Informed Voter Coalition - November 5th, 2024 Election
The Informed Voter Coalition is a nonpartisan group dedicated to empowering voters with unbiased information about candidates. They have approached Show Me Christian County to help communicate candidates in Christian County for the upcoming elections. This collaboration includes expanding their focus from the Springfield area to Christian County. The Coalition remains neutral and does not endorse any candidates.
Become informed before November 5 election day so your vote is cast for the candidates that align with your beliefs and standards! To help guide voters, the Informed Voter Coalition is again producing a series of nonpartisan interviews with candidates to air during the noon hour on KSMU Ozarks Public Radio (91.1 FM). No registration is required - just tune into KSMU at noon that week! Candidates in selected contested races answered questions developed by the Informed Voter Coalition.
Full Schedule:
- October 14 – Greene County Commissioner District 2
- October 14 – State Representative District 129
- October 15 – Christian County Commissioner East
- October 15 – Christian County Commissioner West
- October 16 – State Representative District 130
- October 16 – State Representative District 131
- October 17 – State Representative District 132
- October 17 – State Representative District 133
- October 21 – State Representative District 135
- October 21 – State Representative District 136
- October 22 – State Representative District 137
- October 22 – State Representative District 140
- October 23 – Missouri Senate District 29
- October 24 – United States Representative Congressional District 7
Informed Voter Coalition members include:
Comprised of 13 nonpartisan organizations and entities, the Informed Voter Coalition brings together a diverse range of perspectives and expertise to ensure comprehensive coverage of local elections.
Christian County Eastern District Commissioner:
Republican incumbent Bradley Alan Jackson will face Democrat David Krewson on November 5.
Candidates were interviewed individually and asked the same questions. They had one minute to introduce themselves and two minutes to respond to each question. Questions were submitted by Informed Voter Coalition partner organizations and were not provided to the candidates in advance. The order of the candidate interviews was determined by a random drawing.
I'm Rachel Campbell with Show-Me Christian County. One of the nonpartisan organizations that makes up the Informed Voter Coalition. Today, we are interviewing candidates for Christian County Eastern Commissioner David Krewson and Bradley Jackson.
Our first candidate is David Krewson. Thank you so much for joining us.
"You're welcome."
Let's begin by having you introduce yourself and tell us why you decided to run for this office.
"Well, my name is David Krewson. Like you said, I live just south of Ozark. I am running for the position to give people a choice during the election. I don't believe any office should be run without somebody, at least from both parties, running for the position. So I'm here to do that and hopefully get enough votes out there to win the election. We'll see what happens."
Explain the role of a county commissioner and why voters should care about who represents them in this role.
"Oh, wow. That's going to be a good one. Let's see. The role of a county commissioner should be to represent the people in the area that they have been elected or appointed to represent. In this case, Eastern Commissioner is, I would say, a board of commissioners that decide on a lot of things that go on in the county, such as roads being improved, health, welfare, sheriffs — running the sheriff's office, running the — and who's appointed or hired for sheriff, who's appointed or hired for the fire department, a lot of different things that a commissioner gets involved with. And, of course, involvement with the community itself, I believe, is very important. So that's the reason I'm running to get involved more than what I am already."
If elected, how would you leverage existing resources and evaluate new ideas to promote and improve quality of life for the people of Christian County?
"Well, I know one thing to improve the quality of life for the people of Christian County is internet services. There has been a big push from, I know, the electric company co-op that I belong to, to do internet service throughout their area, as well as other electric companies and those, based upon the fact that the rural areas really need better internet service because of the fact that the world is becoming faster because of internet, and we need those rural areas to be able to keep up with the rest of the world. So that's my big push. That and, of course, working with the roads and road department to make sure the roads are all up to a satisfactory condition for people to travel safely."
Christian County is responsible for a wide variety of services and departments, from roads to law enforcement, to tax assessment and many more. As a commissioner, how would you balance the varying needs of each department?
"Well, of course, each department submits a budget to the county, and the county auditor and those others involved have to sit down, have an actuary decide how much money the county is going to receive. And then, of course, the county has to divide the taxes that they get among the various departments. It's a juggling act, there's no doubt about it, but there is a way to fund everyone at a sufficient level to provide all the needs required by the citizens."
What would you say are some of Christian County's biggest needs, and what role does the commission play in helping to address those needs?
"One of the biggest needs, I feel, are fire and the sheriff's department. In order to adequately fund the fire and sheriff's department, they need to be paid an adequate amount. I see how much they're paid these days, and to me, that's just not enough. Also, the roads, a lot of them in Christian County could use improvement. So we need to make sure that money for the roads are going to the roads that need it the most. So, and then we have the health department. The health department needs to be adequately funded. The library. The library needs to be adequately funded. Not only that, but the library needs to have a board for everyone and not just a certain portion of the population."
If elected, in what ways do you plan to communicate with and seek feedback from a variety of constituents?
"Well, I'll make myself available, obviously, through various methods, including email, telephone. I will be at the meetings. Anybody can talk to me before or after any of the commission meetings. I, I'm in all over Christian County, but especially on the eastern side, because that's where I do live. You know, I shop in Christian County. I roam, well, I do a lot of business with a lot of businesses in Christian County even though I am retired, there are things that I do need in life, so."
David Krewson, that concludes our interview. Thank you very much for taking the time to speak with us today.
"Thank you for having me, I appreciate it."
Our next candidate is Bradley Jackson. Thank you so much for joining us today.
"Thanks for having me. I appreciate it."
Would you please introduce yourself and tell us why you decided to run for this position?
"Alright. Perfect. Well, a little bit about myself. I've been involved in the the community and the county for quite a few years in different capacities. I've served as the mayor of the City of Ozark for two different terms. I sit on city council for a couple of terms. I've been part of the chamber of commerce as part of their board of directors for five years. I've chaired a couple of different positions inside the City of Ozark, but I've been the associate commissioner for the Eastern District for the past two years, a governor's appointment when our current presiding commissioner vacated that seat to become the presiding commissioner, so I'm running for re-election. I guess re-election. I'm running to be elected, hopefully, you know, since I was appointed. But I just want to serve my community and do everything I can to make Christian County a great place to raise a family, which it already is. But, you know, to continue that tradition is very important to me. And, you know, I've always been told if you've got something to give, give it. So that's what I'm trying to do."
Explain the role of a county commissioner and why voters should care about who represents them in this role.
"So the county commissioner, it's not a hugely complex job. It's very similar to being the mayor, which I have quite a bit of experience, but we manage different members of staff, so we oversee planning and zoning. We oversee human resources, building maintenance, our road departments and, you know, we help with constituent service. Every contract that comes through the county, whether it be the assessor, recorder, collector, all those contracts come through the county commission, and we are the ones that review those, sign off on those and enter into those agreements. We also have different jobs appointing different people to serve in different capacities, whether it be Senate Bill 40, the planning and zoning commission, the library board of trustees. There's multiple different areas that we are involved in, other governmental organizations in appointing their board. So you just want to have a person that cares about the job, that cares about the community, that's focused on doing whatever needs to be done to take care of the citizens and, you know, still run the business, because it is a business. And a lot of people don't think about that. But you have to make good, wise business decisions. Now, we have constraints. There are certain things that I could do in my normal capacity as a business owner that I can't do in a governmental agency, but still, you bring that business acumen into the job, make good decisions and hopefully represent your your county and your constituents the best that you possibly can."
If elected, how would you leverage existing resources and evaluate new ideas to promote an improved quality of life for the people of Christian County?
