GOP Candidates in Missouri Debate for Governor's Office

Gubernatorial GOP Candidates Meet For First Debate in Columbia 

 

Don Shrubshell

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Don Shrubshell/Tribune 

Candidates participating in a Republican gubernatorial debate Thursday at the Missouri Theatre were, from left, former Missouri Speaker of the House Catherine Hanaway, Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder, former Navy SEAL Eric Greitens and businessman John Brunner.

By RUDI KELLER

Friday, March 18, 2016 

The Republican candidates for governor used a debate Thursday night to clash over big donations, blame Gov. Jay Nixon for turmoil on the University of Missouri campus and assert who has the right message to beat Democratic Attorney General Chris Koster.

The sharpest exchange came when former U.S. Attorney Catherine Hanaway departed from an answer about the minimum wage to question why former Navy SEAL Eric Greitens had not returned $1 million donated by Michael Goguen, a California businessman accused of sexual abuse in a civil lawsuit.

“It is time for Eric Greitens to send the contribution back or, better yet, send it to a shelter for abused women,” Hanaway said.

Greitens responded by calling the issue a distraction by a politician who knows she is losing.

“I think this is what happens when desperate politicians get very desperate. ... I like Catherine, but you just can’t trust her,” Greitens said.

The debate, sponsored by the Columbia Chamber of Commerce, MU and KOMU-TV, drew about 500 people to Missouri Theatre.

The GOP primary will be held Aug. 2.

Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder took up the issue while answering a question about marijuana legalization. He said that the firm where Goguen was a partner, Sequoia Capital, severed ties and Ohio Gov. John Kasich returned a Goguen donation to his presidential super PAC.

“I don’t think you are going to be able to maintain this with your million-dollar donor,” Kinder said.

In response, Greitens attacked Kinder’s personal life.

“Peter, you are the last person on this stage, sir, who be should trafficking in tabloid stories about men who are hanging out in strip clubs,” he said, referring to a story that emerged in 2011 about Kinder’s romantic interest in a woman who was formerly a Penthouse Pet.

Businessman John Brunner, the fourth candidate, shied away from the issue during the debate.

The candidates are locked in what is likely to be the most expensive primary contest in Missouri history. Candidates may take unlimited donations; Hanaway and Greitens have both taken donations from a single source in excess of $1 million, while Brunner loaned $3 million to his campaign before the end of the year.

The debate in Columbia was one of the first broadcast debates of the campaign that will last until August. After that, the winner will likely take on Koster, a Democrat who has raised almost as much as the entire Republican field and has no primary opponent.

The unrest at the university, which has dominated state and oftentimes national headlines since November, should be blamed on Nixon and Koster, the Republican candidates said.

Asked whether the unrest justified cutting the university’s budget, the candidates talked about accountability and the need to restore confidence. A poll conducted last week for 10 Missouri newspapers including the Tribune indicated that 80 percent of voters oppose cutting the university or increasing its state budget allocation.

“The governor hid out in the mansion instead of coming over here and showing some leadership,” Kinder said.

Hanaway and Kinder are running as effective public servants who can push the levers of government and make it work.

Kinder argued that he is the most electable because he has won three statewide races and drawn a higher-than-normal percentage of minority voters among Republicans.

Hanaway lost a race for secretary of state in 2004, and Brunner lost a Republican primary for U.S. Senate in 2012.

“We have got to have a governor who will stand up against the trial lawyers and labor union bosses,” Kinder said.

Hanaway said she will bring a “bold five-point plan” to energize the state’s economy and education. Regulatory reform is necessary, she said, noting that there are 10,000 words in the state barber regulations and 10,000 words in the biblical Book of Revelations.

“Surely we can tell barbers how many combs to have in less words than it takes to describe Armageddon,” she said.

Brunner and Greitens are running as outsiders who will force government to work like a business.

Brunner had a more practical application of his outsider status to offer.

“As CEO of Missouri to other CEOs, I can attract other businesses back to this state,” Brunner said.

Greitens, meanwhile, is running as hard against the power structure in Jefferson City as some presidential candidates run against Washington, D.C.

“Politicians have failed us, and we can’t trust them to fix the mess that they have created,” Greitens said.

Oh yeah, We had a Primary This Week

How Boone County Fared in March Primary Election  

Don Shrubshell/Tribune 

Jeffery Lawhorn of Columbia watches election results on CNN at a watch party Tuesday for Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders at the Sanders campaign’s local headquarters, 15 S. Tenth St. 

