Vying for the 136th District seat in the Missouri House of Representatives on Nov. 5 are Democratic incumbent Stephanie Hein and Republican challenger Jim Robinette.
Hein is seeking a second term. She is a professor emerita from Missouri State University, having served as the university’s head of the Department of Hospitality Leadership prior to her House election.
According to Robinette’s campaign website, he is a U.S. Army veteran of Desert Storm, Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as a graduate of West Point and Notre Dame Law, and he is also a retired attorney.
The candidates were interviewed by the voter education consortium known as the Informed Voter Coalition. Springfield Business Journal is a member.
Complete interviews, which consist of five questions – the same for each of the candidates – can be found at SBJ.net/election2024.
Climate change is a scientific reality. Missouri’s erratic weather regularly impacts farmers. What, if anything, do you believe legislators should do to support this issue? And what, if anything, do you intend to do to address this problem?
Hein: Yeah, that’s an interesting question because we’ve seen it in Missouri with increases in tornadic activity, increases in our temperature – like, we’ve had hot, hot summers. You know, I think there is room for the state to play in these decisions, whether it be emissions type of work, whether it be funding for farmers who might need some additional assistance to transition over to different equipment or change over some of their farming methods to make it sustainable. I think we can help in that space. I think getting our body to understand that this is a change, and it is impacting our well-being and our quality of life, is important. I think we can come at it from a place of, how do we build sustainable housing? How do we practice sustainable practices? When we’re getting ready to roll out roadways across our state, which we have big investments coming across (Interstate) 70 and I-44, that perhaps we have decisions as to how is that impacting our environment and how do we do that work in a sustainable way? And so I think there are things that we can do – tangible things that we can do – just in our everyday decision-making in the processes that we have at the state, let alone when we’re talking about policy as well.
Robinette: I will tell you that I think climate is changing, and I think climate change is going to cause a lot of problems, and it has caused a lot of problems to date that we’re already seeing. I will tell you that what Missouri can do about that – what I worry about is the cost-benefit analysis of any policies that are enacted to address climate change. And what I mean by that is that if we make it more difficult for business to do business through, for example, carbon credits, then I think, you know, we’re essentially victims of a prisoner’s dilemma where Missouri may do that, but it may have a very little impact in terms of climate change – but it may have a major impact on quality of life and the economic well-being of Missourians, particularly where you look at the developing world and what they’re doing or not doing about climate change. But by the same token, I think that, you know, I’m a big fan of the Japanese principal of kaizen – incremental improvement over time. And I think that we ought to be addressing that in all things environmental to include emissions that impact climate change.
What do you believe to be the most pressing issue in your district, and how do you plan to address it?
Hein: So, I am known for knocking a lot of doors. I have about 23,000 doors that I’ve knocked so far. The No. 1 issue that I hear is inflation; inflation is eating up everyone. And if it’s a young family, if it’s a senior citizen, everyone is being impacted by inflation, and primarily where they’re seeing the pinch is at the grocery store and some of those everyday items that we have to purchase. I am hopeful at some point that we can perhaps roll back the grocery sales tax. We had some bipartisan support for that. It would help alleviate some of those strains. I mean, I proposed legislation to roll back taxes on diapers, baby formula – I mean, I think as a state we have to decide, where are we going to bring in our revenues? Do we want our revenues to be coming in from those everyday items that everyone needs, like food, or do we look for other sources that we can provide? The other issue that I am hearing is safe communities, and I think there are things that we can do at the state level to help with that. Obviously, we want to support our police officers, but we also have to make sure that we’re providing our community with the appropriate mental health support so that our officers aren’t having to respond to those types of crises. We have to make sure that we address the drug addictions so that we can curb some of those issues so that we reduce our criminal activity. There are so many pieces in that puzzle that if we address some of those items, it takes care of some of the big issues impacting our city.
Robinette: I think we have a huge crime problem here in Springfield. I think we’ve got a lot of property crime. If you look at the statistics, it’s Springfield, it’s sadly punching way above its weight in terms of property crime and also recently gun violence. I was really heartened to see that there’s been a $600,000 grant to study gun violence – and that’s not only gun violence on others, but also to address suicide by gun. And I’m really looking forward to see what that study comes out with. But in terms of crime, I think that Missouri desperately needs – and Sheriff Arnott has also talked about this – truth and sentencing. And here’s what I mean by that: In the federal system, there’s truth in sentencing. If somebody gets a four-year sentence – obviously that’s a felony length of a sentence for a crime, say armed robbery – they’re going to do that four years. They may get a little bit of time off, maybe 5%-10% off for good time for good behavior, but they’re not going to, you know, get out of jail, having served 15%, 20% of their sentence. And that’s exactly what we’re seeing in Missouri right now. And some of those criminals who have been convicted as criminals are going back out on the streets and reoffending. I think that needs to be addressed specifically by the legislature in the upcoming session, and I look forward to doing that.