"Well, I think you always have to be looking out for what's going on. You know, we are a part of a couple of different organizations as county commissioners. We're part of the Missouri Association of Counties and the County Commissioners Association of Missouri. And we have annual conferences that we go to where we get continuing education. But one of the most important factors of those big meetings is getting to meet other commissioners from other areas of the state. The problems and conditions and things that we see in Christian County are not unique to Christian County. They've happened somewhere else, more than likely, before. So gaining off the knowledge and experience of those other elected officials is very important. Always keeping up with what the state legislature is doing and how they're proposing new laws or whatever. Looking at what other states are doing. We're constantly evolving as a organization and as a community, and we have new opportunities. And, you know, utilizing all the resources that we have available to us to continue to grow because it's true, if you're not growing, you're dying. And so you've got to continuously work to put yourself in a position for good, smart, controlled growth. You can grow too fast and outgrow your resources and put yourself in a very bad position, or you cannot grow at all and be in a very bad position. Our citizens deserve the best, so we need to invest in our community. We need to make sure that we're taking care of our community, attracting new business and growth into our community so that the tax burden doesn't fall on a small group of people, but yet it can be spread across to everybody, and we can get more services to our citizens at less of an impact on each individual household."
Christian County is responsible for a wide variety of services and departments, from roads to law enforcement, as you mentioned, to tax assessment and many more. As a commissioner, how would you balance the varying needs of each department?
"Well, each one of those departments or offices, I mean, they're their own elected office, and they propose a budget annually. Now, we review that budget to make sure that it's in line with what they've currently received in years past, what their needs are, what their growth patterns are and what the county can actually handle. So a lot of that burden falls on those elected officials to present to us a budget. Obviously, like I said, we review that budget to make sure that we're in line and we can afford to take care of things, but, you know, we live in a unique area where we continually have growth, but our, I mean, we primarily operate off sales tax revenue versus property tax revenue. But our sales tax revenue isn't growing at the same pace as the amount of citizens that are coming in. So it's a concerning thing that we're looking at as to you would think as your community grows in Ozark. When I graduated from high school, I had 4000 people. And now here, 33 years later, there's 20,000 people. But percentage per capita, our revenue hasn't grown as much. You know, we have a lot of opportunities now. People are shopping online. They're not spending as much money, but they still demand the amount of resources. And, actually, the amount of resources has grown far greater than what the revenues have grown. So it's something we have to look at, we have to work on. We have to encourage people to shop local, support where you live or live where you support. I mean, it's kind of the motto. It sounds kind of rough to say that, but we need people to shop local, stay local, invest local, and and then we can continue to to utilize those revenues to support those offices and continue to provide great service to our citizens."
What would you say are some of Christian County's biggest needs, and what role does the Christian County Commission play in helping address those needs?
"I think some of our biggest needs are, you know, continuing to invest in infrastructure. I mean, that's primarily, in my opinion, government's most important function is providing infrastructure. There are certain things that we do in government that are good, that help out in the big picture. But primarily we're responsible to provide the resources that you can't provide for yourself. So public safety, public health, public infrastructure, roads, bridges, you know, even to an extent, sidewalks and trails. Some people don't get too excited about sidewalks and trails, but as gas continues to grow in price, I see more and more people walking, and we need to have safe places for those people to navigate through our communities. And so I think that's one of the most important things to me, is getting back to the basics, providing those necessary resources. We know that, over the past several years, some of our crime rates have grown in our municipalities. Drugs are becoming a little bit more prevalent. Calls for service have grown in those areas. So we need to focus on that and make sure that we have those resources because a community can't grow if a community is not safe. So we want to make sure law enforcement have the tools that they need to keep our community safe. We want to make sure that we have good roads, bridges and transportation completely because businesses don't want to come into a community that has poor infrastructure. So I think that's some of the biggest things that we need to focus our energies on is public safety, public transportation and making sure our citizens are taken care of."
If elected, in what ways do you plan to communicate and seek feedback from a variety of constituents?
"So I'm probably one of the only elected officials that post my phone number. You can call me on my personal cell phone (417) 860-9541. I'm on social media all the time. Transparency is extremely important to me. When I came to the City of Ozark as mayor in 2021, we implemented a video recording and and putting our meetings out to the public, to the masses. They could watch us on YouTube. When I came over to the county in 2023, we've done the exact same thing. In 2021, I established the Meeting with the Mayor, which is a public information session where I open myself up one Saturday a month for the citizens to come and ask me any kind of question they want. I give them a report of what the city was doing. Since I moved over to the county, I still continue to do that community engagement with the current mayor of the City of Ozark. Now we call it a community conversation, but we reach out, we talk to the citizens about what's going on with their their local government and answer any questions they have, take in, any concerns they have because communication is key. If I don't know there's a problem in where you live, I'll never know if you don't tell me. Nobody knows their street as well as the people that live on the street. Nobody knows their neighborhood as well as the people that live in that neighborhood. So I need to get all the information I can to help make your situation better, so having those opportunities to do that. So anybody that wants to give me a call to tell me about what's going on in their neighborhood or on their road or whatever, feel free to give me a call on my cell phone, and let's try to get the problem solved."
Bradley Jackson, that concludes our interview. Thank you so much for joining us.
"Thank you for having me. I appreciate it."
Candidates for Western Christian County Commission:
Republican Johnny Williams will face Democrat Sheila Michaels in November.
Candidates were interviewed individually and asked the same questions. They had one minute to introduce themselves and two minutes to respond to each question. Questions were submitted by Informed Voter Coalition partner organizations and were not provided to the candidates in advance. The order of the candidate interviews was determined by a random drawing.
I'm Rachel Campbell with Show-Me Christian County. One of the nonpartisan organizations that make up the Informed Voter Coalition. Today, we are interviewing candidates for Christian County Western Commissioner. They are Sheila michaels and Johnny Williams.
Our first candidate is Sheila Michaels. Thank you very much for joining us.
"Thank you for having me."
Let's begin by having you introduce yourself and tell us why you decided to run for this office.
"Thank you. My name is Sheila E. Michaels, and I am a 20-year resident of Christian County. I decided to run because I think that in the past decade or so, there have been a lot of unopposed races in our county, and I am a firm believer that people need choices. It's very difficult to have an unopposed race and to feel like that you have a choice in your representation. My background is public education. I'm on my 23rd year as an educator, and if you want somebody that's going to find the right answer, and if you want somebody that's going to get the job done and look at all sides of the issue, you talk to an educator. So I think that my background in communication and my 20 plus years in education in the county, I've literally talked to thousands of children and families, and I have a really good handle on what the people of Christian County are concerned about for their well-being."
Explain the role of a county commissioner and why voters should care about who represents them in this role.
"County commissioners are so important, and I think that local races historically have been under invested in. The big national races and the big state races always bring a big crowd. But local candidates are so important and local elections are so important. The role of a county commissioner is to be a good steward and a good advocate for the people of your county. And as a county commissioner, I will have a three-point litmus test. Number one, is it good for our families? 2.) Is it good for the community? 3.) Is it good for Christian County? And I think any commissioner that's sitting on that board will take those items into account. Our job is to make sure that we have infrastructure and resources in place so that our families can lead good, healthy, productive lives."
If elected, how would you leverage existing resources and evaluate new ideas to promote an improved quality of life for the people of Christian County?
"One of the things — I like a lot of things about Christian County. One of the things I love about Christian County is it is a thriving, robust community. People are moving in. We're growing exponentially. That tells me there's a lot of good things going on. What I would do is look at existing programs, look at existing budgets. We know what goes well. We know what's going right. What we have to do is be creative and problem solving. And I think one of my strengths is finding, where is the under-representation, where are the gaps? Where are there holes in our existing resources and infrastructure and looking for ways to fill those, talking to stakeholders, talking to stakeholders on all sides of an issue. You can learn as much or more from people who might have a different point of view from you so I think that it's very important to to get feedback from people on all sides of the issue, because we have a lot of diversity in Christian County. We have a lot of families, and all of our families might look a little different. What our families have in common, they want the best for their household. And so a Western County Commissioner's role is to be there to make sure that the resources are in place so that they can lead those thriving lives."
