What you need to know: Missouri House Race – District 25

By Kathy Feist

It’s been 12 years since a District 25 candidate has had a challenger in an election. Democrat candidates generally run unopposed in the heavily liberal Democrat district found in south Kansas City. The district includes Brookside and Waldo, and borders State Line to Holmes Road and the Country Club Plaza to I-435.

Steven Bright

Republican Steven Bright is a laid back kind of guy, in the vein of what you might expect from Matthew McConaughey. They both hale from Texas and have a fascination with cars.

In Bright’s case he just won a couple of ST3 NASA Championship races and named Driver of the Year at the Ozarks International Raceway on October 20. When he’s not following his hobby, he runs a law firm and collection agency for his wife, Stacee Cohn. Bright visited Kansas City on January 1, 2000, and decided to stay, getting an IT degree from DeVry University and receiving a Masters Degree in Business from Keller Graduate School of Management. He lives in Brookside, across the street from his challenger.

He says most Republicans consider him a “centrist” of the party. He decided to run his own campaign to reflect his own opinions. “My only angle in this is that I can get District 25 a seat at the table in the majority,” he says. “We can get some issues done. Because in the last 10 years, with the legislature having a Republican majority, and District 25 run by a Democrat, means they got nothing.”

Bright says he is a unifier. He would like to place legislation on a website that would allow District 25 residents in his district to vote so he can fairly represent his constituency.

To reduce crime he proposes taking away the criminal’s revenue stream as opposed to imprisonment. “Price criminals out of crime,” he says. He believes there is more crime being committed by the rich. A civil judgment would allow 10 years to collect the debt to society, adding a 9 percent interest. “It doesn’t work to lock them up,” he adds. “It’s a waste of a human body.”

He would like to get rid of property taxes and find other ways of revenue, including the proposed crime tax.

John says his roots in politics run deep, all the way back to a distant relative, John Bright, a famous British statesman in the 19th Century known as one of the most influential politicians of his time. He laughs at the potential rebirth.

Then, remembering his weekend high from the race car championships, and the odds he’s up against in the political race, he says he’s going to be happy with his future come what may.

Pattie Mansur

Pattie Mansur’s name might ring a bell for many Kansas Citians. She was on the Kansas City Public School’s Board of Education for seven years. She’s been heavily involved in non-profit work. And her husband Michael Mansur was a longtime reporter for the Kansas City Star.

Mansur has been a strong advocate for public education–she sent all three of her children to KCPs. She is also a champion of health care initiatives. For 18 years she has worked for REACH Health Foundation as director of communications. She says she has worked with elected leaders in Jefferson City and Topeka on Medicaid and mental health issues. “What

I bring to the race is my policy background and elected experience,” she says.

Mansur, an articulate and soft-spoken woman, says she is a consensus builder. “I know how to reach a shared agreement, how to move forward productively,” she says.
On the subject of crime, Mansur says there is an urgent need for more child care options when both parents work.

She would like to see legislators find a way to converse across the aisle about sensitive gun safety laws. She would like to see reinstated background checks and gun certification laws that were in place only eight years ago. She would like to see penalties for families that do not follow gun storage regulations.

Mostly she would like to protect Missouri’s health resources. Mansur points out that the state’s Medicaid technology and enrollment system aren’t working well. “There are a lot of people deemed ineligible and wait months and months and months for eligibility determination that they should fully qualify for,” she says. “We need to make sure the state systems work.”

She is also a strong advocate for making sure recipients receive the care they qualify for from a federally funded program such as Medicaid (Missouri supplements Medicaid on a smaller scale). “Those services are crucial for children for mental health care, chronic diseases, services that help adults get substance abuse treatment or any health needs.”

Regarding education, Mansur makes aware that the vast majority of Missouri children attend public schools. “It is the lifeblood of the rural areas,” she says. She is not in favor of education vouchers that allow families to take public money to private schools. “State money should not be diverted,” she says.