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 137
I'm Vickie Hicks with the Springfield-Greene County Library District, one of the nonpartisan organizations that makes up the Informed Voter Coalition. Today, we're interviewing candidates for Missouri House District 137. They are Darin Chappell and Bryce Lockwood.
Bryce Lockwood
Our first candidate is Bryce Lockwood, thank you very much for joining us.
"You're very welcome. Thank you."
Let's begin by having you introduce yourself, and tell us why you decided to run for office.
"My name is Bryce Lockwood. I'm a longtime resident of Strafford, Missouri. Moved here, moved there in 1999. We actually are residents of the Springfield area since 1978 where I attended Baptist Bible College and graduated in 1981 and attended Missouri State University College of Business. I am a candidate for the Missouri 137th Legislative District, and I hope to serve the people of that district and the people of Missouri."
How would your professional expertise and previous experience inform your decision making as a legislator?
"Well, as a former pastor, I'm a retired Baptist minister, I have counseling experience through the years. I'm sorry I'm not a legislator. I do not have a legal expertise other than just courses that I took at Missouri State University so I'm not an attorney, but I do hope to go to Jefferson City and serve the people of Missouri in a positive way, especially for the women of Missouri."
What are your budget priorities for the upcoming year?
"Budget priorities would be improvement of Missouri's highways and bridges. Our federal government had a large sum of money, some $350 million, earmarked for Missouri highways and bridges some three years ago. And there was a Missouri legislative bill that passed allowing open container in the front seat of automobiles. That ticked off the National Highway Transportation Safety Commission, and that money was withheld because of that allowance for open container. Drinking and driving don't mix, and I think they were wise to do so. We need to get that piece of legislation overturned where we can get that federal funding back here for Missouri's highways and bridges. Secondly is for medical care. We have 18 hospitals in rural Missouri that have been closed because our state legislature and the current administration of the state turned down federal money for Medicare and Medicaid. We need to get that taken care of and get hospitals back in rural Missouri."
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?
"I don't think we're doing ourselves any favors by allowing sports betting. That's just my personal opinion. I would be opposed to it, but I think it's likely going to pass. Folks have a problem with being addicted to sports betting, and I'm afraid that's going to be a problem with the family budget. But I'm going to give that question some more thought before I make a final decision."
Proposition A, which will appear on the November ballot, establishes a $13.75 minimum wage by 2025, which will then be increased by $1.25 each year until the year 2026, when the minimum wage will reach $15 per hour. It also requires employers to provide one hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours worked. Do you support proposition A? Why or why not?
"I definitely support Proposition A. Minimum wage is entirely too low. We have many people of low wages that are having to hold down, sometimes two and three separate jobs just to provide for the family. It shouldn't be that way. You ought to be able to earn a livable wage without having to hold down two or three jobs. I'm definitely in favor of a minimum wage of $15 per hour. As far as the assistance concerned, I think we need to have allowance for sick leave and allowance for family leave for parental care after a child is born. I think there should be a six month allowance for family of getting acquainted with a newborn, both for father and for mother. I believe that's something that we definitely need to take a good, hard look at."
What do you believe to be the most pressing issue in your district, and how do you plan to address it?
"I think right now the most pressing issue is women's rights. Women ought to have control over their own bodies and not be dictated to by a bunch of old men sitting in Jefferson City. It's something that needs to be taken care of and addressed. My daughter came down with cervical cancer some years ago, and her care came about as a result of Planned Parenthood allowing pap tests. Thankfully, her cancer was caught in time. It was cured, but we have withheld funds from Planned Parenthood and we need to allow for that."
Correction: In the audio and video, the interview host incorrectly states that Proposition A would increase the minimum wage to $3.75. It would increase to $13.75.
Darin Chappell
I'd now like to introduce Darin Chappell. Let's begin by having you introduce yourself and tell us why you decided to run for office.
"Well, thank you very much for having me today. And my name is Darin Chappell. I am the current state representative for the 137th District, and I just determined to run for office several years ago because I believe that we need to make sure that our government is responsive to the voters and the voices of the district. My family moved to this area in this district in 1837. My grandchildren are in the ninth generation to still live in this district that I'm privileged to represent. And because of my background in city administration, public budgeting and finance, taught political science here at the university (Missouri State). And I believe I understand how government works, but more importantly, how it's supposed to. And I want to be a reflection of those voters who deserve representation in our people's house, in the Capitol."
How would your professional expertise and previous experience inform your decision making as a legislator?
"So for my career, predominantly, I was a city administrator, multiple cities around the state. I was in Seymour and Bolivar, and I retired in Chillicothe. And my responsibilities there, much like now, were predominantly budgetary focused. There's x amount of dollars, there are numbers of priorities, and the whole premise is being able to make those determinations as to which priorities have to be met and to do so expeditiously, efficiently, but also fiscally, responsibly. And in my entire career, I never once had a budget in the red, and I never once had a tax increase, ever. I'm sure there's other city managers out there who can say that, but now I've never met one, so I'm very, very proud of that record. And so my work on the budget committee at the state level has been one where I've tried to find excessive appropriation, not because I want to cut state funding, per se, but I want to make sure we're not wasting it so that when those priorities are presented, we have the funding available for them. The state budget is right at $50 billion. But last year we we spent $10.3 billion less than that. So that's $10 billion we've over appropriated. And once the money is appropriated in a budget, it's not eligible to be re-appropriated elsewhere. So it's really important to get the numbers right. And unfortunately, that is a very uphill battle that I have met with but been very, very successful, and I continue to — I plan on continuing to do the good work for the voters of the 137th and the state."