Christian County is responsible for a wide variety of services and departments, from roads to law enforcement, to tax assessment and many more. As a commissioner, how would you balance the varying needs of each department?
"There are always going to be varying needs in any department, in any organization, in any family, in any public school. And I think that the best way to approach it is that you sometimes you have to go into triage mode. What's most important right now? What can we solve right now? What can we be creative about in the future? But you have to look at all sides of the issue. You have to think about, number one, who is going to be affected by this decision, who stands to benefit and who maybe stands to lose a little bit by this decision? And those are really, really hard questions because you're never going to make every single person happy. Obviously, we want to. We want to do what's best for the county and best for the community. But I think that getting as much information as possible, looking at expertise, finding people who know what you don't know One thing I can tell you as an educator and a librarian is that if I don't know the answer, I know how to research and find good information, and I think it's important to find good information on all sides of an issue to make the best informed decision that you possibly can."
What would you say are some of Christian County's biggest needs, and what role does the Christian County Commission play in helping to address those needs?
"So we do have a lot of needs in Christian County. One of the things that I've noticed over my 20ish years in public education in Christian County is that there is a need for child care. There is a need for safety nets for families. There is a need to attract more businesses to Christian County. So I think the role of the commissioner is to be creative and to research ways to attract businesses. We need to be finding businesses that are going to create jobs that will help families. We need to attract businesses that are not only creating jobs, but creating the kind of jobs that help families thrive. Another need in our county, which I'm sure is true of every county, we've got some infrastructure issues, we've got some roadway issues, we've got some traffic issues. So I think that prioritizing the health and safety of our families, that plays into roadways, that plays into infrastructure. So everyone needs a safe environment where they have access to what they need, and I think that, looking at all of those needs, looking at the work that the existing commission has done, figuring out what they've done, well. Obviously they've done a lot of things really well. Our community is thriving, but looking for those gaps and being a problem solver and saying, how can we meet this need and how can we be creative about doing it?"
If elected, in what ways do you plan to communicate with and seek feedback from a variety of constituents?
"This is my favorite question so far. One of the things that I have really loved about being in education is communicating with so many different people and communicating with stakeholders. I think one of my strengths is communication. I would have an open door policy. I would have a value of transparency. I would be proactive in explaining, 'hey, we're about to make this decision, so we're going to be seeking input from stakeholders. We're going to be seeking input from the community.' I think it's very important to be proactive and to go out there and to see who is really invested in the issue and what their opinions are, rather than being reactive and have to defend your decision later, which, of course, you can. If you've made a really good decision, you should be open and transparent about why you've made that decision. But it's very important to be ahead of the game, to be communicating with the stakeholders and to say, 'this issue is coming up. We want to hear your feedback.' Another value I have in education and when I was a librarian is the idea of embedded leadership. You don't sit behind a desk and wait for people to come to you. You are out in the community. You're embedded in the community. People know who you are. People know that you're accessible. And I also have a firm belief in listening. If you are the one doing all the talking, you are not learning. So we have to listen to our stakeholders, and we have to be curious, and we have to ask questions, and we have to ask questions about what people really care about and what they care about to raise healthy families. And I think by asking questions, by listening, by being available, by having that open door policy and being proactive about communication, and above all, being truthful and transparent about the issues that are going on in the county and truthful and transparent about why decisions were made, the way that they were made. And sometimes people are not going to agree with your decision, but it's very important to be transparent about the reasons that went behind that decision."
All right, Sheila, that concludes our interview. Thank you very much for taking the time to talk to us.
"Thank you so much for having me."
Our next candidate is Johnny Williams. Thank you very much for joining us today.
"Thank you very much for having me again."
Would you please introduce yourself and tell us why you decided to run for this position?
"Absolutely. My name's Johnny Williams. I'm a lifelong Christian County resident. I grew up here. I grew up in Nixa. I went to school in Nixa, kindergarten through 12th grade, played baseball, basketball, football in high school. After high school, I went to OTC for a few semesters, and I worked at a machine shop. I was a machinist where we made blowers for diesel engines. And when I turned 21, I put myself through the police academy through Drury, and I've been a law enforcement officer for 25, almost 25 years in Nixa, and I've been a small business owner for about 14 years, had anywhere from 20 to 35 employees there. So the back half of my law enforcement career, I just spent about, you know, most of my time as a part time officer there. And then after that, it's all about family and just moving into a career where I get to continue to serve the people."
Explain the role of a county commissioner and why voters should care about who represents them in this role.
"Absolutely. You know, a lot of people don't know who the county commissioner is or what the county commissioners do. But, the county commissioners, there's three county commissioners, so you have an eastern commissioner, a western commissioner and a presiding commissioner. And the eastern and western commissioners are the ones that vote, and then in a tiebreaker then the presiding commissioner would vote. And so in that position, there's nine different boards that the commissioners place people on. In addition to that, they are over the budget for the county, everything from the sheriff's department, road department and all of the positions through that. So the biggest thing, you know, in that position is the budgetary issues and making sure that the people's money is spent well, where those monies are allocated to and just really trying to make sure you accommodate all the people in the different fields that the county has in total. So being accessible to people, being open to talking to people, making sure that we're there to solve the problems the county needs everything from the road department to the infrastructure, the growth so it's a it's a very wide, wide variety of things that the commissioners do every day."
If elected, how would you leverage existing resources and evaluate new ideas to promote an improved quality of life for the people of Christian County?
"I'm sorry. Can you say it one more time for me?"
If elected, how would you leverage existing resources and evaluate new ideas to promote and improve quality of life for the people of Christian County?
"You know, I think, the existing resources, if you know, the county takes all the money that the county gets through, about 80% of that's through sales tax. So one of the biggest things we can do is promoting local businesses and making sure that people are spending their money in our communities and we're helping new businesses come in and making sure that we have that infrastructure for that. That is the number one thing that we need to do as far as building the county. And, because if all the money's coming, you know, the majority of the money is coming from that, it's important that we continue to support them and have those things in place. So that is 100%, you know, the most important thing to give back to the county is making sure that we're able to support those businesses and give them opportunities."
Christian County is responsible for a wide variety of services and departments, from roads to law enforcement to tax assessment, and many more. As a commissioner, how would you balance the varying needs of each department?
"Absolutely. It is a big balance and finding that balance, you know, everything once again comes from budget. How much money comes in and that does change year to year. And there's going to be different things that are going to need more attention from that year to the next year, and especially with growth and seeing how big Christian County's growing and and continuing to grow is making sure that we have the roads and we have the law enforcement to protect the community and all those things. So balancing that, it literally just comes down year to year and knowing what money comes in and making sure that you're sitting down visiting with the heads of each department, going through their budgets, not just pushing those things through or just looking at it as numbers, but actually being involved every day with them and seeing the growth and seeing the things they need so that when it does become budget time, it's not something you're just looking at numbers, you're actually seeing the difference and seeing the things that they need to grow."
What would you say are some of Christian County's biggest needs, and what role does the (Christian County) Commission play in helping to address those needs?
"I think it goes back to — it goes back to the infrastructure. The same thing is helping our helping, our roads be nice, helping the new businesses coming in, helping the community growth because we're growing, you know, at a crazy speed. It's unbelievable how fast Christian County is growing. You know, we went from this small community to, to really to really growing. And so once again, community involvement is number one is being out there and showing up to the chamber meetings, showing up to the council meetings and talking to the public and seeing what the public needs and seeing what the needs are from, from each aspect and then helping in those ways and seeing and how we can grow those and how we can continue to make, make it a great community for people to live in."
