Interview with John Lane, candidate for Missouri’s 50th House District
John Lane is a Republican running for Missouri’s 50th House District. Lane is the vice chair of the Boone County Republican Central Committee. He says his top priority is ensuring the University of Missouri is fully funded.
He was selected as the party nominee after Josjua Blakemane dropped out of the race in August. Lane, a small business owner from Columbia, will take on Democrat Gregg Bush, a registered nurse, in the Nov. 5 election. He says that he has direct experience with the legislature from being president of a lobbying group, the Missouri Restaurant Association.
The 50th District includes much of southern Columbia and the area immediately outside of it.
Mitchell Kaminski: Thank you so much for taking the time to join us. Starting off, what made you want to throw your hat in the ring for this race? Why do you want to run for this 50th District seat?
John Lane: Well, thanks, Mitch for having us set up today. I think the biggest reason that I found to run was that there was a story done about how my opponent intended to defund Mizzou if the unions that were supporting him didn't get what they wanted from the university. And so I started to get more active and looked into other candidates and went to a candidate forum. And just the energy in the room and the passion of the people that were there ignited that fire again for me. I decided to go ahead and work with the Central Committee to have their nomination and move forward.
EDITOR'S NOTE: Bush addresses the MU funding allegations here
Mitchell Kaminski: Kind of going off of that why the prospect of defunding Mizzou so important to you when you feel where you felt strong enough to say "I think I should get involved?"
John Lane: I'm a third-generation graduate from Mizzou. My grandfather and my dad both were graduates of the veterinary school here. I grew up in Clinton, but came back here for college and have been here ever since. And so having had a small business here, I knew the importance of the university to the economy and the importance of the students to the staff at a lot of our businesses, but also the importance of the University Hospital and what it brings to the community.
And there's an office within the business school of the Small Business Development Center that works with small businesses and helps them to understand what they need to do in order to open and to operate. And there are just so many things that the university does for the community that I just think we need to support it as much as we possibly can.
Kaminski: You’re in a little bit of a different position because the initial nominee had dropped out. Do you feel like you're at any sort of disadvantage, given the fact that you didn't really have a primary like your opponent did to kind of get their name out there and haven't had necessarily as much time on the campaign trail?
Lane: I think it is a disadvantage somewhat. I haven't had the opportunity to knock on as many doors as the other candidates have, but that's something I'm going to try to make up time over the next month as we near the election. So it's also a disadvantage from a fundraising standpoint because a lot of times, you'd have all that lined up before you even announced the candidacy for the primary. You know it has its advantages, too, because I got to become familiar with what the different candidates for all the offices were standing for and learn more about what was important to the community before I entered the race so there’s pros and cons.
Kaminski: How have your early campaign efforts been going and is there anything that you've learned on the campaign trail from voters as far as issues that really stand out to them?
Lane: I've spent quite a few hours knocking on doors and meeting neighbors and talking to my immediate neighbors. It kind of ratified for me that the important issues that I'm about are education and public safety, safe streets and the current economy and small business assistance. So it was important for me to kind of hear that as a priority from the folks that did answer the door and then I had a chance to have a conversation with. Columbia is such a great community and a friendly place. And so I look forward to having those conversations and really dialing in on what the constituents are interested in and being able to build some consensus around that in the legislature.
Kaminski: I know you laid out your platform a little bit there. What would you say if you were elected your biggest priority would be or biggest focal point in office?
Lane: I'd say making sure that the university is fully funded. We have a supermajority of the Republican Party in Jefferson City, in the House and the Senate, and in that kind of environment I think Boone County having a Republican candidate in one of the offices or more is going to help with the budget and funding and just making sure that we keep that support here in Columbia as opposed to in other parts of the state.
