Hi Everybody!
The cool thing I had to wait to tell you about is a speech I gave to a statewide meeting of Teamsters Local leaders. I was invited to address today's meeting -- the only candidate from the 25th district who was invited and one of the few legislative candidates, period. I've been committed to the issues of working people for a long time, and have a history of the kind of grassroots action and activities they like, so they asked me to come in and say hello.
Here is the speech I gave:
****
Good afternoon. My name is Sean Spence. I’m a pro-labor, pro-Teamster Democrat and I’m running to represent Missouri’s working men and women in the Missouri Legislature.
I came here today so we could continue getting to know each other. I say “continue” because I first got to know Jim Kabell and other Missouri Teamsters in 1993, fifteen years ago, working to elect other pro-labor Democrats. I’ve also worked with Teamsters in 10 other states, and you have always, always treated me right.
But my history with Labor goes back much further, and is much more personal. It goes back to my grandfather, a hard working, small town man who didn’t finish high school. My grandfather worked in the Fenton, Missouri Chrysler plant and was a union man until the day he died. It was his union healthcare plan that paid his bills when he got lung cancer and his union pension that supported by grandmother for the 20 years she outlived him.
And if that isn’t enough to let you know how important the Labor movement is to the Spence family, then you need to know about my big brother Paul Spence, another lifelong union member. My brother is mentally challenged, but he’s supported himself for over 20 years, stocking shelves in a grocery store. About five years ago, Paul developed a digestive condition that was literally eating away his insides. For two years, he missed work and ran up six-figure medical bills. But let me tell you what, thanks to his union-won benefits, Paul’s medical bills were covered and his job was waiting for him when he got better. My family still thanks god for that union – without it, my brother would be dead, or my family would be drowning in medical bills, or both.
So I’m here to tell you that I’m with you. I’m with you like you are my blood family – a room full of my own brothers and sister, because without the men and women of labor, I can’t tell you where the Spences would be today.
And one way or another, I’ll stay with you. I’ll stay with you in the fight for the rights we have all earned as working men and women. I’ll stay with you in the fight to ensure that every Missourian is educated, employed and insured. Just like you have been there for me, you can count on me to be there for you.
I’m Sean Spence, running to represent working Missouri in the state House. Thank you.
****
As you can tell, working with the men and women of Missouri's Labor movement is very important to me. They are the ones who too often get forgotten, or are targeted by one interest group or another. Helping them have the voice they deserve will be a key feature of my time in the Missouri House, if I am lucky enough to be elected.
- sean
Sean Spence
Candidate, Missouri's 25th House District
www.SpenceCampaign.com
seanspence@earthlink.net
573-823-1308 (mobile)
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Heads up
Hi Everybody!
Check back later this evening. I'll be doing something cool later in the day that I can't talk about until it happens. But I should be back to a computer and able to write about it before too late. No, it not HUGE deal, but it is important and kind of fun and worth the three minutes of your time it will take to have look.
Until then, have an awesome Monday!
- sean
Sean Spence
Candidate, Missouri's 25th House District
www.SpenceCampaign.com
seanspence@earthlink.net
573-823-1308 (mobile)
Check back later this evening. I'll be doing something cool later in the day that I can't talk about until it happens. But I should be back to a computer and able to write about it before too late. No, it not HUGE deal, but it is important and kind of fun and worth the three minutes of your time it will take to have look.
Until then, have an awesome Monday!
- sean
Sean Spence
Candidate, Missouri's 25th House District
www.SpenceCampaign.com
seanspence@earthlink.net
573-823-1308 (mobile)
Thursday, March 20, 2008
Reducing prescription drug prices
Hi Everybody!
As you know may know by now, I was diagnosed with MS in 2003. This is part of the reason I feel qualified to talk about the need to overhaul our health care system -- because I live with its faults every day. One of the problems I see is the skyrocketing price of prescription drugs. Each week, I have to take injections of a drug called Rebif, which slows the progression of my MS. If I was not enrolled in the state health care plan, my prescription would cost me $1300 per month.
Last year I got a phone call from the drug company, letting me know that my co-pay had just gone up from $50/month to $500/month. No warning. If I wanted my medicine, I needed to come up with the money or go without.