If elected, in what ways do you plan to communicate with and seek feedback from a variety of constituents?
"Absolutely. And I still got months before, you know, if I'm lucky enough to be elected, but I'm already doing that. I'm already out, like I said, attending chamber meetings and attending groundbreaking events for new businesses coming in, I was just that one yesterday. And being out there and already having that community involvement and seeing what people need, and I'm already seeing in some of the smaller cities as I go there, they're like, 'wow, you know, we haven't seen anybody out here. We don't know,' you know, letting them know that their voices are heard and seeing what they need. And it just comes down to being involved. You have to get out there. You have to spend time with people because you can hear about it. You can talk to somebody on the phone, but it's a big difference in sitting down with somebody face to face, actually talking through the problems and seeing what you can do and what you can't do."
Johnny Williams, that concludes our interview. Thank you very much for taking the time to talk with us.
"You bet."
Candidates for U.S. House of Representatives, Missouri 7th Congressional District:
Republican incumbent Eric Burlison will face Democrat Missi Hesketh and Libertarian Kevin Craig in November.
Candidates were interviewed individually and asked the same questions. They had one minute to introduce themselves and two minutes to respond to each question. Questions were submitted by Informed Voter Coalition partner organizations and were not provided to the candidates in advance. The order of the candidate interviews was determined by a random drawing.
I'm Ashley Silva with Rosie, one of the nonpartisan organizations that make up the Informed Voter Coalition. Today, we are interviewing candidates for U.S. representative, 7th Congressional District, Missi Hesketh, Kevin Craig and Eric Burlison.
Our first candidate is Missi Hesketh. Thank you very much for joining us. Let's begin by having you introduce yourself and tell us why you decided to run for this office.
"Hi. Thank you so much for having me. I appreciate this opportunity to share my, my views. My name is Missy Hesketh, and I live in Forsyth, Missouri. I am a mother of three, and I have been a teacher for, this is my 21st year, and I'm also the mayor of Forsyth. I have come over the past, well, I have seven years community service altogether with my city council time. I've come to love public service and making a difference in my community, and becoming aware of the lack of representation in the Missouri 7th made me want to expand that service to those counties as well."
What issue is most important to you that you'd carry to Washington, DC from southwest Missouri?
"So for me, in my capacity as mayor and being on city council, it is evident to me that there is a lack of funding available for municipalities to invest in their communities to prepare for the future. You know, I'm thinking a lot about what's going on in the Carolinas and Tennessee and Florida and Georgia after the hurricane that just went through and devastated a lot of those communities. If we don't get assistance, if we don't have a representative who is fighting to bring back federal monies to help us get into a better position ahead of situations like this, we won't be able to recover from those in a timely way to keep people in services. So I think that's one of the biggest problems, is that we — our small communities do not have the resources that they need to innovate and keep the young people there locally. You know, in 2022, Mr. (Eric) Burlison was asked the same question and he said that supply side economics work in increasing prosperity for people. And I do not think that that is the case. He has not done anything for southwest Missouri. He has not asked for earmarks in 2023, nor in 2024. And as a mayor of a small town, I know that we cannot afford to leave any money on the table if we want to make improvements in our communities."
The rising costs and lack of child care services in the United States has created a challenge for many working parents. What can the federal government do to help working families with these child care challenges?
"If there is child care available, increasing the child tax credit would be optimal to help families afford it. I do know from just being in my own small community and in speaking to others within the 7th District, that there is a shortage. I did see where, you know, a congresswoman from, I think it was Kansas, northern part of Kansas, just brought back $2 million for her district in order to help families receive child care. So, again, having a congressional representative who would actually dig in to find those solutions would be the first step in fixing that problem."
What should America's role in the world be, and how would you, as a member of Congress, help guide U.S. foreign policy toward that vision?
"America needs to take care of Americans first. And I think that we do a good job of that. Some of these situations that are happening around the globe, from Ukraine to Israel, every situation needs to be taken on a case by case basis. You know, when Russia invaded Ukraine, Mr. Burlison said that Ukraine is not a bastion of freedom and that our money would be better spent elsewhere. Ukraine is indeed a bastion of freedom. They are indeed fighting for their way of life. So it is incumbent upon the United States to protect countries like Ukraine who butt up to our NATO allies. Poland was was just speaking the other day about how, you know, they are fully behind Ukraine, as is the rest of Europe, and those are our allies. So we should be supporting countries like that. When it comes to situations like are going on with Israel and Palestine, and now it's spreading outwards, I think that we should be cautious in the amount of money that we and materials that we supply to organizations that are not necessarily following the most humane approaches to preserving their freedoms. So helping those who need help but ensuring that those people are being humane in their approaches would be my stance on American politics there."
In the wake of the Supreme Court overturning Roe v Wade, what federal legislation might you support on the issue of reproductive rights?
"Whew. So it is my strong opinion that reproductive freedom, reproductive rights, health care in general should not be legislated. So if I were sent to D.C. and we flipped the House and had the Senate, I think that we should codify Roe and get this issue off of the table completely. I think that reproductive care, health care in general is private and it's personal and again, has no business being legislated. You know, I went back and I saw that in '22, Mr. Burlison was asked the same question, and he touted having gone through and introduced a pregnancy care center tax credit, which is really just a tax credit for incredibly wealthy people who are pro-life. It is not a solution for young people who become pregnant in ways that, you know, maybe they had no control over, that they are in absolutely no position to become parents. We have 13,000 youth in foster care in Missouri alone, 365 nationally. So care centers like this don't do anything to help those people, those children get into into care. And also, when it comes to abortion, I think there's so much misinformation out there. There are not, you know, the late term abortions being conducted, like they say, or post birth abortions, which is really infanticide, which is completely illegal. 91% of abortions occur in the first trimester, almost 99% within the first 20 weeks. And the rest of it has to do with maternal or fetal morbidity. So I would leave reproductive freedom to the individual and the doctor and codify it if given the chance."
How can we best bridge the political divisions and factionalism of our country?
"That is one of our number one problems that I see. There is absolutely so much division, and you see friends losing friends and families being torn apart from, from the division that is out there, the lies that are being told, the gaslighting that is out there. I joke because I say, you know, I heard somewhere in a northern European country outlawed lying basically by their legislators, if they're caught in a lie, they're kicked off of the legislature. I don't know how many people we would have left if we were to do that in the United States. But I think, I think our electeds need to be held to the highest standard possible. And I can't lie, my kids would tell you that I can't lie. They would always know if I was trying to tell them a story. We need to be upfront with ourselves. We need to come together and understand that compromise at the federal level is the only way that we're going to get anything done. This whole partisanship and grandstanding in order to get their way to impose their beliefs on others, that's what needs to go. That's what needs to go. We need to, you know, kind of do that, mind your own business kind of a thing, but mind your P's and Q's. Be honest with the people. Be honest with yourselves. Tell the whole story, whether it be our elected leaders or just in the conversations that we're having with each other. And that's, that's really about it."
Joining me now is Kevin Craig. Thank you very much for joining us. Would you please introduce yourself and tell us why you decided to run for this position?
