Our Retired CMNEA President Announces Next Plans

McClintic to challenge Basye for 47th District seat

Chuck Basye

By RUDI KELLER Wednesday, June 3, 2015 

Susan McClintic is retiring this year after 28 years of teaching elementary and special education students and six years at the helm of the Columbia Missouri National Education Association.

Her ambition for 2016 is to give a neighbor more time to enjoy his retirement. McClintic’s home near Rocheport is close enough to that of state Rep. Chuck Basye that she can see it when the leaves are off the trees in winter, she said. She plans to run as the Democratic candidate next year against Basye, a freshman Republican, for the 47th District House seat.

Basye entered politics after retiring from a career as an air traffic controller, taking the seat in 2014 in a tight race against one-term Democratic Rep. John Wright.

Susan McClintic

“I am not sure that I have objections to Mr. Basye as a representative, but I think I can better represent public education and I am looking forward to that,” McClintic said.

Lawmakers should follow the law written in 2005 that establishes standards for school funding, McClintic said. In the budget for the year beginning July 1, the $3.27 billion appropriation for the foundation formula is about $400 million below the target set by state law, she said.

“That is a pretty simple thing,” McClintic said. “Live by your own rules.”

Basye defeated Wright by 361 votes in a race that cost the candidates and their parties almost $800,000. Basye carried the Cooper, Howard and Randolph county portions of the district, about 20 percent of the total vote, while narrowly losing Boone County. Wright won a close race in 2012 when 5,000 more voters went to the polls in the Boone County areas of the district.

Education funding for the coming year is at record levels and in step with the limited means of the state, Basye said. “We have a requirement to balance the budget, and we have to do the best we can,” he said.

Fully funding the formula, “is easier said than done,” Basye said.

This year’s legislative session ended in chaos, with House Republicans hurriedly nominating a replacement for House Speaker John Diehl, R-Town and Country, after he resigned in the wake of a scandal involving an intern. In the Senate, a Republican decision to force a vote on “right-to-work” legislation resulted in a filibuster of all other legislation by minority Democrats in the final days.

Despite those problems, Basye said, bills reducing the time poor people may receive Temporary Assistance to Needy Families or the jobless can claim unemployment were achievements for the GOP-led General Assembly.

“I think we did some very good things for the state,” Basye said. “I think we are on the right process.”

During McClintic's tenure as president of CMNEA, it was recognized as the sole representative for employees of Columbia Public Schools and engaged in collective bargaining with the district for the first time.

“One of the greatest things is the opportunity I have had as CMNEA president to advocate for kids and teachers,” McClintic said. “I want to take the work I have done and work at the state level to really try to improve public education.”

School ended for McClintic on Friday, and she intends to formally kick off her campaign in August, she said. She has not formed a campaign committee. McClintic said she has spoken to Wright, whom she backed in both of his campaigns.

Wright could not be reached for comment about his political plans. He has maintained a campaign committee to run for an unspecified statewide office in 2016 but has not spoken publicly about any ambitions.

Basye has not been actively raising money since the election but has received $1,750 in contributions since Nov. 5.

“That is so far ahead that I am not going to worry about stuff like that,” Basye said of the 2016 election.