What are your budget priorities for the upcoming year?
"So the budget priorities have always got to be the things that are constitutionally mandated, education being one of them. We have to make sure that we have the education funding — we have the funding formula fully, fully established and fully funded. We fully funded the transportation. We passed Senate Bill 727, which allows for a minimum salary of $40,000 for the state of Missouri for teachers so we've done good work in trying to make sure that we fund education. I'm a huge believer in it. My daughter is actually an assistant principal in one of the local area school districts. And of course, I taught, my stepmother retired as a Springfield Public School teacher. So, I mean, education has been a big part of my life forever. so that's one. Obviously, MoDOT, our highways, roads and bridges. There are bridges that are significantly, woefully untaken care of, if I can have an awkward phrasing of that, in my district, no less. And I'm in discussions with MoDOT to try to get those corrected. The public health and safety are always issues. The way in which our highway patrol is able to be funded and maintain the public safety around the state, those are all critical issues. And then everybody has their pet projects. And I'm not against any of the pet projects, but the priorities have to be taken care of first and foremost, because that's the function and role of government. And we do not have the authority to go beyond that scope."
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?
"I'm agnostic. I'm not going to be, I'm not going to be wagering, so for me personally, I — it does not impact me and my family. It doesn't. However, I am a believer in liberty, and, if someone wishes to engage in that activity, I have a hard time using the power of government to tell them no. I know that the sporting teams of our state are heavily in favor of this, and they have a significant amount of influence in the discussion. The Kansas City Chiefs, and I've been a Chiefs fan since Lenny Dawson was quarterback, Okay? And I waited 50 years between Super Bowls. So I'm very, very much dedicated to seeing my Chiefs do well. However, when they tell us that we're going to have to increase taxation and use tax dollars to build them a new stadium, I have an extraordinarily difficult time telling people who are struggling in the current economy that we're going to tax you to give money to billionaires so that they can make millionaires happy. I have a real hard time with that. And I, as much as I support the economic impact of the sporting teams of our state, I will not be supporting any taxation to go to rebuilding Arrowhead Stadium. I will stay out of the way and allow liberty to flow as it relates to sports betting, however."
Proposition A will appear on the November ballot. It establishes a $13.75 per hour minimum wage by 2025, which would be increased by $1.25 each year, each hour, every year until 2026, when the minimum wage is $15 per hour. It also requires employers to provide one hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours worked. Do you support Proposition A? Why or why not?
"Yeah, absolutely not. And the reason why not is because the economic impact is clear as to what this will continue to do. The minimum wage is, first of all, it's a misnomer because the minimum wage is actually $0, because once an employer no longer has the capacity to be able to hire people because we've increased the minimum requirements to a certain degree that they just can't staff anymore then there are no jobs from that employer available. Secondarily, the minimum wage increase always, always has and always will increases the cost of overhead production and manufacturing of goods and services, which can only be shunted onto the end consumer by increased prices. And what always inevitably happens is, when we increase the minimum wage, the cost of living at the basic level increases because every stage along the way they increase their prices, and the cost of living actually increases at a greater rate than what the minimum wage increase provided for. I've been around long enough to where the minimum wage when I started working was $2.85 an hour, and I've been on minimum wage, have done that and had to work three jobs because of that. But the reality of it is we're hurting the very people we propose to support by artificially jacking up the economic, established paradigm of how business works. And yet again, I just think it's an example of government and the power of government being utilized to solve a problem, but we make it worse instead."
What do you believe to be the most pressing issue in your district, and how do you plan to address it?
"So in my district, the most pressing issue for people continues to be education for their local school districts. I'm in touch with superintendents in the school districts of my district and the school board members. I'm always all ears. They're concerned about taxes. They're concerned about runaway spending. The State of Missouri's budget has increased nearly 80% in the last six years. An 80% increase is unsustainable. A significant amount of that money has come from Washington, D.C., and people say, 'oh, it's okay, it's federal dollars.' Well, that's our money, too, first of all. But secondarily, they always come with strings. They always come with mandates, and they may not be mandates that the State of Missouri, and specifically in my district, they may not be mandates that we wish to embrace. So by taking on that funding, resource and revenue stream, we take on with it a significant amount of burden that the people in my district are not terribly happy about."
Darin Chappell, that concludes our interview. Thank you very much for taking the time to talk to us.
"Thank you."
Correction: In the audio and video, the interview host incorrectly states that Proposition A would increase the minimum wage to $3.75. It would increase to $13.75.
