The Informed Voter Coalition is made up of these nonprofit organizations: Be Civil, Be Heard ; Drury University’s L.E. Meador Center for Politics & Citizenship; Junior League of Springfield; KSMU Ozarks Public Radio; Leadership Springfield; League of Women Voters of Southwest Missouri; Missouri State University’s Office of Public Affairs; NAACP Springfield; Rosie; Show Me Christian County; Springfield Business Journal; Springfield-Greene County Library District; and the Springfield News-Leader.
You can hear the interviews recorded at KSMU by clicking on the "listen" button above or watch videos of the interviews recorded by Nathan Papes and Greta Cross of the Springfield News-Leader.
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.
Missouri House District 129
John Black
I'm Tyler Thompson with the NAACP in Springfield, Missouri. Today, we are interviewing candidates for Missouri House District 129. They are John Black and Louise Hansen. Our first candidate is John Black. So thank you very much for joining us.
"Thank you for having me here to discuss the issues."
Let's begin by having you introduce yourself and tell us why you decided to run for this office.
"Hi, my name is John Black. I live in Marshfield. My wife Cynthia and I have lived there for over 30 years. She's a lawyer in Marshfield. I'm a graduate of Strafford High School, the University of Missouri-Rolla and UMC Law School. I worked in, as a lawyer for, in private practice, and for Missouri State and for City Utilities. I ran when I retired from City Utilities in 2018. The last 20 some years of my career was in public service, and I thought perhaps serving as a member of the General Assembly would continue that public service. Most of my work in the House since that time, I'm a Republican, has been on budget."
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?
"I think we're doing that in the General Assembly in Missouri. My family is significantly involved in education. My brother's a teacher, and my sister-in-law's a teacher. My daughter is an administrator, and public schools are very significant to me. And in the past few years, we have increased our funding for the public schools to help them provide and recruit financial incentives for teachers. We now have a minimum salary of $40,000. More than that, though, probably, we've increased funding in transportation. We fully funded the school foundation formula every year I've been there, so we are doing more every year to improve the financial situation of the public schools."
There have been many controversies surrounding books in schools. Some believe local government entities and parents should be responsible for content. Others believe that this approach promotes censorship and is not in the spirit of education. Where do you stand on this matter?
"I will always stand for parent involvement in their children's lives and their children's educations. There are publicly founded and established boards to oversee our public entities, including the libraries. Those boards should be a representation of the community they represent. But, short answer, I'm always strongly supportive of parents' rights in the growth and education of their children."
How do you think we can bridge the political divisions in our state?
"Now, if I had the answer to that question, I think I'd be making a lot of money. The political divisions in our state are, to some degree, a reflection of the social situation in our state. We are polarized. We've lost our unity to some degree. The founding fathers of our country made it very, very clear that this republican society is based on a moral and religious people acting responsibly. To the degree that that breaks down and people put self-interest ahead of their own, we have problems. So the voters need to be aware of the foundational elements of a candidate's approach to government. If it's polar on either side, Republican or Democrat, the voters should be aware of that, try to make themselves aware of that, rather than just watching the goofball and distorted commercials that you see on TV anymore. So, really, it's up to the voter to be responsible to find out what a candidate really stands for and if they are a polarizing candidate or if they have an intention to try to be, let's say, more moderate."
If elected, how do you plan to stay in touch with your constituents?
"Well, if I'm elected again, I plan to stay in touch the ways I have in the past. We do frequent communication to the voters, mailings. Every year. I am involved in the community. I see people. People see me. Marshfield, Webster County is a fairly close community. A lot of people recognize me for the position I have now and are very willing and able to say whatever they want to me, and I appreciate that. So it is difficult sometimes to stay completely in touch, but we have in the Capitol a pretty good effort on the part of local community members who, if they know you, to pick up the phone and call you or send you an email and let me know what their views are on a subject, and that's a value of being in the House for a few years. You get to know more and more people, and they're comfortable in calling you and emailing you and telling you what they think."
