Harris, Harris-Laboy vie for seat
Published Sept. 13, 2002
Part of Columbia will have a new state representative after the November elections.
Republican Verna Harris-Laboy and Democrat Jeff Harris are running to fill the seat currently occupied by 23rd District Rep. Tim Harlan, D-Columbia. Harlan is barred from running for re-election due to the state's term limits law.
The 23rd District encompasses most of Columbia north of Stadium Boulevard and west of Providence Road. It also contains the area west of Paris Road and north of Broadway.
Harris said he is not a career politician.
"I truly believe in public service," he said.
Harris left his job as Missouri assistant attorney general to focus on his political ambitions.
His previous campaign experience includes work as a field organizer for the unsuccessful presidential campaign of U.S. House Minority Leader Richard Gephardt, D-St. Louis. His last personal candidacy, however, came in ninth grade when he ran for the vice presidency of his class. He lost.
Harris-Laboy, who is not related to Harris, is a longtime community activist and 13-year Columbia resident.
Best known as the founder of the Smithton Valley Neighborhood Association, she has worked with almost a dozen community organizations, ranging from the Police Department Community Action Team to the mayor's Race Relations Task Force.
"I'm a woman with a mission," she said at her campaign kickoff rally Sunday. "I think the state legislature needs a momma like me to hold them accountable."
Harris-Laboy, known as "Miz Verna" to her supporters, stresses the need to rein in government spending and create a pro-business attitude. Mixed with her strong Republican message is a theme of overcoming adversity, a theme she says is bolstered by her own troubled youth as a teen mother.
"Government programs have been an enabler," she said, "and when you see multiple generations on public assistance, you know it's not working."
Harris stresses issues often associated with the Democratic Party. He supports expanded prescription drug benefits for seniors and the working poor and more funding for education.
"We need to make sure that our children enjoy the same opportunities that I did, and we can't do that without a commitment from our legislature," Harris said.
Harris said the UM system bore more than its share of cuts from the recent budget shortfalls. He said he is in favor of modifying, but not repealing, the Hancock Amendment, a provision passed during former Gov. John Ashcroft's administration that prevents the state government from saving excess tax revenues for use in tight budgetary years.
Harris-Laboy said she doesn't want to see any more cuts to university appropriations, but she contends the best way to help the current budget problems is to make the state more attractive to business investment.
Harris-Laboy has her work cut out for her. The 23rd District has historically voted Democratic.
"In the 1998 elections, the last year he was opposed for re-election, Tim Harlan received 58 percent of the vote," said Art Auer, director of elections for Boone County.