We absolutely have to do something about the cost of prescription drugs.
Not one to sit around and wait for a solution (guess that's why I'm running for state representative), I've found a solution that , while not perfect, can provide a lot of help to an awful lot of people. And it is not a subsidy -- there will be some relatively minor adminstrative costs, but this isn't a big money program.
In simplest terms, the plan leverages the muscle of a state's Medicaid program to negotiate drug prices for a large group of the uninsured population (my suggestion, and the way they do it in Maine, is people up to 350% of the poverty level). The state essentially goes to a drug company and says, "Lower the cost of this drug for a defined group of people or we won't put you on our Medicaid program's preferred drug list, and you won't sell as much, and you'll make less money."
Pretty simple sounding, huh? Well, that is happening right now, with a couple of variations, in Maine, California and Hawaii. Millions of dollars are being saved by folks who most need to be saving that money. Every state could have done this years ago, but the pharmaceutical companies convinced states that they'd be sued and lose if they did it. Guess what? Maine was the first state to implement a plan like this; they were sued; and the case went all the way to the U.S. Supremen Court, where the plan was found to be legal. States can use their Medicaid programs to negotiate prescription drug prices. Simple.
Missouri needs to do this. Every state needs to, really, but I'm pretty focused on Missouri these days.
For more information, here are a couple of good links:
http://www.policychoices.org/reports/CutDrugCostsExecSumFINAL.pdf
http://www.drummajorinstitute.org/library/report.php?ID=50
Please, learn more about this program and tell people about it. If I'm elected, I promise I'll do everything I can to see that it becomes law. Too many people need help; we can't sit around and do nothing for them; Democracy is not a spectator sport; get in the game!
- sean
Sean Spence
Candidate, Missouri's 25th House District
www.SpenceCampaign.com
seanspence@earthlink.net
573-823-1308 (mobile)
As you know may know by now, I was diagnosed with MS in 2003. This is part of the reason I feel qualified to talk about the need to overhaul our health care system -- because I live with its faults every day. One of the problems I see is the skyrocketing price of prescription drugs. Each week, I have to take injections of a drug called Rebif, which slows the progression of my MS. If I was not enrolled in the state health care plan, my prescription would cost me $1300 per month.
Last year I got a phone call from the drug company, letting me know that my co-pay had just gone up from $50/month to $500/month. No warning. If I wanted my medicine, I needed to come up with the money or go without.
We absolutely have to do something about the cost of prescription drugs.
Not one to sit around and wait for a solution (guess that's why I'm running for state representative), I've found a solution that , while not perfect, can provide a lot of help to an awful lot of people. And it is not a subsidy -- there will be some relatively minor adminstrative costs, but this isn't a big money program.
In simplest terms, the plan leverages the muscle of a state's Medicaid program to negotiate drug prices for a large group of the uninsured population (my suggestion, and the way they do it in Maine, is people up to 350% of the poverty level). The state essentially goes to a drug company and says, "Lower the cost of this drug for a defined group of people or we won't put you on our Medicaid program's preferred drug list, and you won't sell as much, and you'll make less money."
Pretty simple sounding, huh? Well, that is happening right now, with a couple of variations, in Maine, California and Hawaii. Millions of dollars are being saved by folks who most need to be saving that money. Every state could have done this years ago, but the pharmaceutical companies convinced states that they'd be sued and lose if they did it. Guess what? Maine was the first state to implement a plan like this; they were sued; and the case went all the way to the U.S. Supremen Court, where the plan was found to be legal. States can use their Medicaid programs to negotiate prescription drug prices. Simple.
Missouri needs to do this. Every state needs to, really, but I'm pretty focused on Missouri these days.
For more information, here are a couple of good links:
http://www.policychoices.org/reports/CutDrugCostsExecSumFINAL.pdf
http://www.drummajorinstitute.org/library/report.php?ID=50
Please, learn more about this program and tell people about it. If I'm elected, I promise I'll do everything I can to see that it becomes law. Too many people need help; we can't sit around and do nothing for them; Democracy is not a spectator sport; get in the game!
