Crowell endorses Wallingford for Senate seat

With two weeks until the election, Sen. Jason Crowell broke his silence Monday on who should replace him in the Missouri Senate with his formal endorsement of Rep. Wayne Wallingford, R-Cape Girardeau, a man who Crowell said shares a similar vision of what the legislature should accomplish during the next four years.

Crowell said he waited until nearer the Aug. 7 primary date to see how the campaign between Wallingford and Rep. Ellen Brandom, R-Sikeston, would play out and specifically listened to hear the candidates' stances on the issues.

In the end, he decided to go with Wallingford.

"Although we didn't agree on everything, he's more in line with my philosophies," Crowell said. "Our tactics may not be the same, but he agrees with me on more issues than we disagree."

Wallingford favors making Missouri a right-to-work state, legislation that would ban contracts that require an employee to pay union dues and also would prohibit agreements between businesses and unions that would make union fees a condition of employment. Crowell has long been a chief proponent of Missouri adopting such laws. Wallingford also supports overhauling the tax credit system, Crowell said.

Crowell took exception with some campaign ads that Brandom began running that suggested that a Wallingford vote was pro-union.

A Brandom campaign ad said that Wallingford's vote for Senate Bill 202 last year is suspect because he had received contributions from organized labor. But Crowell said that Wallingford voted no for the bill because Crowell asked him to because other House members altered the bill so that it was unrecognizable and would not do what Crowell, who sponsored the bill in the Senate, intended.

"I've been in politics and in enough campaigns to know that desperate people will say desperate things to hide or obfuscate what is really going on," Crowell said. "If you voted no on that bill, you were doing exactly what I as the sponsor wanted you to do. You could really flip that ad on Ellen, who voted no."

After Crowell reached agreement with the other chamber, certain House members changed the bill, he said, with the express intention of killing it. Crowell's bill was only aimed at allowing public-sector unions to deduct political contributions from an employee only if they consented annually. But the House added private sector unions to the language, which Crowell said was not allowed under federal labor standards.

"So in my opinion, and it's just my opinion, Wayne Wallingford will do a better job in the Missouri Senate and is more in alignment with the values of the district than Ellen Brandom," Crowell said.

Wallingford said the endorsement was key, coming from someone who has held the position for the last eight years. Brandom said she had yet to learn of the endorsement and withheld comment.

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