republican opponent in her campaign for Missouri Senate. Schupp won the competitive race that year; Ashcroft is now secretary of state.

“I’ll say the same thing to Congresswoman Wagner that I said to Jay Aschroft when he launched these attacks in 2014,” Schupp said in a news release. “A good friend of mine was brutally murdered by a sexual predator, and I’ve worked hard to keep sexual predators behind bars.”

“Instead of discussing the issues, Wagner is using the issue of sexual violence for political gain in attacks that distort my record and attempt to mislead the voters,” Schupp said.

Republicans also criticized Schupp for her vote in 2013 against placing on the statewide ballot a constitutional amendment that allowed juries in child sex abuse cases to hear evidence of a defendant’s prior criminal acts, whether or not the defendant was charged with those offenses. Schupp was one of 23 House Democrats and three Republicans who voted against placing the amendment on the ballot.

The amendment drew support from prosecuting attorneys and child welfare advocates, and opposition from the American Civil Liberties Union, which argued that allowing evidence from cases where someone was never convicted presumes suspects are guilty instead of innocent. The amendment passed with support from 72% of Missouri voters.

Wagner also accused Schupp of “voting to allow hundreds” of sex offenders “to coach youth sports,” referring to a 2009 vote for an amendment that struck some language restricting sex offenders from a bill that made several changes to the state criminal code. The bill went through several changes as lawmakers debated the legal scope of the provisions. Schupp was among 124 House members that eventually voted to approve the final version.

A fourth bill, House Bill 731, would have required Missouri to add citizenship status to the sex offender registry and report undocumented names on the list to federal officials for possible deportation.

Stephen Puetz, a spokesman for Wagner’s campaign, denied the votes were taken out of context.

“They’re inexcusable, and on the whole, she has no ability to justify her position,” Puetz said.

Puetz denied that criticizing Schupp for a vote shared by many Republicans without noting unanimous support for the provision was misleading. Just because other politicians supported the bill doesn’t mean they weren’t wrong, he said, noting the Legislature did not try to override Nixon’s veto.

“That’s a weak excuse,” Puetz said. “Anyone who supported it, including Jill Schupp, are wrong.”

In the campaign, Wagner has pointed to her advocacy in Congress to protect survivors of sexual assault and to protect children from sex trafficking, which included the 2015 SAVE Act that criminalized the advertisement of trafficked children.

Wagner also pushed through the House a 2018 law that made it more difficult for websites to advertise sex, by amending a 1996 law designed to protect websites from liability for the speech of advertisers and others. Sites like Backpage had won legal challenges based on the protections.

Large tech firms put up a multiyear fight against the legislation, which eventually passed with overwhelming bipartisan support, including from Sen. Claire McCaskill, whose investigation of Backpage led to several legal showdowns and who pushed a Senate version of the bill.