Republican primary for 8th District congressional seat focuses on jobs, taxes

U.S. Rep. Jason Smith and all three of his challengers in Tuesday’s Republican primary for the Missouri 8th District seat in Congress describe themselves as conservatives who support the right to bear arms and want to lessen the burden of government on small businesses.

Jason Smith’s challengers are Hal Brown of Cape Girardeau, Phillip Smith of Gatewood and Todd Mahn of De Soto.

Smith has served in Congress since winning a special election in 2013. He was elected to a full term in 2014 and is seeking re-election this year.

The winner of the primary will face Democrat Dave Cowell of Farmington and Libertarian Jonathan Shell of Fredericktown in the November general election.

The campaign of Jason Smith, R-Salem, has a much larger war chest than his challengers.

Smith took in nearly $1.3 million from Jan. 1, 2015, to July 13, 2016, according to financial-disclosure reports filed with the Federal Election Commission. In contrast, Brown and Mahn had total receipts of $41,373.

Jason Smith’s campaign spent more than $600,000 over the past year and a half, while Brown and Mahn combined spent just over $30,000 since the beginning of this calendar year, FEC records show. Brown’s campaign spent over $21,000, while Mahn’s spent nearly $9,000.

An online search of the FEC website listed no campaign reports for the fourth candidate, Phillip Smith.

Among the three challengers, Brown, a dermatologist, has been Jason Smith’s harshest critic.

He charged the incumbent is not representing constituents adequately and has not worked hard enough on efforts to reform the nation’s tax system and balance the federal budget.

“I am about solving problems, not providing excuses why I didn’t solve them,” he said.

But Jason Smith said a single congressman cannot change public policy.

He said conservative policies won’t be adopted “by one person getting elected and snapping your fingers.”

The Republican congressman said he favors enacting a balanced-budget amendment to the Constitution and has introduced a measure to do so.

“Every American family is doing more with less; there is no reason your government shouldn’t do the same,” Smith said.

Mahn also favors adding a balanced-budget amendment to the Constitution.

But Brown said such a move would take too long to achieve. He wants Congress to balance the budget without amending the Constitution.

Brown favors reducing the budgets of every department of federal government until expenses and income are balanced.

Mahn criticized what he sees as a culture of political corruption in Washington, D.C., where lobbyists have too much influence.

“They really have a stranglehold,” he said.

All four candidates said they want to cut wasteful government spending.

Phillip Smith, a truck driver, wants to “defund all unconstitutional federal bureaucracies.”

He has argued for a more limited role for government.

Mahn, who operates funeral homes in Festus and De Soto, said the operations of all federal agencies need to be reviewed. Much of the regulatory burden should be left to the states, he said.

All four candidates have talked of the need to create well-paying jobs in the sprawling congressional district.

Mahn said if elected, he would establish an advisory committee of business representatives to help attract new employers and expand existing businesses.

Mahn said the 8th District is the poorest district in Missouri.

“We definitely need to bring in jobs,” he said.

Phillip Smith said he wants to set up co-ops for small businesses “so they can get the same discounts as the large corporations.”

Jason Smith said, “We have to make the tax code simpler and fairer.”

He said, “Over 175,000 pages of federal regulations, one of the highest tax rates in the world and a federal debt eclipsing $20 trillion are suffocating job growth in this country.”

Brown, Jason Smith and Phillip Smith favor replacing the federal income tax with a fair tax, which is a tax on spending. Brown has made his support for a fair tax a centerpiece of his campaign.

mbliss@semissourian.com

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