State Senator Jason Crowell

OFF! sat down with Missouri State Senator Jason Crowell. A graduate of Southeast Missouri State and the University of Missouri School of Law, Crowell was elected to the Missouri House of Representatives in 2000 and re-elected in 2002. In 2004, Crowell was elected to represent Southeast Missouri's 27th Senate District, a position vacated by current Lt. Governor Peter Kinder.

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OFF!: Tell us about you, Jason Crowell the person, not Jason Crowell the State Senator.

JC: Born and raised in Cape. I'm what they call a "townie." I went to Southeast Missouri State University.

I guess to know a little bit about me you would have to know me growing up. I have a little brother who's two years younger than me, his name is Josh Crowell, he is the head wrestling coach at Cape Central. My mom taught severely handicapped students for over 30 years at Parkview State School in Cape and New Dawn State School for the severely handicapped in Sikeston. My father has worked in the buildings materials business.

I graduated from Cape Central High School and really played two sports in high school. I wrestled and my wrestling career pretty much consisted of being able to tell you how many lights are in every gymnasium in Southeast Missouri. I wasn't too successful and then played golf and was a little bit better at that. After graduation from high school, I went to Southeast and started there looking at an Agriculture and Horticulture Degree. The only job that I had had when I started college was working on a golf course. I worked on the grounds crew at the golf course and really remember vividly the first day I showed up. They gave me a weed-eater and a tank of gas and said, "Boy, don't come back until your out of gas." I just weed-eated and continued to work out there and worked my way into the pro shop. A great guy named Jack Connell really served as a second Dad or a Big Brother, if you will, as I was growing up.

I was president of the Fraternity Theta Xi at Southeast and was involved in the Student Senate. I was president of the Student Government and simultaneously working on a degree in Economics. I got a BS/BA in Economics and then took a crazy little exam called the LSAT. Then, I went to Law School and spent three years in purgatory and was fortunate enough to graduate with a Law Degree in 1998. I got to come back home in the year 2000. With Mary Kasten retiring that kind of gave me the opportunity to run for State Rep and that's where I sit.

I feel very blessed that I can still live in the town where my Mom and Dad and little Brother are. That's very important to me. I just try to get up each day and leave our community a little bit better than it was given to us. That's sort of my motto and my mantra.

OFF!: That leads me to the next question. Why public service?

JC: I believe that life is an unbelievably precious gift given to everybody. I believe in God and I was given life by God. And I think that when that gift of immeasurable generosity is given to somebody that it is given with an obligation, with an affirmative obligation. With my faith, I would almost call it a Covenant with one another in society. That covenant is to do all we can to leave our community a little bit better than it was given to us. I always believed that. I am an Eagle Scout through the Boy Scouts and still am heavily involved in helping the Boy Scouts. We had a saying, "Leave the campsite better than you found it." I think that background of growing up as a Boy Scout and an Eagle Scout with that mantra being given ties in with my belief in life and what life is. That leads you to try to leave your community better than it was given to you. That's not to say that you have to serve publicly.

I have always had an interest in public service. I really started out in high school and in college serving in student government, student senate, and student councils. I always kind of liked that. It wasn't until the summer of 1993 that I spent the summer out in Washington D.C. working for the late Congressman Bill Emerson. I got to see a lot. We had the floods of 1993 at that time and I really got to see the work that Congressman Bill Emerson and his office were able to do in our region with the devastation of the Mississippi River floods and everything that was going on at that time. The leadership that he was able to provide and I was able to be a part of stuck a firm memory in my mind.

I just know who I am. I could handle running and seeking something and not achieving it, but I don't think I could handle never trying. So, my definition of failure is to not try. I don't want to lie on my deathbed many years from now-hopefully-and say, "What if I would have tried this or what if I would have tried that? What if I had given a little bit here or a little bit there?" That really plays into my belief that we have an affirmative covenant that we need to leave our community a little bit better than it was given to us. I wake up each day and live it to the fullest, I guess.

OFF!: What I've heard you talk about is community involvement and community betterment. How do you encourage community involvement, that "leaving our community a little bit better than it was given to us?"

JC: One of the things that I found in my capacity first as a state rep and now as a state senator is that the ability to influence young people is greatly expanded over the influence to change people already set in their ways. When I was growing up I wasn't the strongest reader in school and had help in school to help train my brain make letters into words, words into sentences and sentences into paragraphs.

One of the things that I did immediately as a state rep, knowing who I am in the back of my mind, was to bring a program called Missouri Reads on-line. I would go into 4th grade classrooms in my district to teach them a little bit about state government and what we do, but really focus on reading, reading, reading. Those teachers and those individuals that said "You can't quit" or that had greater expectations of me than I had of myself are the ones that really helped me, be they educators or be they the Jack Connell's that I worked for in the world. I try to be that. I really try to focus on letting our students know that you can achieve anything if you don't quit.

We have such an eclectic community here in Cape Girardeau from the standpoint of income, from the standpoint of housing, from the standpoint of jobs, to demographics of elderly versus college kids. I spend a lot of time at Southeast talking to students, be it tuition issues or housing issues or educational opportunities issues. Fundamentally being involved in your community is knowing your community, listening to your community. I don't think you need to be president of every organization to be a good community-involved individual. But you have to take pride in your community. Whether you are walking on the riverfront and see an aluminum can there, pick it up. If you see trash on the side of the street, pick it up. If you see somebody that you don't know, say "Hi" instead of walking by. That is being a good community servant because you are defining a standard where you live as being a little bit special.

