NRA Leaders
Member Profile
Matt Blunt
Board Member
Biography
Matt Blunt was born in Springfield, Missouri in 1970 and is the son of United States Senator Roy Blunt (R-MO). After serving in the Navy, Blunt was first elected into office as a Missouri state representative. He was elected to the position of Missouri Secretary of State in 2000 and Governor in 2004. Declining to pursue a second term as governor, Blunt joined the lobbying firm Cassidy & Associates as a consultant. Cassidy & Associates’ most high-profile client at that time was Teodoro Obiang, dictator of Equatorial Guinea. Obiang, who proclaimed to be in “permanent contact with the Almighty,” giving him the right to kill with impunity, paid Cassidy & Associates $120,000 per month to improve his image in the United States. In February 2011, Matt Blunt was appointed president of the American Automotive Policy Council. Blunt’s father, Roy Blunt, is currently serving as a U.S. Senator from Missouri and enjoys an ‘A’ rating from the National Rifle Association.
All Statements (4 total)
In 2003, Gregg Hartley stepped down as Chief of Staff for then-U.S. Representative Roy Blunt (R-MO) and began working as a lobbyist for Cassidy & Associates, where he lobbies his former boss and other Republican legislators. In 2006, Cassidy & Associates was hired by the Missouri Association of Realtors to lobby then-Missouri Governor Matt Blunt to oppose a veto recommendation of the Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission for a piece of realty legislation. The Department of Justice’s antitrust division and Federal Trade Commission warned that the legislation in question would raise costs for individuals buying homes. Blunt did not follow the recommendation and signed the bill—which benefitted realtors—into law. Cassidy & Associates and their clients then made thousands of dollars in political donations to Matt Blunt. Matt Blunt joined Cassidy & Associates as a senior consultant in February 2009, less than one month after his last day as governor of Missouri.
In September 2007, controversy arose when the Blunt administration refused to release emails between Blunt’s chief of staff and anti-abortion groups. The emails, obtained from an outside source, indicated that the Blunt administration was encouraging anti-abortion groups to make political attacks against Blunt’s political opponents. Scott Eckersley, an attorney in the Blunt administration, was fired and claimed it was because he pointed out that the failure to release the emails could violate Missouri’s Sunshine law. Missouri later settled Eckersley’s wrongful termination and defamation lawsuit for $500,000. The Blunt administration falsely told media that Eckersley visited a “group sex Internet site” while on the job.
In August 2007, then-Governor Blunt issued a directive compelling members of state law enforcement to verify the immigration status of anyone they arrested. Immigration statuses were even checked for minor traffic violations. Jorge Riopedre, secretary of the St. Louis-area Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, called the plan, “an open door to racial profiling.” Blunt claimed that the Missouri State Highway Patrol would only check the status of individuals incarcerated by the police, but in at least one instance patrol officers checked the immigration status of a number of workers on a construction project on the basis of a tip from an unidentified local legislator. A representative for the construction company said that he was “puzzled” by the investigation because the site was routinely inspected by federal officials and the project itself did not receive state money.
In May 2007, Missouri Governor Blunt signed into law state legislation prohibiting the seizure of firearms during a state of emergency at that year’s annual National Rifle Association convention. He stated his belief that, “The Constitution and Bill of Rights were designed to protect our freedom from an overreaching and intrusive government. They refuse to acknowledge that the Second Amendment creates a personal right to bear arms … We cannot always rely on unelected judges to uphold our constitutional rights so here in Missouri we are pushing legislative initiatives that will protect individual rights from an overreaching government.”
Statements by Category (4 total)
In 2003, Gregg Hartley stepped down as Chief of Staff for then-U.S. Representative Roy Blunt (R-MO) and began working as a lobbyist for Cassidy & Associates, where he lobbies his former boss and other Republican legislators. In 2006, Cassidy & Associates was hired by the Missouri Association of Realtors to lobby then-Missouri Governor Matt Blunt to oppose a veto recommendation of the Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission for a piece of realty legislation. The Department of Justice’s antitrust division and Federal Trade Commission warned that the legislation in question would raise costs for individuals buying homes. Blunt did not follow the recommendation and signed the bill—which benefitted realtors—into law. Cassidy & Associates and their clients then made thousands of dollars in political donations to Matt Blunt. Matt Blunt joined Cassidy & Associates as a senior consultant in February 2009, less than one month after his last day as governor of Missouri.
In September 2007, controversy arose when the Blunt administration refused to release emails between Blunt’s chief of staff and anti-abortion groups. The emails, obtained from an outside source, indicated that the Blunt administration was encouraging anti-abortion groups to make political attacks against Blunt’s political opponents. Scott Eckersley, an attorney in the Blunt administration, was fired and claimed it was because he pointed out that the failure to release the emails could violate Missouri’s Sunshine law. Missouri later settled Eckersley’s wrongful termination and defamation lawsuit for $500,000. The Blunt administration falsely told media that Eckersley visited a “group sex Internet site” while on the job.
In August 2007, then-Governor Blunt issued a directive compelling members of state law enforcement to verify the immigration status of anyone they arrested. Immigration statuses were even checked for minor traffic violations. Jorge Riopedre, secretary of the St. Louis-area Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, called the plan, “an open door to racial profiling.” Blunt claimed that the Missouri State Highway Patrol would only check the status of individuals incarcerated by the police, but in at least one instance patrol officers checked the immigration status of a number of workers on a construction project on the basis of a tip from an unidentified local legislator. A representative for the construction company said that he was “puzzled” by the investigation because the site was routinely inspected by federal officials and the project itself did not receive state money.
In May 2007, Missouri Governor Blunt signed into law state legislation prohibiting the seizure of firearms during a state of emergency at that year’s annual National Rifle Association convention. He stated his belief that, “The Constitution and Bill of Rights were designed to protect our freedom from an overreaching and intrusive government. They refuse to acknowledge that the Second Amendment creates a personal right to bear arms … We cannot always rely on unelected judges to uphold our constitutional rights so here in Missouri we are pushing legislative initiatives that will protect individual rights from an overreaching government.”