By BRENT MARTIN
St. Joseph Post
Two state representatives and one former state representative are on the Republican primary ballot next week for the 12th Missouri Senate District.
Rep. Rusty Black of Chillicothe serves on the Missouri House Budget Committee and says how the state spends its money is his top priority.
“If I’m lucky enough to be the next state senator from here, I want to continue to follow in that,” Black tells host Barry Birr on the KFEQ Hotline. “That would be my priority is to be actively involved in appropriation of our state tax money. That will be the number one thing I’m interested in.”
Black has represented the 7th Missouri House District for three terms. He taught agricultural education for years.
Black says management of the Missouri River, the future of I-229, and mental health, especially among veterans, are his top issues.
Black says, being a former educator, says education is very important to him and it’s very important to him to keep so-called woke education from creeping into Missouri schools.
“But we also need to make sure that those people sitting on the school boards, the administrators, the families around there have a pretty good strong voice in making sure that our values are taught through those schools,” according to Black.
As for state Rep. J. Eggleston of Maysville, he says he’s been fighting for the freedoms of northwest Missouri residents during his tenure serving in the 2nd Missouri House District.
“Improving our rural roads, cutting different red tape and regulations, and then this last session, pushing back on some of the COVID regulations that were impinging on our freedoms,” Eggleston tells Birr during his visit to the KFEQ Hotline.
Eggleston grew up on a 5th generation farm in Dekalb County. He became a software engineer and now runs a consumer electronics business.
Eggleston says state government needs to have a light touch rather than a heavy hand. Eggleston says northwest Missouri has been shortchanged in transportation funds, with too much state money going to multimodal transportation, such as bike lanes, instead of to construct or maintain roads and bridges.
Eggleston says he has championed his constituents’ freedoms during his four terms in the legislature.
“This idea of individual freedom comes up embedded in a whole slew of different topics and I always try to look at things from the point of view of the average Joe citizen,” Eggleston says. “That’s my job in government is to protect their freedom.”
Former state Representative Delus Johnson of Country Club Village says he will stick with his conservative convictions even while building consensus.
“I always treated everybody with respect and courtesy,” Johnson tells Birr on the KFEQ Hotline. “And even though I was voting against their bills, they still elected me to lead them and they elected me to be the Majority Whip in the Missouri House of Representatives.”
Johnson served four terms in the Missouri House previously. He served as a captain in the St. Joseph Fire Department prior to that.
Johnson vows to join the Conservative Caucus in the Missouri Senate, the caucus which delayed much legislative work this past session attempting to pass a Congressional redistricting map that could add another Republican to the 6-2 split in the Missouri delegation. The legislature eventually approved a map that likely will maintain the status quo.
Johnson opposed the legislature’s approval of a gas tax hike and says the state tax structure needs to be overhauled.
“You know, the way I look at it, we need to be reducing the income tax and eliminating the income tax and reducing and eliminating the corporation income tax as well,” Johnson says.
The three are running for the seat left open by Sen. Dan Hegeman of Cosby, who is leaving the legislature due to term limits.
Michael Baumli of Maryville is the only Democrat who has filed for the seat.
The 12th Missouri Senate District is the largest state senate district in Missouri, extending from Atchison County in far northwestern Missouri to Chariton County in north-central Missouri.