It look's like you don't have Adobe Flash Player installed. Get it now.
A young Southwest Missouri man is campaigning around Springfield to try to take the position of State Representative for the 138th District from the current representative, Sara Lampe. KSMU's Kristian Kriner spoke with Republican Michael Goodart about the issues he's campaigning on in his bid for the seat in the Missouri House of Representatives.
In an old, two story night club with the walls painted black and plenty of space to spare, Michael Goodart checks on his campaign efforts in the new Republican headquarters in town.
Goodart was born in Marionville, Missouri and graduated from Missouri State University in 2005 with a degree in Political Science.
He says he caught the "political bug" when he interned in Jefferson City, so he decided to run for political office in 2006.
He lost in the 2006 primaries, so he says he is making up for that loss now.
Running on the Republican ticket, Goodart says he decided to seek office because he hated how much money the government was taking out of his paychecks.
He says this led to the main issue he is campaigning on: fair tax.
"The big issue that I have is the fair tax. It's more of a federal level and I do know that. The fair tax is a consumption based tax, let's people keep more of their own money. You're going to pay a little less or a little more for any given product that you purchase, but you're going to pay your federal taxes and your Missouri state taxes there rather than out of your paycheck," Goodart said.
Goodart says he wants to put money back into the hands of the people, which is where he says the money belongs.
He says people should be spending their money on the things they need or want instead of the government taking it from them and deciding where it should be spent.
Between elections, Goodart has been substitute teaching in schools around the area.
He says the other issue he's pushing for is quality education in area schools.
Goodart says he wants to get parents involved in what their kids are doing in the classroom.
"As a representative, I will have to go to the administrators and the teachers and work something out so we can write it into a law, so that we have a quality education system that will prepare our students for life ahead of them because that's the number one goal. It's not the government establishment or the education establishment, it's not the individual schools, it's about the kids and we got to get the kids prepared for life," Goodart said.
He says he wants to get rid of the Missouri Assessment Program or MAP testing, so teachers are not punished for kids they haven't been teaching for very long.
Goodart says if elected, he will establish another merit system for teachers and students instead of using the MAP test.
He says he's not focusing on healthcare issues right now, but he is still concerned about healthcare in Springfield.
Goodart says he wants to give the power back to the people in the 138th District.
"I want to make peoples' lives better. I want to put people like yourself and people out on the street in a place where they can better their own lives and that right there, if I were able to accomplish that I could walk away from this and be happy that I really changed the way we work and that's my drive," Goodart said.
Goodart intends to continue knocking on doors and talking to people on the street until Election Day.
For KSMU News, I'm Kristian Kriner.
