By Don Bradley
Plenty of bad blood in the Republican primary for the 31st District Missouri senate seat.
Incumbent Rick Brattin is being challenged by two current House members, Mike Haffner in the 55th and Dan Houx from the 54th.
The winner will face Democrat Raymond L. James in November. The district takes in Cass, Johnson and Bates counties.
Brattin thinks his accomplishments should have earned him a second term without a challenge from his own party.
“It stinks that you have to fight to retain your seat when the electorate is very Republican, but when you are an outspoken conservative it comes with it,” said Brattin who is seeking a second term.
“I’m a true fighter. I don’t go along to get along.”
Haffner and Houx say Brattin is part of the reason so many House bills die in the Senate.
“He’s constantly filibustering,” Haffner said of Brattin. “He doesn’t get anything into law. He doesn’t have the respect of his peers.”
Haffner also said Brattin did not do enough to fight off the recent effort by a Kansas City developer to put a landfill near Raymore.
“That’s absolutely ridiculous,” Brattin countered. “I filibustered; I filed bills. I was absolutely involved.
“Leadership was playing games. People want to misrepresent that instead of being truthful.”
As for Houx and Haffner, both asked the other not to file for the race. No deal.
Houx, from Johnson County in the eastern part of the district, knows the district’s population is concentrated in Cass County and hopes Brattin and Haffner split the vote there enough so that he can emerge the winner.
Rick Brattin
Brattin, 43, of Harrisonville, was first elected to the senate seat in 2020. He previously served four terms in the Missouri House and before that served as Cass County auditor.
He spent six years in the Marines, leaving as a noncommissioned officer. He currently has a 40-acre farm and a small construction company.
Brattin says the purpose of government is to protect liberty and freedom and that both are under attack in Missouri from outside interests who want to change the state constitution.’.
He said the state must stand firm on guns, abortion, capitalism and against support of Hamas.
“We must make it more difficult to change the state constitution,” Brattin said.
On the House floor in 2017, Brattin said there was a distinction between homosexuality and “just being a human being.”
Mike Haffner
Haffner, 64, of Pleasant Hill, is finishing up his third term in the house and could have run for a fourth.
“But people came to me and asked me to run for the senate so I agreed,” Haffner said.
“Our freedoms are under attack and too many politicians are more concerned about their own careers.”
Haffner spent 20 years in the Navy as a pilot and was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross.
He now runs a Christmas tree farm.
He said he has had success in fighting for conservative causes, but it’s far too easy to change the state constitution which could lead to abortion-on-demand and expansion of gambling.”
“Our constitution is way too bloated, and I will fight to preserve our freedoms,” he said.
“That is what I did flying off aircraft carriers.”
Dan Houx
Houx, 52, a native of Warrensburg and graduate of Kemper Military School, is wrapping up four terms representing the 54th district in the Missouri House. He cannot run for a fifth.
Houx, who is in real estate and homebuilding, said he always planned on running for the senate.
“That would be my political high spot,” he said.
Knocking on doors, he hears voters talk about fentanyl, open border and crime spreading out from Kansas City into the rural areas to the south.
“We need to make sure prosecutors have the power to do their job,” Houx said.
He also stressed the importance of the state continuing to help farmers.
He believes his life’s work in real estate and business has given him skills that make him a negotiator. He used property taxes as an example.
“I want to make things work,” he said. “Both parties, both chambers. Sometimes this job means you get 80 percent of what you want.”