"Well, thank you for having me. I'm the founder of a Bible study group called Vine and Fig Tree, which takes its name from the most popular Bible verse in America 300 years ago, the verse that talks about everyone beating their swords into ploughshares and dwelling peacefully under their own vine and fig tree. And the Libertarian Party, for which I run, makes its candidates sign an oath that says, I do not believe in or advocate the initiation of force as a solution to any personal, political or social problem, which is, I think, keeping in mind with Christian ethics, that you don't hurt people and you don't take their stuff. And if you don't like what they do, you need to work through persuasion, education, inspiration, helping them rather than enforcing your will on others by force. So I would, as a congressman, seek to abolish all unconstitutional agencies, which impose some people's will on other people by force, and seek to create a more peaceful society where we can all dwell peacefully under our own vine and fig tree."
What issue is most important to you that you'd carry to Washington, DC from southwest Missouri?
"Well, as I mentioned, Thomas Jefferson said the job of my job is to bind the government down by the chains of the Constitution. There are two ways to look at the Constitution. The founders intended us to see the Constitution as a document of enumerated powers, which means the government can't do anything unless we, the people say, you can do this and specifically this, that or that. The other view is the government can do anything it wants, as long as the Constitution doesn't say, you cannot do this, in which case we have lawyers for that. But the the idea is that we would cut all the unconstitutional agencies, which are taxing us at an exorbitant amount. If you, if you abolished all unconstitutional agencies like the Republican Party has been promising to do for decades, such as the Department of Education, Department of Energy, they have a long list in their political platform, you could save trillions of dollars, literally trillions of dollars, which would mean, just as a broad estimate, $10,000 for every man, woman and small child in southwest Missouri that they would be able to buy more stuff, improve their standard of living. And the government isn't doing that. It's not improving our standard of living. What I've learned from the last 400 years of human history is that capitalism, or a free market, raises everyone's standard of living and socialism, communism and fascism, violent imposed order on people always brings mass poverty and mass death. So the first thing I would say is eliminate the unconstitutional agencies, return the power and the money to the people. And I think that would drastically improve everyone's standard of living."
The rising costs and lack of child care services in the United States has created a challenge for many working parents. What can the federal government do to help working families with these child care challenges?
"The Libertarian Party believes in the separation of school and state. If we abolished all contact between the government and schools or education, the means of education, the cost of education would go down tremendously. For example, it costs maybe $20,000 a year for the average public school student, but it costs much less for a private education, because capitalism and competition always improves the services and lowers the cost. So parents who are, well, first of all, they wouldn't be having to have two jobs to pay the taxes that the government is imposing on them so that would leave more freedom for them to take care of their children on their own. But also the cost of education would go down. They would have more money for child care or other ways of of doing things. For example, they could help subsidize elderly or extended family members with all the savings that they would have because we are abolishing all these unconstitutional bureaucracies, there would be a lot higher standard of living with a lot more money to expand our standard of living, including daycare, education, taking care of children. That's a, that's a real easy issue for me. Abolish the unconstitutional agencies, lower taxes, increase the amount of disposable income that people have, and our families would be much stronger as a result."
What should America's role in the world be, and how would you, as a member of Congress, help guide U.S. foreign policy towards that vision.
"That's a really important question. I was born in the year of Sputnik. That was the Russian satellite that kicked off the space race, which was part of the Cold War. After the the Soviet Union fell, the Russians realized communism didn't work. Everybody was in poverty. It just was a system that was a massive failure. And they wanted, at that point in the late 1980s to forget communism and join the Western world, join the capitalist world, become a trading partner with the United States. But within the United States, they have what we call the deep state or the security state. And their view was that the United States must always be the most powerful nation on the Earth. We must have global hegemony. And the deep state said to Russia, no, we're not going to allow you to grow. We're not going to allow you to become a capitalist country. We are the only superpower on earth, and we will crush any country that attempts to rival us. They want global hegemony, or as they call it, full spectrum dominance. So we, the the Cold War continued even after communism was over and then the United States, the deep state, I don't mean to indict everybody in this room, but the deep state said, we're going to expand NATO and make it so that Russia cannot compete with us, and we will do regime change if necessary. So the United States overthrew the government, the democratically elected government of Ukraine and put in place an anti-Russian leader, whereas before they had Ukraine wanted to be neutral between the West and Russia. But they put in a guy who was hostile to Russia. The Ukrainians began attacking Russians in the Donbas region, and now we're facing, literally facing, nuclear war over this issue. And it's because the United States wants to dominate rather than it wants a unipolar world rather than a multipolar world. They don't want China, they don't want Russia, they don't want anyone to be stronger, to have hegemony like the United States does. And it's 500,000 Ukrainians have died in this conflict, which is completely unnecessary. We should just allow other nations to compete with us and to, and to grow. China has grown a great deal because they've also abandoned Marxism under Mao Tse-tung. So our foreign policy is one of hegemony, and it's it's threatening the world."
In the wake of the Supreme Court overturning Roe v Wade, what federal legislation might you support on the issue of reproductive rights?
"We get back to the idea of the Constitution being a document of enumerated powers, and nothing in the Constitution gives the federal government any authority to make any law or anything at all with regard to reproductive rights or anything like that. It's not in the Constitution. Ron Paul had a, my favorite congressman who's no longer in Congress, but he had a bill, which would have overruled Roe versus Wade by simply saying that the Supreme Court does not have jurisdiction. That's one of the powers given to Congress is to describe specifically the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court. And so if a state wanted to have an abortion law for or against, they could do that. And anybody who says, 'I want to appeal that law to the Supreme Court or federal court,' they wouldn't be able to because the Congress had removed their jurisdiction. And so we would have had right at the get. I mean, the day after Roe was passed, we could have said no more, no more jurisdiction over an abortion state by state basis. That's what we have now. And I think that's a, that's a federalist approach. That's what the Constitution would say, that the states and the locals have that power, not the federal government. Even the 10th Amendment enshrines this whole philosophy of delegated powers by saying the powers of the federal government are very few, and they're carefully defined. But the powers of the states, they're vast and indefinite. The states do what they want. The federal government is supposed to be very, very small. Now, personally, I'm pro-life. I believe what science tells us that the baby in the womb is a separate human being with its own unique DNA. And I would say it's wrong morally and legally to to kill that separate person. It's not just a tumor. It's not just a blob of flesh. It's. It's what I was. It's what each of us in this room were at one time. So I'm, I'm a pro-life in philosophy, but constitutionally, the federal government should have nothing to say about that. That's a state and local problem."
How can we best bridge the political divisions and factionalism of our country?
"I would say that the libertarian philosophy is the way to, is the way to do that, because what happens right now is we have two sides. One side wants to impose their view on the other side using the power of the sword, the power of government. The other side wants to impose their will on the other side by the power of the sword, by the power of the government. What we need to adopt is a philosophy that says it's wrong, it's not ethical, it's not moral to hurt people and take their stuff. Matt Kibbe has a great book, An Introduction to Libertarian Thinking, and that's the title, don't hurt people and don't take their stuff. It's a simple grassroots kind of Morality, but says, I don't have the right to hurt you, to threaten to lock you in a cage with a psychopath who will rape you. I don't have the right to do that, to inflict harm to, as the libertarian pledge says, to initiate force against you just because I don't like what you do, or I don't like what you believe or what you say. And once we get that the political infighting is the result of people wanting that power over other people and wanting to impose their view on other people by force or threats of violence. Eliminate that worldview, that way of looking at life by saying, I get what I want by threatening other people with violence, then there's no more political problems. The lobbyists who right now control our government, they wouldn't be able to spend millions of dollars on the candidates they want, or millions of dollars to bribe or lobby people in office, because what they want is the power of the government on their side and against their competitors, so that they can have the government keep people from competing against them, or to subsidize them if they're not doing a very good job on their own business, bail them out all the time. And again, here in southwest Missouri, we have to pay for all these bailouts, and we have to pay with a lower standard of living to have one organization, one corporation, get the high hand, the saddle, so to speak, and all the other corporations are regulated out of business so they can't compete, come up with innovative and creative ways to serve consumers like us. So it's that philosophy. I don't have the right to hurt people or take their stuff that eliminates the political infighting."