We've been fortunate to have Republican representation in Boone County for the last several years. And that certainly helped with the budget and bringing resources to the university. I think it's you know, and we've got such a cool opportunity right now with the next-gen facilities and the opportunity to build another research reactor that we need to capitalize that and really put Columbia and Mid-Missouri on the map as far as health care and the radioisotopes and all the different things that are being done, potentially that can cure cancer or diabetes or Alzheimer's or heart disease and all that stuff is being done right, right in the center at Columbia. And that’s pretty cool to me.
Kaminski: Getting into some more specifics starting with public safety. Is there anything in the 50th District that stands out to you, public safety-wise, that you think they could be doing better? What would your plan be to help keep your constituents safe?
Lane: In some respects, I think the Columbia department, the police department in particular can be a feeder to other larger cities to a certain extent. And so anything that we can do with training and resources to help to keep those officers here and develop more tenure, I think is going to help us in the long run because right now I know we're short officers and they're not able to be on the streets as much as they'd like to be. I think having a full force and having the men and women in blue on the streets and getting to know their beat and the neighbors and such that are there will go a long way to making sure that our neighborhoods are safer and the criminals are going to know that we've got somebody out in force as opposed to everybody being pulled in at north side or the south side or east or west or wherever they're getting pulled to that day instead of being on the beat.
I think we can do more for law enforcement training that would attract more officers to this area. It's been probably 18 months ago now, but I've always felt like I lived in a fairly safe neighborhood. I've lived here in Columbia for close to four decades and there was a neighbor that was actually chased down by a car and then a group of people in the car were shooting a gun into the air. And I never thought that would happen in the neighborhood that I lived in. And it just brings home to me how important it is that we get on top of the gang violence and the criminal activity that we're experiencing in Columbia.
Kaminski: You did also mentioned small businesses. Ideally, what would you like to see done to help foster some growth with some of the small businesses around the area?
Lane: I think we need to do as much as we can to make it easier to open a business and sustain a business. There's more and more rules and regulations every day that impact the length of time that it takes for a business to get open or to get their building permits, whether that's a remodel or a building from the ground up approved. That whole process you kind of have to do it in layers at the the city level and the county and the state level. A lot of the information that's being collected is the same. Anything that we could do to collect that information in one place for all of the entities to utilize, I think is going to add days that the businesses are going to be able to actually start turning a profit instead of just sinking more money into the startup.
Kaminski: How do you feel about the public school system in the district and is there anything that you believe can be done to help either improve the education system or that's maybe not being done that you think could be improved on?
Lane: Columbia's got a history of having fantastic public schools. I don't think we have the same accreditation now that we did even 10 years ago. I think we need to work hard to get back to that level of excellence and recognition for being one of the best school systems in the country. I'm a product of public schools. I think that we can do an excellent job for our students, but we need to get back to focusing on the students instead of focusing on some of the outside issues.
We need to get back to teaching, reading, writing, and arithmetic, and making sure that students are able to do those those key functions at their current age group. I mean, we've got people that are graduating high school right now that really have a reading comprehension level that is still in the grade school. And to me, that's not serving the public well, that's not serving the students well. And I think we need to reengage parents and have them be more involved in our in our schools and in our school systems and allow them to do their parenting and we teach those basic reading, writing and arithmetic.
Kaminski: I know there have been some lawmakers who have been big proponents of charter schools to try and raise competition, which they think would help public schools in turn. Do you think that is a viable solution or do you feel like lawmakers would be better off just investing in those public schools?
Lane: The charter schools are successful in a lot of cities and a lot of states around the country. And there is something to be said for merit and competition. We're a country that's based on free enterprise and being competitive and trying to do better every day. And so if charter schools in Columbia are going to bring that to our public school system, I applaud that effort. It remains to be seen where it's getting started. But if your best teachers are flocking to the charter schools, then we're not doing something right in our public education system. And we need to make adjustments so that we can keep the best and brightest to teach our kids in public schools.