What do you believe to be the most pressing issue in your district, and how do you plan to address it?
"There are a lot of pressing issues in our district, but the one that is an issue that I am dealing with, have dealt with the last few years, is substance abuse. Substance abuse is an incredible problem. We've heard lately in our hearings in the Task Force on Substance Abuse Prevention and Treatment, which I happen to chair, that substance abuse is an $8.5 billion social cost to the state of Missouri. And certainly that includes my county and every county of the state. We all have friends, family members who suffer from that problem, and, as we know, it affects the whole family. The Substance Abuse Task Force is attempting to address the best ways to deal with the problem we have. We have, actually, and most people don't know this, a good recovery and help network in the state of Missouri. The way you can find out a lot of times you say, 'well, how can I get help for a family member or a friend that has an addiction problem?' There is a hotline now that we have in the state of Missouri that's called 988. You can dial 988 and get help, find out where there are resources in your area for substance abuse problems. And that is rolled out recently, and it's a valuable, a very valuable health tool to deal with the problem. So that is an issue. If you talk to your law enforcement people — my sheriff, my chief of police in Marshfield, Missouri, Webster County, will tell you 90% of great bulk of the crime problems that they have are related to drug abuse, addiction, substance. So there are many issues that are significant to our state and our community, but that's one that I'm working on."
John Black, that concludes our interview. Thank you very much for taking the time to talk to us.
"Thank you, Tyler."
Louise Hansen
Our next candidate is Louise Hansen. Would you please introduce yourself and tell us why you decided to run for this position.
"All right. Thank you. Well, thank you for asking me to be here. And I am a Webster County native. I was born and raised just outside Marshfield. I'm a small farm owner, and I'm a veteran. And the reason I'm running is to give the Webster County residents a choice. And I want to be able to take their concerns to the legislature. I don't think our voices are being heard well right now."
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'm not sure. State funding needs to be guaranteed, and the teachers simply aren't getting paid enough. If we paid enough for the job, then I think it would attract some really quality candidates. However, you know, school districts have to do with the — deal with the situation they're presented. And more teachers, I think, would make smaller and more manageable classrooms. And, I, yeah."
There have been many controversies surrounding books in schools. Some believe local government entities and parents should be responsible for content. Others believe that this approach promotes censorship and is not in the spirit of education. Where do you stand on this matter?
"Well, you know, the books used in teaching are one thing. The books that are available in libraries are another, and I think the individual and their parents and their conscience should be able to decide what books they read, rather than you or someone else telling me what books I can find available on the shelf."
How can we bridge the political divisions in our state?
"That's a very good question. I think open mindedness is helpful. The draw-the-line-in-the-sand attitude with the lack of willingness to collaborate and work across the aisle, it's just, it's got to stop. If everyone were able to keep their constituents in mind, I think they would do a much better job. And that's exactly what I want to do for Webster County is, is represent their concerns and not my own personal ones."
If elected, how do you plan to stay in touch with your constituents?
"Well, now there's a learning curve to all of this, and I'm not exactly sure, but I would like to try to have meetings and get in front of as many people as I can on a periodic basis so that I can actually learn firsthand what their concerns are, and we can talk about possible remedies."
What do you believe to be the most pressing issue in your district, and how do you plan to address it?
"The, well, the concerns for the constituents. I'm not, you know, each person is going to be different. But I think we need to address in Missouri things like roads and making sure that we are availing ourselves of all the federal monies that are available. I would like to see farmers, because Webster County is a is a mixed bag of of farmland, forest land, and there are some cattle farmers and some row crop farmers, but I would like to see them afforded state help in order to put into action the methods to become more sustainable farmers, whether it's grazing native grass or being able to afford a cover crop after they take out their corn or soybeans. And I would also like to see us improve the access to rural health care. The closures of some of the hospitals in rural areas — and clinics — is concerning when folks have to drive an hour or two hours to get the medical care they need."
Louise Hansen that concludes our interview. Thank you so much for taking the time to talk to us.
"Again, thank you for asking me."
