Article 7, Section 6 of the Missouri Constitution states:

Any public officer or employee in this state who by virtue of his office or employment names or appoints to public office or employment any relative within the fourth degree, by consanguinity or affinity, shall thereby forfeit his office or employment.

Well, that part of the constitution has been invoked in Holden, Missouri. You can read some about that story here.

It seems that the question is now “can someone forfeit his office, and then return to fill his term?”. Obviously constitution-invoking nepotism occured (Missouri is fairly strict about this, which is why Funkhouser’s wife won’t be drawing a city salary anytime soon). And reading the Constitution doesn’t seem to say that one can’t return to fill their term after forfeiting their office (in the case of a county office, there’s an obvious check to stop that from occurring).

So, if a mayor forfeits his office, then wins it back. Is that constitutional, legal, or an unintended consequence of this situation?

A question for the night/morning.