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Eyes On: District 6 Senate Race

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo – As far as Sen. Mike Kehoe is concerned, voters in Missouri’s sixth senatorial district have two distinct candidates.

“It will be an election when the citizens in the sixth senatorial district have a very clear choice,” Kehoe said.

The Democratic candidate for the sixth senatorial district, Mollie Freebairn, agrees with Kehoe’s sentiments.

“It’s all different – I support medicaid expansion, I am opposed to the income tax cut,” Freebairn said.

“I am an energy and environmental scientist.  I have worked in government – state and federal, U.S. Customs, Missouri Department of Natural Resources, and then I worked in industry, including Monsanto, Sigma Chemical, and Envirodyne Engineers. I’ve worked in academia at Washington University Medical School and the University of Utah,”  Freebairn said.

Senate Candidate Mollie Freebairn
Senate Candidate Mollie Freebairn

One issue that both of the candidates in this race are stressing is energy, however they have different views on the subject.  Freebairn would strive to bolster Missouri’s clean energy efforts. “Large and small business impact people’s lives and creates jobs, but can also pollute the environment and make people sick.  As far as a niche, I would be working specifically to work on energy issues and help Missouri to develop an energy plan,” Freebairn said.

Kehoe, on the other hand, plans to work on keeping Missouri’s energy rates as low as possible. “I’m an infrastructure Republican. Missouri’s highway and transportation system is important to Missouri families and the economy.  Aging utility structure is here and we have to figure out a way to keep Missouri as the seventh lowest energy rates in the nation.”

Both candidates are making efforts to visit all the different counties in the district leading up to the election. “When I was first elected four years ago, we undertook an outreach program where we went around to the various communities in our district. We started a grassroots effort. We hold pancake and sausage breakfasts – we did twenty of them the first summer that I ran, and a lot of people say, ‘if you get elected, don’t forget about us now.’  We use that to stay in touch with what localities are thinking,”  Kehoe said.

Incumbent Senator Mike Kehoe
Incumbent Senator Mike Kehoe

As for Freebairn, “I’ve been going around to different counties in my district, for Democrat dinners and meet the candidate dinners.  Both Mike Kehoe and I spoke at the Morgan County dinner put together by the Morgan County Farm Bureau.  We both had three minutes. I talked about energy issues the potential for renewable energy and energy efficiency and creating more jobs,”  Freebairn said.

Kehoe summarized the election in general saying that the people of the sixth district do not want a candidate who is “political.” “Missourians just want some one who’s common sense, who tries to look at all sides of an issue.  They want conservative Christian values, especially the people of the sixth district.  They want someone who is open and honest and not political.  That’s what citizens told me when I was running four years ago and that’s what they keep telling me and I take that very seriously.”