Lt. gov candidate Parson laments campaign vitriol at Cape GOP meeting

Republican lieutenant governor candidate Mike Parson decried the state of today’s political campaigns during a stop Friday in Cape Girardeau.

Parson, a state senator from Bolivar, Missouri, complained “we have gotten to a point as Republicans and conservatives that winning elections are about winning elections at all costs.”

Parson told the Cape Girardeau County Republican Women’s Club “candidates will literally destroy one another to win an election. They will tell lies about one another. They will destroy one’s honor. They will try to destroy your integrity.”

He said some $750,000 was spent in negative advertising recently against one Republican gubernatorial candidate.

Parson told the audience of local elected officials and party activists at Dexter Bar-B-Que that political candidates should not resort to tearing down their opponents.

“People who run for office should run on who they are, where they came from, what their accomplishments are, why you are qualified,” he said.

Parson lamented the amount of money that goes into today’s political campaigns. He estimated about $18 million will be spent in Republican primary contests this year.

“Think what you can do with that kind of money,” he said.

Parson stressed his background as a third-generation farmer and a former Polk County sheriff.

He criticized growing federal regulations.

“The overreach of the federal government affects every one of our daily lives in Missouri,” he said.

“We will have to stand up against the federal government,” he added.

Federal environmental regulations are bankrupting coal companies, he said. That’s bad news for Missouri because coal fuels 80 percent of the state’s energy, he added.

“We can’t survive without it,” he said.

Paul Koeper

Koeper speaks

Cape Girardeau County 1st District Associate Commissioner Paul Koeper also addressed the Republican group. Opponent Shawn Peetz of rural Jackson was scheduled to speak, too, but was unable to attend because of a family emergency, club members said.

Koeper talked about overseeing the county highway department. As a former civil engineer, Koeper said he has brought his construction expertise to the job of commissioner and the paving of county roads and construction of bridges.

He said the county highway department has paved more than 54 miles of rural roads since he took office 7 1/2 years ago.

Koeper said the county commission plans to build a $20 million courtroom facility that would be connected to the county jail in Jackson. Once built, sheriff’s deputies no longer will have to walk defendants outside from the jail to the courtroom. The current situation, he said, is “dangerous.”

The county government, he said, also is moving ahead with plans to construct a “wall of honor” at the county park that will include the engraved names of all military personnel from Cape Girardeau County who have died in service to the nation.

mbliss@semissourian.com

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