- sean
Sean Spence
Candidate, Missouri's 25th House District
www.SpenceCampaign.com
seanspence@earthlink.net
573-823-1308 (mobile)
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Health Care; my media mistake
Hi Everybody!
It has been 14 days since my last post. Yes, I'm going to get better at this!
The campaign is going well. I have some big news (to us, anyway) coming up in the next couple of weeks, so stay tuned.
Right now, I'm spending a lot of time thinking about health care. I'm working on an idea that I can't really talk about until we release it, but that will be soon. My steering committee has been great -- helping me develop ideas and create something truly valuable for Missouri.
The other day I got into something that I should have been able to steer clear of (as someone who has worked with the media for, essentially, my entire career). I was waiting for my breakfast at Kaldi's (turkey sausage omelette on an everything bagel -- mmmmm) when my phone rang. It was a reporter with a local TV station, writing a story that was kind of negative about one of my opponents (their angle, from the beginning). All of the questions the reporter asked me were pretty biased and leading, but, well, I answered them. I used to teach corporate executives how to deal with reporters and this is EXACTLY the kind of thing I warned them about every time. Total rooky mistake on my part. (Turns out I'm not perfect, Mom.)
Oh well, the story ran and it included a paraphrased quote from me, sounding like I was bashing my opponent. That wasn't my intent, but it sounded that way. So I apologized to him (yes, against the advice of some of my more hard-core campaign friends) and we are all moving on.
From the beginning, my policy regarding my opponents has been pretty simple -- don't say anything about them at all. Hopefully, I'll be able to do a better job of that as we move forward. This race should be about issues and everything each of us says should be about ourselves and what we believe/want to do. My message is simple -- that Missouri should be educated, employed and insured. To the best of my ability, that is what you will hear about from me.
Have an awesome Wednesday!
- sean
Sean Spence
Candidate, Missouri's 25th State House District
http://www.spencecampaign.com/
seanspence@earthlink.net
573-823-1308 (mobile)
It has been 14 days since my last post. Yes, I'm going to get better at this!
The campaign is going well. I have some big news (to us, anyway) coming up in the next couple of weeks, so stay tuned.
Right now, I'm spending a lot of time thinking about health care. I'm working on an idea that I can't really talk about until we release it, but that will be soon. My steering committee has been great -- helping me develop ideas and create something truly valuable for Missouri.
The other day I got into something that I should have been able to steer clear of (as someone who has worked with the media for, essentially, my entire career). I was waiting for my breakfast at Kaldi's (turkey sausage omelette on an everything bagel -- mmmmm) when my phone rang. It was a reporter with a local TV station, writing a story that was kind of negative about one of my opponents (their angle, from the beginning). All of the questions the reporter asked me were pretty biased and leading, but, well, I answered them. I used to teach corporate executives how to deal with reporters and this is EXACTLY the kind of thing I warned them about every time. Total rooky mistake on my part. (Turns out I'm not perfect, Mom.)
Oh well, the story ran and it included a paraphrased quote from me, sounding like I was bashing my opponent. That wasn't my intent, but it sounded that way. So I apologized to him (yes, against the advice of some of my more hard-core campaign friends) and we are all moving on.
From the beginning, my policy regarding my opponents has been pretty simple -- don't say anything about them at all. Hopefully, I'll be able to do a better job of that as we move forward. This race should be about issues and everything each of us says should be about ourselves and what we believe/want to do. My message is simple -- that Missouri should be educated, employed and insured. To the best of my ability, that is what you will hear about from me.
Have an awesome Wednesday!
- sean
Sean Spence
Candidate, Missouri's 25th State House District
http://www.spencecampaign.com/
seanspence@earthlink.net
573-823-1308 (mobile)
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
Blogging for the MyMissourian.com
Hi Everyone!
MyMissourian.com is a collection of blog posts sponsored by the Columbia Missourian. From now on, some or all of my blog messages will be posted there. At some point, I expect my opponents will do it too. Pretty cool, huh? A big part of my goal in this race is to set a new standard for constituent communications -- more, better, more direct, in more ways. Anything I can do to get voters more informed and involved is going to happen.
