THIRD-PARTY HOPEFUL CHALLENGES DEMOCRAT FOR SENATE SEAT

DEXTER -- A Baptist minister running on a third-party ticket is challenging Democratic state Sen. Jerry Howard for the 25th District Senate seat.

Ray Rowland of Dexter is running on the U.S. Taxpayer's Party ballot in the November election.

Howard of Dexter is seeking re-election. No Republican is on the ballot. A former state representative, Howard was first elected to the state Senate in 1990. Rowland is making his first run for public office. Rowland said he decided to enter the race after the Republican Party didn't field a candidate.

Rowland said his priorities as state senator would be to roll back personal and property taxes, reform education and oppose abortion.

"I'm for lowering taxes," he said. "Let's get government off our backs and out of the pockets."

Rowland has been a vocal opponent of Senate Bill 380 and Outcomes Based Education.

"I think the education issue has generated a tremendous amount of conversation," Rowland said. "I'm interested in local control of education and real academics in the classroom."

"I started this campaign in August with no name recognition, no organization and on a third-party ticket," he said. "Now it looks like possibly I could win.

"The message of social and economic issues, morals and the future of education are issues that are resonating very strongly and clearly," he said.

He has been endorsed by the Missouri Farm Bureau, Missouri Right to Life and Concerned Women for America.

Rowland said, if elected, the first legislation he would introduce would ban late-term abortions in Missouri. He said he would also introduce legislation making it illegal for a Missouri legislator to accept campaign money from the gambling industry.

For the past seven years, Rowland has farmed and operated a land grading business. He also is pastor of Pleasant View General Baptist Church at Risco. He is also an active member of the Missouri Farm Bureau. He and his wife, Elizabeth, have four children.

"I'm not going to tell people some pie-in-the-sky rhetoric," Howard said. "I'm realistic about today's society and what people really want."

Key issues for Howard include support of agriculture, small business and public education.

Howard has been endorsed by labor industries and honored by chambers of commerce. He calls this support combination unique for a politician.

"I've been able to balance the issues in the general assembly using common sense," he said. "Both of these special-interest organizations have a common goal -- good government."

Howard said his focus remains on agriculture, an important industry in his district. He serves as co-chair of the joint committee on wetlands. The committee passed wetlands legislation to give Southeast Missouri farmers some oversight over wetlands. He has introduced numerous other agriculture-related laws during his tenure in the senate.

Howard said Senate Bill 380, the Outstanding Schools Act, doesn't deserve the bad rap many politicians, including his opponent, give it.

Howard explained that the $310 million tax increase that was part of the Outstanding Schools Act was considerably lower than projected costs of court-ordered corrections of Missouri's funding formula for public schools.

"The big tax increase is what they keep talking about, but look what we got," Howard said, "smaller class size, better technology and districts are building new buildings."

And he maintains that local control remains in Missouri public education. "Teachers and principals and superintendents make all the curriculums," he said.

Howard said he doesn't approve of abortion, but added, "I'm not going to play God."

"I have voted pro life," Howard said. "Every bill that has come up, I have voted for it in the end. Sometimes I had to swallow hard to do it."

Howard is a graduate of Cape Girardeau Central High School and attended Southeast Missouri State University. He and his wife, Shirla, have five children.