Kander: It's about jobs, not politics

Dear Friends,
In Missouri, we have to add and keep good jobs. Across the state, every legislator knows that adding jobs in their region is important. That shouldn’t have anything to do with politics. It’s just about representing the people back home.

After just a few minutes of watching cable news, you can’t miss the fact that every issue is presented as partisan in nature. Jefferson City often feels the same way. There are certainly times when bipartisanship prevails, but on issues where significant disagreement exists, too often partisanship is to blame.

I started a debate in the House today that divided not on political lines, but almost exclusively on geographic lines. It’s not exactly an instance of bipartisanship, more a case of a lack of partisanship.

This afternoon, we debated a bill [HB546] to expand the ability of the legislature to exercise oversight over the Missouri Housing Development Commission (MHDC). The debate over this oversight is an important one with well-intentioned people on each side. One part of the bill, however, would move all employees of the MHDC to Jefferson City. Currently, the MHDC has 80 employees in Kansas City and 40 in St. Louis. This isn’t the most important provision in the bill, but it clearly would have a large effect upon Kansas City and St. Louis.

One of my responsibilities to Kansas City is to fight to keep every single job we have. In economic times like these, we can’t afford to just let 80 jobs go without putting up a fight. So I introduced an amendment to the bill that would have allowed the jobs to remain in Kansas City and St. Louis. I left the remainder of the bill untouched.

Representatives from the Kansas City and St. Louis areas – from both political parties – jumped in to support the amendment. Meanwhile, Democrats and Republicans from mid-Missouri rose to oppose it.

After about an hour of lively debate, we adjourned for the day without taking a vote on the amendment. We will likely come back to it in the coming days and I expect further debate along geographic, not partisan lines.

I thought I’d relay this story just to let you know that not everything here devolves into a partisan fight. Sometimes it devolves into a totally different fight. In the words of Speaker Tip O’Neill, “All politics is local.”

Sincerely,
Jason