Joining me now is Eric Burlison. Thank you very much for joining us. Would you please introduce yourself and tell us why you decided to run for this position?
"I'm Eric Burlison. I'm a native of Springfield, grew up here in the southwest side, went to Parkview High School and then eventually went to Missouri State University, and back then it was SMSU. Graduated with a degree, a master's degree in Business Administration, and then went to work for CoxHealth as a software engineer, project manager and process architect. And then along the way, I went into finance and became an investment advisor and started serving our state at the state level in the Missouri House and the Missouri Senate. For me, running for US, Congress was giving up a lot. I had to give up my private sector businesses, my, my investment practice. But it was for an important cause because I think that this country needs help. I think that we're careening towards some, some very difficult times, and I want to I want to do what I can to save America."
What issue is most important to you that you'd carry to Washington, DC from southwest Missouri?
"I think that the — our fiscal crisis is probably the biggest issue that we have. It's, even our military brass are saying that testifying that it's the biggest national security threat that America faces is our $35 trillion debt. Now, to each taxpayer, that's $250,000 that each taxpayer shares of the of the full national debt. Just imagine how much money or how much income you're going to have to make before you're paying in $250,000 income. And that's just to get us back to even not to pay for all the future obligations. So it is a, it's a crisis, and I think that it's something that that we have got to pull back. We've got to start cutting spending and be more responsible. We need to grow the economy and hopefully we can grow our way out of this."
The rising costs and lack of child care services in the United States has created a challenge for many working parents. What can the federal government do to help working families with these childcare challenges?
"I like to say the tax code is something that we could look at, making sure that there's a deduction that's available. I think that one of the issues that we're facing in Missouri is because we've overly regulated that industry. So there was, for example, at one point in time when my wife and I, when we would send our daughters to child care, we've experienced all three versions. You had your in-home care provider or in-home provider, and then you have a licensed, larger one that's a home care, you know, and then you have more of an institution, a larger facility. And, you know, frankly, the the one that we used that was a individual who was unlicensed in the home, who had a very small group of kids, was probably the best one that we had for — during during our child's upbringing, but that is no longer possible today. When that law was put into effect, it eliminated thousands of options for parents across the state of Missouri, and that's, that's I think that that's one of the reasons why we have a crisis."
What should America's role in the world be, and how would you, as a member of Congress, help guide U.S. foreign policy towards that vision?
"So, the tradition has been that we've tried to police the world, and I don't think that we need to stick our nose into every country's business. I think we need to set an example. And when there are, when there are abuses of, you know, humanity, you have, any kind of horrific acts that that a country might do, the United States should respond with tariffs. We should respond with sanctions and and saying, 'we're not going to do business with your country until you correct what you're doing.' I think that we need to be a lot more careful about getting involved in conflicts around the world. We need to reconsider the conflicts that that we are involved in. And I think that if we if we can pull back our aggressive actions across the globe, I think that we'll see the temperature, we'll see the temperature come down."
In the wake of the Supreme Court overturning Roe v Wade, what federal legislation might you support on the issue of reproductive rights?
"Yeah. You know, what I find interesting is that, to me, substantively, things have not changed much since the reversal of Roe v Wade or the Dobbs decision. And I say that because in Missouri, Missouri, the values and the legislature that reflected the voters of Missouri, we basically eliminated abortion in the state of Missouri. But states like Illinois just across the border, and many states, they, they didn't do that. The Dobbs decision really didn't change, in my opinion, much. I think that there's been a lot of a lot of aggression and anger towards it, but at the end of the day, it's had very little real world impact on — functionally. And I think that we just need to pull back, see what, where the dust settles before we're going to make decisions about what the next steps are."
Joining me now is Eric Burlison. Thank you very much for joining us. Would you please introduce yourself and tell us why you decided to run for this position?
"I'm Eric Burlison. I'm a native of Springfield, grew up here in the southwest side, went to Parkview High School and then eventually went to Missouri State University, and back then it was SMSU. Graduated with a degree, a master's degree in Business Administration, and then went to work for CoxHealth as a software engineer, project manager and process architect. And then along the way, I went into finance and became an investment advisor and started serving our state at the state level in the Missouri House and the Missouri Senate. For me, running for US, Congress was giving up a lot. I had to give up my private sector businesses, my, my investment practice. But it was for an important cause because I think that this country needs help. I think that we're careening towards some, some very difficult times, and I want to I want to do what I can to save America."
What issue is most important to you that you'd carry to Washington, DC from southwest Missouri?
"I think that the — our fiscal crisis is probably the biggest issue that we have. It's, even our military brass are saying that testifying that it's the biggest national security threat that America faces is our $35 trillion debt. Now, to each taxpayer, that's $250,000 that each taxpayer shares of the of the full national debt. Just imagine how much money or how much income you're going to have to make before you're paying in $250,000 income. And that's just to get us back to even not to pay for all the future obligations. So it is a, it's a crisis, and I think that it's something that that we have got to pull back. We've got to start cutting spending and be more responsible. We need to grow the economy and hopefully we can grow our way out of this."
The rising costs and lack of child care services in the United States has created a challenge for many working parents. What can the federal government do to help working families with these childcare challenges?
"I like to say the tax code is something that we could look at, making sure that there's a deduction that's available. I think that one of the issues that we're facing in Missouri is because we've overly regulated that industry. So there was, for example, at one point in time when my wife and I, when we would send our daughters to child care, we've experienced all three versions. You had your in-home care provider or in-home provider, and then you have a licensed, larger one that's a home care, you know, and then you have more of an institution, a larger facility. And, you know, frankly, the the one that we used that was a individual who was unlicensed in the home, who had a very small group of kids, was probably the best one that we had for — during during our child's upbringing, but that is no longer possible today. When that law was put into effect, it eliminated thousands of options for parents across the state of Missouri, and that's, that's I think that that's one of the reasons why we have a crisis."
What should America's role in the world be, and how would you, as a member of Congress, help guide U.S. foreign policy towards that vision
"So, the tradition has been that we've tried to police the world, and I don't think that we need to stick our nose into every country's business. I think we need to set an example. And when there are, when there are abuses of, you know, humanity, you have, any kind of horrific acts that that a country might do, the United States should respond with tariffs. We should respond with sanctions and and saying, 'we're not going to do business with your country until you correct what you're doing.' I think that we need to be a lot more careful about getting involved in conflicts around the world. We need to reconsider the conflicts that that we are involved in. And I think that if we if we can pull back our aggressive actions across the globe, I think that we'll see the temperature, we'll see the temperature come down."
In the wake of the Supreme Court overturning Roe v Wade, what federal legislation might you support on the issue of reproductive rights?
"Yeah. You know, what I find interesting is that, to me, substantively, things have not changed much since the reversal of Roe v Wade or the Dobbs decision. And I say that because in Missouri, Missouri, the values and the legislature that reflected the voters of Missouri, we basically eliminated abortion in the state of Missouri. But states like Illinois just across the border, and many states, they, they didn't do that. The Dobbs decision really didn't change, in my opinion, much. I think that there's been a lot of a lot of aggression and anger towards it, but at the end of the day, it's had very little real world impact on — functionally. And I think that we just need to pull back, see what, where the dust settles before we're going to make decisions about what the next steps are."
How can we best bridge the political divisions and factionalism of our country?
