The News Tribune held a forum for candidates seeking the Republican nomination for Missouri's 6th Senate District earlier this month.
Following the forums, readers sent additional questions to the newspaper. And we forwarded those to the candidates.
Incumbent Mike Bernskoetter, a first-term state senator for the district and Jefferson City businessman, faces challenger Scott Riedel, a U.S. Army chaplain veteran and Lake Ozark resident. The winner of Tuesday's primary wins the office as no other candidates from other parties are running.
After four business days, Riedel did not respond to the reader-submitted questions.
Q. One debate last legislative session centered around two principles -- the need for parental input in their child's education and the end for school autonomy regarding creation of curriculum. Where do you stand on these principles? And does one supersede the other?
Bernskoetter: "I have always been in favor of parents' involvement in every aspect of how we run our schools. There are basics that all schools should focus on: math, science, English language and understanding our system of government. When you get past that, I think parents need to have a large place in determining what their kids are taught. School is one of, if not the most, formative experience our kids have as they are growing up. Parents have a right to help shape what that formative experience looks like for their children."
Q. The state Legislature and governor made some gains with improving compensation for state employees in the last session. What next steps, if any, should legislators take to address compensation of state employees?
Bernskoetter: "In 2020, Missouri ranked second to last for compensating our state workers. I was very proud of the 5.5 percent raise we put in place for our state employees this year, but it doesn't even make up for the out-of-control inflation we've seen under (President) Joe Biden. The national inflation rate for the year ending June 2022 was 9.1 percent. We have to continue to do better for our state workers. Jobs are still plentiful, and we will continue to see good employees leave for the private sector unless we take steps to keep them. There are years that we simply can't provide a raise, that is a reality of governing, but whenever we can we must at least try to provide cost-of-living raises so that our employees aren't punished for staying at their jobs."
Q. The 2020 election in Missouri had a record turnout of voters. There was no evidence of significant voter fraud reported. Our secretary of state hailed it as a great success. Republicans won all the top state offices, retained a super-majority in the House and Senate and supported President Trump at 57 percent. Despite all this, our legislators have restricted access to voting, eliminated mail-in ballots, reduced absentee voting dates, required government-issued IDs, etc. Do you favor these recent restrictive voting measures?
Bernskoetter: "The steps that we took to reform election laws here in Missouri will make our elections more secure. Absentee voters can still vote up to two weeks before an election, and mail-in ballots are still accepted in certain situations. The threat of potential cyber-tampering is real, and we have made sure that our election machines are 'air gapped' against unauthorized access to make them as secure as possible. We've also required that paper ballots be used so that a physical record of actual votes exists whenever there is a question of an election's validity. The issue is not whether election fraud happened, the issue is whether it could happen. It could, and we have a responsibility to every citizen to make sure their votes are counted fairly."