MoBikeFed Voter Guide: Lieutenant Governor

The Missouri Bicycle Federation sent information to all candidates for office in Missouri this year, and invited each candidate to provide a statement of their position on bicycling and walking issues.

The statements from Missouri Lieutenant Governor candidates are below.

Note that the Tour of Missouri has become a campaign issue, making the issue a little more complicated that the candidate statements may indicate. View our summary of the issue here.

Candidates: Peter Kinder (R), Sam Page (D), Teddy Fleck (L), James C. Rensing (I)

Peter Kinder has responded with this statement:

I support bicycling in Missouri because it is good for the economy. I've spent the last three years building support for the Tour of Missouri, and the payoff for Missouri has been huge: Over $55 million in economic impact, 800,000 spectators, and media coverage of Missouri's cities and countryside that reaches a worldwide audience of millions.

Sam Page Communications Director Bret Bender responded with this statement:

Rep. Sam Page supports hosting a fun and profitable Tour of Missouri in 2009. We're all very excited at the possibility of bringing Lance Armstrong here, a possibility made more likely by the new 2HC rating the Tour has received. However, Rep. Page does not support using job creation money to fund the Tour. Missouri has lost 19,000 jobs in the past year, and that money should be used to retrain workers or attract new businesses to our state.

When Lt. Gov. Kinder came short of getting the sponsorships he promised for the 2007 race, he took money from a job creation fund to pay off the debts of the Tour. The amount of money taken from the job creation fund was $350,000. Ironically, Lt. Gov. Kinder's biggest donor contributed $350,000 to his re-election campaign. We question why Lt. Gov. Kinder would ask that company for $350,000 for his campaign, but not ask them to sponsor of the Tour of Missouri.

Rep. Page has heard from many Missourians who enjoy the Tour. In fact, he has often said it might be Gov. Matt Blunt's best idea while in office. Not many people realize this, but the idea for the Tour came from Gov. Blunt after a visit to Georgia.

Rep. Page believes the Tour can be funded completely by state tourism dollars and private sponsorships. The Tour promotes healthy living and the ever-growing sport of cycling. Rep. Page supports both.

Candidate contact information:

* Peter Kinder (R) - team@teamkinder.com, http://teamkinder.com
* Sam Page (D) - info@sampage.com, http://www.sampage.com/
* Teddy Fleck (L) - ?
* James C. Rensing (I) - ?

Please note that this is not an endorsement of any particular candidate or party--MoBikeFed is simply passing along verbatim the information that each candidate has provided to us. This information must, of course, be considered in context together with other available information about the candidates to make a complete, informed voting decision.

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