"I think that we need to find a shared goal, right? So it used to be that we all wanted the best education for our children. And, and we all wanted us to, if that meant reading, writing, arithmetic, etc. But so I think some of the arguments that we have today are because we why why it's so hard to find agreement is because we're not on the same spectrum. We're not arguing about the same topics, or we don't, because we don't have the same priorities. And so I'm frustrated as well, but I think that we need to face and look at the bigger, the bigger challenges that we face, our fiscal situation, the safety and security of the American people, and we need to focus on those large issues, and we'll realize that we can, we can come together and find shared solutions for, for those large issues that we face."
"I think that we need to find a shared goal, right? So it used to be that we all wanted the best education for our children. And, and we all wanted us to, if that meant reading, writing, arithmetic, etc. But so I think some of the arguments that we have today are because we why why it's so hard to find agreement is because we're not on the same spectrum. We're not arguing about the same topics, or we don't, because we don't have the same priorities. And so I'm frustrated as well, but I think that we need to face and look at the bigger, the bigger challenges that we face, our fiscal situation, the safety and security of the American people, and we need to focus on those large issues, and we'll realize that we can, we can come together and find shared solutions for, for those large issues that we face."
Candidates for Missouri Senate District 140:
Republican incumbent Jamie Gragg is up against Democrat Julia Curran in November. Jamie Gragg declined the Informed Voter Coalition’s invitation to participate in the interview.
Candidates were interviewed individually and asked the same questions. They had one minute to introduce themselves and two minutes to respond to each question. Questions were submitted by Informed Voter Coalition partner organizations and were not provided to the candidates in advance. The order of the candidate interviews was determined by a random drawing.
Good afternoon. I'm Rachel Campbell with Show-Me Christian County, one of the nonpartisan organizations that make up the Informed Voter Coalition. Today, we are featuring the race for Missouri House District 140. Candidates are Julia Curran and Jamie Gragg. However, Jamie Gragg declined our invitation to participate.
I'd now like to introduce you to Julia Curran. Thank you so much for joining us.
"Well, thank you for having me."
Let's begin by having you introduce yourself and tell us why you decided to run for this office.
"Thank you. Well, my name is Julia Curran. I've been a 20-year resident or more of Christian County. My husband Rob and I have raised our four children here. They are now adults and went through the Ozark High School. I've been a nurse for 35 years. I've always been a very strong advocate for people, and I see in Christian County that we haven't really had a representative that truly represents the voice of all the people, of all the constituents in Christian County. I see that there's a lot more possibility, a lot more things that we can do to help people with their everyday lives and that I want to be the representative that represents everybody in our community."
How would your professional expertise and previous experience inform your decision making as a legislator?
"Well, as a nurse, I've always been a problem solver. I know that it's important to get more complicated situations, the right people in the room to help you solve issues. I am a — I try to solve problems in a way that involves more people, if that's necessary. I think it's very important to involve the right people in the room. I see legislation sometimes done in a vacuum, and that doesn't really help the community. We need to involve the professionals that guide our community and are involved in the everyday work. And so I want to involve those people. I want to involve constituents, and I want to be available to listen to people and what those needs are. We have a great community in Christian County. There's a lot of people working very hard for its success, and we need to involve all those people."
In what ways have you actively collaborated with the communities in your district to understand their needs?
"Well, at the start of the campaign, what I did was I went to a lot of different community leaders and groups, and I introduced myself to them. I told them that I wanted to run for state representative, that I thought there was a lack of true representation in the community. And I asked them what they did for the community, what their policies were, what their projects were, and also how can the state help their goal in serving the community better? I specifically asked them what helps and what hurts, and what I find more is that they want to be involved in those legislative decisions, and that that really impacts our community, and we need to have representatives that listen to them. So I — that's one of the things that I did. And I found that, unfortunately, it was correct that there's a lot of people not being listened to, and they have a lot of good ideas, and we should trust our professionals who run the different departments and groups in our town. The other thing I did was I engaged in the community. I started with a book exchange to start conversations out in the community with different groups and activities."
Across the state, school districts serve as large employers in their communities. What steps, if any, do you think should be taken to address the teacher shortage in Missouri?
"Well, I think one of the things that we should do is teach — treat teachers with more respect. They are highly trained professionals. They are dedicated to educating our children. They are the foundation of our educational system, and we need to engage with them more and find out what it is that would inspire them to stay in their profession. I know as a nurse that oftentimes I felt that I wasn't being heard in my 30 years. We went through so many nursing shortages, and I think the root problem was always the same. We weren't going to the problem. We weren't addressing the problem with the person it was affecting. So we need to find out from teachers what they need, what they need to better — they want, they want to be effective educators. How do we help them do that? And people who feel like they're accomplishing their job and have support are people that are going to be happy and staying there and and do a much better job."
What do you believe to be the most pressing issues in your district, and how do you plan to address these key issues if elected?
"There's, I think, several different issues. And what I've been concentrating on is trying to find out how to engage more people. What I find is a lot of solving problems that don't exist and not enough of focusing on problems or concerns that people have. When I speak to young people, young families, I hear that there are issues regarding childcare. I find that most of their rent, most of their childcare dollars, equals the amount of their rent. I find that people are working really hard and not making a wage that helps them get ahead. I find that older people are being kind of pushed from their homes because of the cost of living, the high cost of insurance. There's so many things that we can do in our community, and none of those problems are being addressed. We just have some divisive issues being thrown out there at us. We have so much more in common, and I think that we're unstoppable when we realize exactly how much we have in common and not that much that divides us."
If elected, how do you plan to stay in touch with your constituents?
"By doing what I'm doing and being out there in the community and engaging with people who the legislation affects — the different departments, the local and the county government instead of — I hear all the time, 'we have to stay in our lanes.' No, there's one lane, and that should be to make a better and stronger community. And in order to do that, we cannot be in a vacuum up in Jeff City. We have to be consistently engaging, consistently asking people to come up on legislative days and really engaging with them, not just taking photo ops. We need to really work with people and hear what they have to say and listen, and not just wait for them to finish talking so we can continue speaking. We need to — in the end, I want to represent everybody in our community, whether you voted for me or not. In the end of the day, I want to be a representative that truly represents not just the people in eastern Christian County, but works for them every single day and helps them live better lives in our community."
All right, Julia Curran, that concludes our interview. Thank you so much for taking the time to talk with us today.
"Thank you very much."
Jamie Gragg declined the Informed Voter Coalition’s invitation to participate in the interview.
Candidates for Missouri Senate District 29:
Republican incumbent Mike Moon will face Democrat Ron Monnig on November 5. Republican incumbent Mike Moon declined the Informed Voter Coalition's invitation to participate in the interview.
Candidates were interviewed individually and asked the same questions. They had one minute to introduce themselves and two minutes to respond to each question. Questions were submitted by Informed Voter Coalition partner organizations and were not provided to the candidates in advance. The order of the candidate interviews was determined by a random drawing.
I'm Andrew Crocker of Be Civil, Be Heard, one of the nonpartisan organizations that make up the Informed Voter Coalition. Today we're interviewing a candidate for Missouri Senate District 29. He is Democrat Ron Monnig. Republican incumbent Mike Moon declined our invitation.
Thank you very much for joining us.
"Thank you."
Let's begin by having you introduce yourself and tell us why you decided to run for office.
"My name is Ron Monnig. I'm a lifelong Missourian who was born and raised in central Missouri and the Howard County, Saline County areas. About eight, nine years ago, I decided to retire and move down to Barry County and Eagle Rock, Missouri to live on Table Rock Lake because I love the beauty, and I have a couple daughters down here, decided to get back into politics. I've been a small time businessman or small business owner, I guess, through the years. And I've raised a family. I have six children and 13 grandchildren and one great grandchild. But they're the reason I got into this — my daughters are teachers. I've got a brother and a grandmother that were teachers, and I think that's just one of the main issues that we need to focus on. I didn't like the direction Missouri is going in. I think it's time the legislature went back to work and got some things done for the people."
