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 Senate District 29
Ron Monnig
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."
Mike Moon
Republican incumbent Mike Moon declined the Informed Voter Coalition's invitation to participate in the interview.