By RUDI KELLER

Wednesday, March 16, 2016 

Bernie Sanders’ local supporters found solace on a bad night for their candidate in his victory in Boone County and, it seemed for most of the night, Missouri as well.

Volunteers filled the Vermont senator’s local headquarters Tuesday evening, watching as former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton took Democratic primaries in Florida, North Carolina and Ohio. But in Boone County, Sanders received 60.6 percent of the vote to Clinton’s 38.7 percent.

That margin was similar to the 2008 result, when then-Sen. Barack Obama defeated Clinton with 60.5 percent of the vote.

Clinton eked out an apparent statewide victory of 1,531 votes, erasing a Sanders margin that earlier had been as much as 19,000 votes, or about 4 percent of the total, on the strength of solid victories in Kansas City and St. Louis. Vote totals for Sanders and Clinton were within 0.5 percent of each other, so Sanders may request a recount under state law.

The volunteers will not stop working, said Danielle Muscato, a spokeswoman for Mid-Missourians for Bernie, because the next step is electing friendly delegates to the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia.

“We’ve got lots and lots of volunteers ready to do what we have to do to make sure progressive voices are represented at the convention,” Muscato said.

The Republican side was equally close, with businessman Donald Trump winning statewide by 1,726 votes over Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas. That apparent victory, also subject to recount, secured Trump 12 at-large delegates. Cruz scored a solid victory in Boone County and carried the Fourth Congressional District, earning its five delegates.

With all Boone County precincts reporting, Cruz had 43.9 percent of the vote compared with 30.9 percent for Trump. Ohio Gov. John Kasich garnered 14.5 percent, with Florida Sen. Marco Rubio trailing with 8.2 percent.

Boone County Republican Chairman Mike Zweifel said he’s not ready to concede that Trump will be the party’s nominee, adding that it will be difficult to stop him after victories in Florida, North Carolina and Illinois.

“He has half the delegates needed,” Zweifel said. “I don’t think it is over, but at the same time it is a lot harder for someone to beat him in the upcoming primaries.”

Boone County Clerk Wendy Noren counted 51,019 ballots, a turnout of 54 percent of active registered voters. The turnout and total are far more than the 41,903 counted in 2008, the last time both parties had nominating contests. The increase was all on the Republican side, where more than 10,000 new primary voters went to the polls.

The Democratic primary drew more than 1,000 fewer voters than 2008.

Throughout the day, the county clerk’s office had been deluged with calls from people needing to file a late change of address or complete their registration information, Noren said.

The primary will be followed by the caucuses that begin the selection of party members to fill delegate slots.

Boone County Democrats will gather at 7:30 p.m. April 7 for a countywide mass meeting at Gentry Middle School, 4200 Bethel St. County Chairman Homer Page said the local delegates to the Fourth Congressional District convention and the Democratic State Convention will be allocated based on the county result.

Boone County Republicans will meet at 10 a.m. April 9 at the Holiday Inn Executive Center under rules that will allow opponents of the winner an opportunity to elect their partisans as delegates. If the nomination is not settled when the national convention is held, the true allegiance — rather than the pledged allegiance for the first ballot based on the primary results — could become an important factor.

Each campaign that wishes to compete for the GOP local delegation must put up a complete slate of 45 delegates and 45 alternates and then turn out voters for the caucus.

“Any of the candidates can come and do that, but there have been some people talking about a unity slate of some sort, people who have helped out with the party for a long time,” Zweifel said.

CMNEA Recommends Dubbert and Rainsberger

CMNEA endorses two challengers for Columbia Board of Education

By THE TRIBUNE'S STAFF

Paul Rainsberger

Sarah Dubbert

Friday, March 4, 2016 
Teachers represented by the Columbia Missouri National Education Association have voted to recommend two challengers to the Columbia Board of Education in the April 5 election.

CMNEA members are supporting Sarah Dubbert and Paul Rainsberger for election to the board. Five candidates are vying for two board positions in the election. The other candidates are Joe Toepke and incumbents Jim Whitt and Jan Mees.

The recommendations come after a screening process that included candidate questionnaires, an interview with teachers and a public forum.

“We are optimistic that Mr. Rainsberger and Mrs. Dubbert will guide our district into its next phase of providing an outstanding education for all the students of Columbia Public Schools,” CMNEA President Kathy Steinhoff said in a news release.

Teachers also voted to recommend “yes” votes on the operating levy increase and a bond issue proposed by the school board.

The district is seeking an operating levy increase of 65 cents per $100 of assessed valuation. It would generate about $14.6 million annually. Nearly half of it would be used to improve employee salaries, and another $6.6 million would fund existing operations and eliminate deficit spending. The remaining $720,000 would go toward student programs including career and technical education.

