Press Releases

Moberly Monitor Index Endorses Steve Gaw

July 29, 2008

The Moberly Monitor-Index has endorsed only one candidate for the Primary Election on Aug. 5th and that is Steve Gaw, Democratic candidate for Ninth District Congressman.

Several other candidates have purchased advertising tabs that appeared in the Monitor-Index. An editorial is included in these tabs and the editorial is not signed; therefore making it appear the Monitor-Index is endorsing that candidate. This is not true. The Index has only endorsed Steve Gaw ... that endorsement appeared in the July 25-27 edition.

In the race for Ninth District Congressman, there is one candidate that stands much taller than the others.

He is Steve Gaw.

Gaw has campaigned hard on the notion that he is best positioned to win in November. His campaign argues that because he is from a rural part of the Ninth Congressional District he can add rural votes while carrying highly Democratic Boone County. To bolster the claim, the campaign points to comments by University of Missouri analyist Marvin Overby, who stated that in order to win, Democrats must nominate "someone like Steve Gaw, with rural roots."

Steve Gaw has several priorities for bringing common sense to Washington to put middle class people first. He believes Missouri common sense means boosting our economy and lowering gas prices. He believes we must lower gas prices now by increasing domestic supply and supporting alternative energy.

Missouri common sense requires us to keep our nation safe. Gaw believes this means bringing our troops home from Iraq, winning in Afghanistan and caring for our troops once they come home.

Gaw believes Missouri common sense means giving more Americans access to healthcare.

Gaw believes that with a little Missouri common sense, we'll bring home those troops, expand healthcare and get this economy going. That's what Steve Gaw calls a change in Washington.

Gaw believes that the time is now to make America independent again. Recent years have seen sky rocketing foreign debt, bad trade deals and dependence on foreign oil. He believes we must borrow less money by tightening our budget, we must stand up for our workers on trade and we must develop our own energy. He believes that the United States of America must again be independent.

Steve Gaw has campaigned all over the ninth district from northeast Missouri to the Interstate 70 corridor between St. Charles and Columbia and south around the Capital to include part of the Lake of the Ozarks. He has been in Randolph County a number of times since filing for this trip to Washington. Steve is honest and sincere and you can believe what he says.. He was educated in a one-room rural school house (Sugar Creek) north of Moberly before graduating as a valedictorian of Moberly High School. He then graduated summa cum laude in 1978 from Truman University-Kirksville before earning his law degree from the University of Missouri-Columbia.

Always a community leader, Gaw worked in a local law firm and served as Moberly city attorney, before being elected 22nd district representative by Randolph Countians and a portion of Boone, Howard and Chariton countians. He sponsored and pushed for legislation to give sexual predators lifetime sentences for their crimes. He authorized legislation to make sexual offenders register with local law enforcement agencies and he co-sponsored Missouri's tough juvenile justice bill that was passed into law.

After just four years in the legislature, Steve Gaw was selected as Speaker of the House. Among his accomplishments were instituting reforms to make the House of Representatives more open and fair. He allowed the Missouri House to become the first legislative body in the country to have its sessions broadcast live over the internet. As Speaker, Gaw built a strong record of standing up for middle class families and helped get rid of the state sales tax on food, helped create Missouri's children's health insurance program, made college more affordable and created the no call list. Gaw made the House more accountable to taxpayers by establishing a committee to review House travel expenditures. "The reform instituted by Gaw was instrumental in restoring confidence in the House and the Speakership," according to the MO House of Reps website.

Steve Gaw served on the Missouri Public Service Commission from March of 2001 to September, 2007. In 2003, he was named chairman of the PSC and served in that capacity until 2005. While on the PSC, the state agency that regulates Missouri's investor-owned utilities, Gaw advocated for Missouri's consumers and gained the reputation of pushing hard to protect consumers and keep rates down. He also served as president of the Organization of MUSO States (OMS).

Gaw, who now raises horses on a farm in Callaway County, has spent most of his life in this congressional district. He was reared on his parents' farm just north of Moberly.

Steve Gaw knows and loves this area. He has fought for a number of good things for the area, including the four-laning of Highway 63, especially from Columbia to Randolph County, and he will continue to fight to make this a better place to live.

He has proved himself on the local and state levels, he works for everyone. Let's give Steve Gaw the opportunity to work in the nation's capitol.

We urge you to vote on Aug. 5th for Steve Gaw, the best of all candidates for ninth district congressman.

Bob Cunningham

Publisher, Moberly Monitor-Index