In Missouri, citizens can bring forward important issues through the initiative petition process. What is your view of Missouri's initiative petition process and recently proposed changes?
"I think the initiative petition process has worked fine for over 100 years. I see no reason to mess with it. Right now, we basically have politicians that have been trying to go behind the voters' back, trying to make sure that one person doesn't equal one vote, because a minority of our citizens could basically veto initiative petition the way it was drawn up. It's worked well. It's one of the few things that's gotten done in Missouri because of lack of action of our state legislature. Last session was the least effective session as far as passing any bills in the history of our legislature. And that includes during the COVID when they didn't even meet. It's time to change this. The initiative petition process has been responsible for the Hancock Amendment, bringing the lottery online, medical marijuana, recreational marijuana. It's the things that have brought minimum wage and increases to our quality of life for all Missourians. It's the same thing that we're seeing right now. We've seen it with the minimum wage proposal. We're seeing it with the abortion rights issue, and these are things that the voters wanted or they wouldn't have voted overwhelmingly to put them on the petition. There were over 350,000 signatures to bring Amendment 3. The state's secretary of state and individual legislators have done everything they can to stop the will of the people. It's time to go back to one person and one vote, and it's time for our legislature to get back to work, discuss things civilly among themselves, have a dialogue and make Missouri move forward again and become the great state I know it can be."
Amendment 3 will appear on the November ballot. If passed, it will amend the Missouri Constitution to provide the right for reproductive freedom. Do you support this amendment? Why or why not?
"Yes, I do support the amendment. I like to make a joke, and though I try to be funny about it, it's no laughing matter. I tell people I'm running for the Senate because I want to become a surgeon. That makes no sense at all. And that's what the legislature is trying to do. They're trying to go in and tell doctors what they can and cannot do. They're trying to tell patients what services they can receive. They're trying to outlaw reproductive freedom for women. This is a battle we've had, we've fought for over 100 years. Roe versus Wade has worked fine. It's time to keep it. It's time for the legislature to stay out of doctors offices, out of our exam rooms and trying to dictate what medical procedures we can and cannot have. Women that have faced the most difficult decision, probably in their life if they face this battle, and most generally, it's a family matter, and that's the way it should be. It should be a matter between a woman, her conscience, her family, her doctor and whatever decision they make. I have no business telling another person what to do or not do. It makes no more sense than trying to tell a man you must get a vasectomy because that will control unwanted pregnancies. Men would be outraged if we told them that, and rightfully so. We need to get back to where government stays out of our business and goes about and does the job that they're supposed to be doing. Right now there's inaction. There's deadlock, gridlock. We've got one party that's dominated the legislature, and it's time to make a change. I'm not advocating Republican versus Democrat, because when I was on city council for 20 years, we never did. In Missouri Municipal League, I'm past president and board member — not once in those board meetings did somebody ask if I was a Democrat or a Republican. It should be the same way in the legislature. Let's get back to work and let's do the things that Missourians want us to do."
Amendment 2 will appear on the November ballot. If passed, it will legalize and regulate sports wagering in Missouri. Do you support this amendment? Why or why not?
"Yes, I do support it because gambling is going on anyway. It's going to happen. They're either going to go across state lines, they're going to do it online or they're going to they're going to find some way to do it. I know a number of years ago I'd read an article that, it was the Super Bowl or the NCAA tournament, was the largest betting pot or money bet on any one event in the world's history, and it was hundreds, if not billions of dollars being wagered. People are going to do it, and it's not our — it shouldn't be our place to tell them what they can and cannot do. I know all about addiction. I understand gambling addiction and other types of addiction, but we don't outlaw things simply because people have addiction problems or you're against it for whatever reason. I know the big argument now is they don't want to do it or they're arguing against it because they say none of that money will go for education. I'll remind everyone that when the lottery was passed, I thought it was deceptive. They said that money is going to education, but they did not fine tune the amendment enough where they didn't say it was in addition to the education funding. All it did was replace the general fund. You got $10 over here. They said we're reducing funding from the general fund by $10. It wasn't an addition to education, but it was just another alternate means of financing it. We don't need those type of tricks. They try to play games with these ballot issues. I say read them thoroughly, see both sides, read the discussions, but don't believe the five, 10, 15 second soundbites are the bumper sticker quotes before you make up your mind on this decision. It's something that everybody can make the decision for themselves. And the same as Amendment 3, we have no right telling people what to do with their lives or with their money."
Due in part to budget restraints, the percentage of school districts that have enacted four day school weeks have exploded from one in 2010 to 160 today, representing more than 30% of all Missouri public schools. Do you see a role for the General Assembly in addressing this dynamic? Why or why not?
"Again, it comes back to responsibilities. We see too much of abdication of our responsibilities in the state legislature. They forget what their role is. The role of our state government is to worry about operating the state government. It's taxing at the state level. It's providing state level services, things of this nature. We have no more business trying to tell a local school district what they should do than what — than anything else. It's not our place. Right now we have the our — a good example is our highway patrol. They have not had a raise, I don't believe in 20 years, there's a serious shortage of officers, and the state's sending some of those officers to the border to to patrol down along Mexico. That's not the state's job. That's the federal government's job. Let's bring those guys back to Missouri. Let's get back to work for Missouri. Let's get together. We can talk. We can come to, we can come to agreement on all these issues. It's a matter of sitting down and taking the far left and the far right out of it, meeting in the middle, having a discussion like you do across your backyard fence. Visit with your neighbors. 'This is what I think. That's what you think. These are the facts,' and reach a compromise. Politics is the art of compromise. That's been forgotten. And for too long we've had radical elements in both parties, but mainly the Republican Party, has brought the thing to a standstill. You can look at at my opponent. He's been kicked off committees. He's the only vote against things because he says, I'm for the Constitution. Constitution says fully fund public schools. That's not happening. They're sending public money to private schools to charter schools. That's not in the Constitution either. I say let's do our job like the Constitution dictates and how the people want us to."
What are your budget priorities for the upcoming year? What would you like to see funded for your district?
"I want to see our tax dollars come back to public schools. I'm believing that education is our number one priority in this state. We need to increase the school formula. We need to fully fund it and increase it. We need to increase teacher salaries. For too long, we have not funded the education that we need and then people wonder why our education standards are slipping. Let's put the money back where it belongs, and that's in the future, and that's in our kids. And that means in our schools. And that means good public schools for everyone, not just the ones in rich areas, not the people in the suburbs, but back in rural Missouri, back in this district where it makes a difference, where we can make an impact on these children's lives and make a better, brighter future for all of us. And that's all we can ask ask of anyone, and I would also like to bring more attention to rural emergency and health care services. We're seeing hospitals close down. We're seeing doctors leave the state. All of these things are due to government interference going into places they don't belong, telling doctors what to do, trying to dictate what books go in libraries, trying to dictate what schools can and cannot teach. That's not the state's job. If you're worried about your local school, I suggest you move back home. Run for the school board. If you're worried about what's going on along the Mexican border, I suggest you go and run for Congress or for the United States Senate. You can make policy there. And the Missouri Senate and Jefferson City, our job is to take care of our folks back home and make them our priority. And that's what I'll do. It's time to do that again and quit worrying about the next election, not even showing up for interviews or not campaigning. The people deserve better than that. They deserve a senator that will work for them, use common sense and get things done."
Ron, that concludes our interview. Thank you very much for taking the time to talk to us.
"Thank you."
The video interviews were recorded by Nathan Papes of the Springfield News-Leader.
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