OFF!: You mentioned that you meet with college students to discuss issues. What issues on the state level and district level are relevant to 18-34 year-olds?

JC: I think all of them are. I try to impart that by saying this simple phrase: Statistically, you're going to live longer than everyone else so the decisions that I make now in Jefferson City are going to impact you on a larger scale, meaning a chronological scale or a timeline scale, than any other decision. That's one thing that I noticed early on. I even have some disagreements with my Republican Brothers on the Federal level. Young people see the deficits that we have on the federal level and that impacts us because we are going to live longer than everyone else and we are going to have to pay that deficit down.

I had a discussion with some business students at Southeast. Somebody that is nineteen may not understand tort reform, but then I relate a civil justice litigation reform to economic and job opportunity, not only within the healthcare fields but in business fields, and in making Missouri a competitive state from a civil justice system. Those are issues that are just as important to you; they may not be the issue that will be important tomorrow. You can't just look at tomorrow; you've got to look at a year from now, two years from now, five years down the line and what opportunities are going to be there. The votes that you cast and the involvement that you have will dictate largely what your environment will be now that you have your education and your training.

OFF!: It's interesting that you brought up voting among 18-34 year-olds. We know that during the 2004 election season, between 42% and 48 % of this age group voted. How do you encourage both public discourse on state issues and participation in public policy?

JC: I think you really asked a very poignant question: How do we get people that are going to be affected the greatest involved in the crafting of public policy decisions? I think it is something that politicians, university think tanks, and both political parties have grappled with for a very long time. The best way that I can encourage that involvement is to be proactive, to chit-chat for a little while. Let me say, "I don't care if you are Republican or Democrat, but I want you to get involved. I desperately want you to get involved because government is only as good as its weakest link."

Our generation is sometimes viewed as our weakest link and I don't want that to be the case. I want it to be the strongest, most promising asset. Our generation is the strongest, most glowing asset in our war against terrorists. Why can't that be the same within the political process and in electoral voting? So, I try to say, "Your going to live longer than anybody else, GET INVOLVED. Here I am, this is who I am. If you don't like it, find somebody else that you do like." You have an affirmative obligation to vote because our society, our form of government is only as strong as its weakest link. So don't be the weakest link.

OFF!: How do you identify with the varying social groups within this area?

JC: It's very...it hasn't always been easy for me but its something that's easier now. I just walk up and say "Hello" and shake hands. I have the affirmative obligation to go shake hands with people that don't look and live like me. That's my job. It was my job as a candidate and it's my job as an elected official. I take that very, very seriously. Its my obligation to give people an opportunity to shake my hand and to look me in the eye and to yell at me or pat me on the back. I don't have the belief that I can just hide in Jefferson City or I can just hide in my house. My home phone number is public record. Just about everybody has my cell phone, my emails and everything else. Bill Emerson told me one time when I was working for him that the key to all of this is to know that you and I can disagree. "Oh, what a strange and horrible world it would be if everyone thought and acted like me." That is what he used to say. The key is that, although you and I can disagree, we need to disagree without being disagreeable. What's important to me is that at the end of the day I can look at that guy that stares at me when I look into a mirror and not divert my eyes or not look down or not punch the mirror or run away in fear. That's what is important to me and what I try to do.

OFF!: What's the most difficult aspect and the most rewarding aspect of being an elected official?

JC: Making decisions. It's often been said that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. I don't know if I believe that, but what power does do is it reveals. I realize that and I really didn't realize to the degree that I did until I was elected. How you use what influence or power you have reveals what type of person you are, what type of priorities you have, what type of foundation or vision you have.

The most difficult aspect of the job that I have is that I was put there to make decisions. Very rarely in life are the big decisions a win-win. We try to make sure that they are as win-win as possible. You learn a lot about yourself and you learn a lot about your priorities and that is the most difficult aspect.

The most rewarding is just having the access that that little title gives you to go read to a fourth-grader, to visit with other individuals, to be able to have somewhat of a bully pulpit to talk about things that are important to you, and to really be an advocate. The most rewarding is that I know, with the position that the people of Southeast Missouri has put me in, that I have an opportunity to leave my community just a little bit better than it was given to me and meet that covenant that was voiced upon me when I was given the greatest gift : the gift of life.

I will say this: one of the most difficult aspects about the job are the sacrifices in general that you make. Some of my friends joke about where I have to be and the hours that I work. It does make an impact. I'm 33 years old. I am not married. I don't have any kids. We have a phrase in Jefferson City: "You're not really working if you go to bed the same day you wake up." So you can imagine. You do those a lot of the time. Then I come back and I have a law practice that I am still involved in here. My dad teases me from time to time to just slow down, but I don't know any better.

OFF!: Future ambitions?

JC: You know I have a philosophy, a belief that wherever you find yourself today, do a good job. The future will take care of itself as long as you do a good job each and every day. Possibilities and opportunities will open themselves up to you so that in life, you get to make decisions rather than life making decisions for you. It's amazing. If you do a good job today no one is smart enough to know how that is going to pay off in the future.

I had a good friend in college. He had a personality and a dynamic nature that was second to none. He could sell ice to Eskimos. One night he made a mistake. He was drunk and he got behind the wheel of a car and was involved in an accident. He killed himself. He no longer gets to make decisions in life because he made one decision that took all other decisions away from him. I am very aware of that in my life and how that can change. Where the future lies, it lies. I enjoy what I get to do but there are term-limits.

I am just going to get up tomorrow and do the best I can, and get up and do the best I can each day and hope that opportunities present themselves in a varied capacity.