The $30 million bond issue won’t require a tax increase. It would be used to buy land and design a future middle school in south Columbia, add to an elementary school, expand a school kitchen and pay for other work.

The bond issue must be approved by 57.14 percent of voters; the operating levy increase requires a simple majority vote for approval.

The Latest in Negotiations with CMNEA and CPS

School board team wants CPS teacher salary discussions to wait

By ROGER MCKINNEY

Tuesday, March 1, 2016 

Any discussion about raising salaries for Columbia Public Schools teachers must wait until after the April 5 election, CPS Deputy Superintendent Dana Clippard told the negotiating team for the teachers union on Monday.

The Columbia Missouri National Education Association team earlier in the meeting had presented its proposal to restore salaries frozen in 2009-10. Kathy Steinhoff, CMNEA president, said the step could be restored using district reserve funds.“I just hope this is something we can agree to very soon,” Steinhoff said.

“This is the utmost importance to everybody in our unit,” said CMNEA team member Mary Grupe. Restoring the frozen step was the proposal the fewest number of members wanted to drop when surveyed last week after the district limited its proposals to five in addition to salary.

The CMNEA team last week introduced its request to increase the minimum salary for teachers to $35,402 and raise teachers’ base pay by 6 percent, to $32,344. New university graduates receive the minimum salary their first four years on the job. In the fifth year, salaries are calculated with a formula using the base pay.

The April 5 ballot will include a CPS proposal to increase its property tax levy to fund operations by 65 cents per $100 of assessed valuation to raise an extra $14.625 million annually. Nearly half of that would be dedicated to improving employee salaries. There’s also a $30 million bond issue on the ballot, with no tax increase required.

After the meeting, Clippard did not answer directly when asked if the district’s position on compensation depends on the election result.

“We’re saying it’s premature to do compensation until after the election,” Clippard said. “We’re asking for a deferred discussion.”

She said it was important to discuss the salary request and restoring frozen salaries at the same time, rather than separately, because both are related to compensation.

“I think we need to be sensitive to the issues the election presents to the voters and the timing of these discussions,” Clippard said.

Grupe said after the session that it seems the board’s team is saying that the district’s answer on salaries will depend on the election result. She said it would have been simple for the board’s team to address the frozen salaries.

“What a way to demonstrate value to teachers,” she said. “We believe it can be done regardless of the bond and levy election.”

The CMNEA team was allowed to present five proposals in addition to the salary proposal. One of them was restoring frozen salaries.

Others were:

• Protection of planning time.
• Twelve days of short-term leave per year, with unused time accumulating and the ability to use five consecutive days.
• The right for a teacher to have a representative present during disciplinary meetings with supervisors.
• A limit of two hours per month of required meetings and events outside the school day, with 24 hours notice provided and none before 6:30 a.m.

Based on the survey, the CMNEA team dropped a proposal to protect teacher time during preparation for the school year. The board team agreed to present the proposal to the Columbia Board of Education.

The team representing CPS officials also presented at the end of the meeting its language in response to the CMNEA team’s nonsalary proposals.

“We gave a sincere attempt to capture the essence of their concerns,” Clippard said.

If there is no agreement at the end of the bargaining sessions, the current agreement remains in place through the end of June 2017.

CMNEA Volunteers Needed to Support School Board Candidate

Calling All Volunteers!

As CMNEA prepares for our Columbia school board candidate(s) recommended vote next week, we are also preparing to hit the ground running to support our recommended candidate(s) in race. We will need CMNEA members to help with the following:

• Canvass YOUR neighborhood one Saturday in March to share who to vote for in the April 5th School Board election.
• Write letters to the Columbia Daily Tribune and/or Columbia Missourian in support for our recommended candidate(s).
• Take a yard sign to show support.
• Facebook and Tweet 

We must all step up to do our part to help support our association. If each of the 600+ CMNEA members talked to their neighbors, wrote a letter, put up a sign and spread the news, CMNEA help help our students earn what they deserve the most, the best school district in our state.

Please contact Monica: scootersaunt@gmail.com  with your HOME email and let her know how you will volunteer.

Many hands make for light work! 

Boone County Democratic Chili Dinner and Fundraiser

Join the Fun and Meet Area Candidates!

It is a wonderful way to meet candidates who are running for area offices and learn how their campaigns are going. If you are attending, please do not wear any of your CMNEA and MNEA materials. We have not endorsed anyone at the state or local level. Thank you for understanding!

Join CMNEA For Our School Board Public Forum