Kaminski: There's a couple of big issues on this November ballot, including two big amendments. I want to start with Amendment 2. What are your thoughts on sports gambling coming into the state and then on this specific amendment in general? Because I know there have been some people who are proponents of sports betting, but say that this amendment may not be the right one to bring that into Missouri. So two pronged questions for you: how do you feel about sports betting coming into Missouri and are you in favor of Amendment 2?
Lane: I would have liked to have seen the General Assembly handle the issue of sports betting because I think there's an opportunity to build consensus. That was impossible this last session, to come up with a good law that can be good for all parties as opposed to just focusing on one side or the other of the issue. I believe that personally, as a legislator, I've got to set aside some of my personal beliefs about issues and make sure that I'm representing my constituents and I'm excited to learn more from them through their votes in November on what they would do on that issue.
That's not something that's going to come back up before the General Assembly in the near future because the citizens are having an opportunity to decide that. And so I'm going to leave that up to them.
Kaminski: Going into Amendment 3: How do you feel about the potential of that getting passed? I know that there have been some lawmakers, too, who have pushed back kind of against the initiative petition process, which is what helped get that on the ballot. Do you believe the threshold for initiative petitions needs to be higher or are you fine with the system the way it is?
John Lane: I think we've got a big problem with the initiative petition process because we've really got outsiders from outside of Missouri that are coming up with that language. They're using it in multiple states. So we know that that's being done by national organizations and they're paying people to hit the streets and collect signatures and I think if we're going to have an administrative petition process in Missouri, that it needs to be supported by citizens of Missouri that have an opportunity to vote and not have that done by outside groups.
Kaminski: So you feel that the outside groups are the ones driving that effort not necessarily the ones signing?
Lane: That’s right. And then requiring the entire state to approve or, you know, instead of just selecting specific congressional districts, I think goes a long way to making sure that the citizens are really behind the idea.
Kaminski: Are you in favor of Amendment 3?
Lane: I have my personal beliefs about the sanctity of life that are important to me, but there's a lot of flaws in my mind reading through the text of Amendment 3 that are really concerning, that have nothing to do with with reproductive rights, but also may even open the door for our children to be able to make an educated decision. That really concerns me. But once again, the voters are going to have an opportunity to decide that issue. And I'm really interested in seeing how they come down on that.
Kaminski: Do you mind going into specifics as far as some of the language that concerns you?
Lane: There's certain sections of it that refer to mental health and make that kind of a one-size-fits-all for everyone. And some of that language is what concerns me as far as taking parents out of the decision-making process for minors. And I mean, for as long as I can remember, and it may be always parents have had the responsibility for making a decision for their minor children. I think that the long-standing history of that being practice is a demonstration of the fact that we need to have parents involved in those types of decisions and that minors aren't necessarily going to have all the information that they need in order to make a good decision.
Kaminski: Homelessness has also been a growing issue in the area over the last couple of years. Is there anything that you would like to see done to address that or just housing in general?
Lane: I really think that the non-profits and the private sector can do a better job than the government in supporting homelessness and a lot of the different social services that we need to support people. And you know, I think people should have a place to live and an opportunity to work and to experience some success for themselves. And I think that's a big part of what the VA brings to our community. For the veterans and the new veterans home that's opened is doing a great job of trying to reintegrate the veterans into the community and have them be able to support themselves. And I think, given the opportunity we could engage even faith-based organizations more to to support the homelessness issue.
It's also different as far as the transient homelessness that's coming through and those that have, that faced the economy and they've just lost their job and I think if we were more supportive of allowing nonprofits to really handle that issue, I think a lot of our problems would be fixed overnight.
Kaminski: Finally, I'll leave the floor open to you. Is there any message that you would like to share with the voters or anything that's important to you that we might not have touched on?
Lane: I think it's important that we build consensus and we have common sense in Jefferson City. And in order to get there, we have to be willing to have the hard conversations with each other and keep the lines of communication open with the citizens of House District 50. I intend to be available whether it's to answer the phone or answer an email or to sit down and visit with someone to learn what their priorities are and, and how I can best represent the district.
