The race for the 44th district House of Representatives seat this November pits two native Missourians.
The candidates are incumbent Republican Caleb Rowden, who is running against Democrat Tom Pauley. Both candidates grew up in Boone County and graduated from the University of Missouri. Rowden and Pauley have met with the public and discussed issues at various campaign events the past few months and discussed issues including education and lobbyist gifts.
Pauley said he believes education is a top priority and the state should fully fund the educational foundation formula. Pauley’s philosophy behind better education is not to teach to tests, but rather teach students to be problem solvers.
“We need to figure a way to broaden our schools, make them teach everybody, help them help everybody learn,” Pauley said.
Like Pauley, Rowden’s top priority is education. He said he wants to implement technology in classrooms.
“The traditional model, just what has been known as sitting in a classroom and looking to the front and the teacher teaches, I think that model is going away and going away pretty quickly as technology improves,” Rowden said.
Both candidates are concerned about the impact special interests can have in Jefferson City.
Pauley said legislators should not be allowed to accept lobbyist’s gifts and contributions.
“The joke that I hear by a lot of people, a lot of my colleagues are laughing about this and it's sad but it's true, we basically have the best legislature that money can buy,” Pauley said. “And our legislature is for sale. If you want something done, if you’ve got enough millions of dollars you can pass legislation. It's all for sale.”
Pauley has pledged that if he is elected, he will not accept lobbyist and interest group gifts.
According to the Missouri Ethics Commission, Rowden has accepted gifts this past legislative year, totaling more than $2,000 dollars, but he believes there should be a cap on the amount allowed for each representative.
“I think that folks who use the analogy that votes are being bought, that is absolutely a political ploy to try to win elections,” Rowden said. “Because they know deep down in their heart that there's no way that votes can be bought.”
Last legislative session Rowden introduced an ethics bill to cap lobbyist’s gifts and contributions to $3,000, but the bill never made it to the House floor. This December he plans to re-file legislation for a more broad ethics reform bill capping gifts and contributions, eventually banning them all together.
Columbia College political science professor Terry Smith said candidates go door-to-door to share campaign platforms like these and encourage people to vote.
“In a state legislative race, it is probably the last place where the districts are small enough and the voting population is small enough that you can do serious door-to-door,” Smith said.
Pauley said fit is refreshing to know more about his possible constituents. Like how one person he met said they do not own a computer.
“I didn't know anybody didn't have a computer,” Pauley said. “There are some out there. So that's where the door-to-door knocking and knocking on doors and talking to people face-to-face makes a difference.”
Rowden said he understands people get information for campaigns in many different ways.
“A 75-year-old that I knock on their door, they’re probably not going to get my tweet, and if they do kudos to them,” Rowden said. “So you have to find all the various ways, whether it be knocking on their door, talking to them online, getting on the TV screen, you just want to get the message out.”
Their messages are clear and both candidates say they are up for the challenge of representing district 44 in the Missouri House of Representatives if they are elected into office.