Today I was talking to a voter about a variety of concerns. One was that he lives near one of MU's farms (used largely for research and teaching). Both his home and the farm are on a gravel road (yes, the 25th district has large stretches of gravel road -- it isn't all colleges and downtown Columbia!) and, particularly in the Spring and Summer, there is often a great deal of traffic going to and from the MU farm. As a result, a not-so-minor dust storm can be created that envelopes the voter's front porch and yard. Very unpleasant, as you can imagine. Apparently, there is a slightly less convenient but paved road that also leads to the farm that the voter says could be used instead of the gravel road, eliminating the "cloud 0' dust" problem. The voter says he has asked for this to be done, and has gotten no cooperation. He also says the county can't even treat the road with sealant (to dramatically reduce dust) because there is not enough traffic to meet county requirements for this kind of work.
Okay, now that I've layed out what the voter told me, let me say that I don't have any idea what the University's or county's perspective is -- but I'm going to find out. The commitment I've made to the voter is to gather information and let him know if I can help or have any suggestions. Who knows what I'm going to learn? I may or may not be able to help when I learn more; heck, I may not even think helping is the right thing to do when I get more facts. But I've promised to do some digging and report back on what I find. Then, if I think I can help, I'm going to try.
That, my friends, is what I think a state representative -- or any elected official -- is supposed to do. If I'm elected, my job will be to try to get the facts when a constituent asks for help, offer that help when I can, and admit the truth when I can't help or think I shouldn't try. That's the commitment I made to this voter, and that's the commitment I'll make time and again if I'm elected.
On a separate note, here's the question of the day (inspired by the aforementioned conversation):
Should farmers be required to tag their animals (cattle, particularly) with electronic ID tags? If so, should their be limits or restrictions? Anything else that needs to be done related to this?
Thanks for reading. See ya!
- sean
Sean Spence
Candidate, Missouri's 25th Legislative District
www.SpenceCampaign.com
seanspence@earthlink.net
573-823-1308
MyMissourian.com is a collection of blog posts sponsored by the Columbia Missourian. From now on, some or all of my blog messages will be posted there. At some point, I expect my opponents will do it too. Pretty cool, huh? A big part of my goal in this race is to set a new standard for constituent communications -- more, better, more direct, in more ways. Anything I can do to get voters more informed and involved is going to happen.
Today I was talking to a voter about a variety of concerns. One was that he lives near one of MU's farms (used largely for research and teaching). Both his home and the farm are on a gravel road (yes, the 25th district has large stretches of gravel road -- it isn't all colleges and downtown Columbia!) and, particularly in the Spring and Summer, there is often a great deal of traffic going to and from the MU farm. As a result, a not-so-minor dust storm can be created that envelopes the voter's front porch and yard. Very unpleasant, as you can imagine. Apparently, there is a slightly less convenient but paved road that also leads to the farm that the voter says could be used instead of the gravel road, eliminating the "cloud 0' dust" problem. The voter says he has asked for this to be done, and has gotten no cooperation. He also says the county can't even treat the road with sealant (to dramatically reduce dust) because there is not enough traffic to meet county requirements for this kind of work.
Okay, now that I've layed out what the voter told me, let me say that I don't have any idea what the University's or county's perspective is -- but I'm going to find out. The commitment I've made to the voter is to gather information and let him know if I can help or have any suggestions. Who knows what I'm going to learn? I may or may not be able to help when I learn more; heck, I may not even think helping is the right thing to do when I get more facts. But I've promised to do some digging and report back on what I find. Then, if I think I can help, I'm going to try.
That, my friends, is what I think a state representative -- or any elected official -- is supposed to do. If I'm elected, my job will be to try to get the facts when a constituent asks for help, offer that help when I can, and admit the truth when I can't help or think I shouldn't try. That's the commitment I made to this voter, and that's the commitment I'll make time and again if I'm elected.
On a separate note, here's the question of the day (inspired by the aforementioned conversation):
Should farmers be required to tag their animals (cattle, particularly) with electronic ID tags? If so, should their be limits or restrictions? Anything else that needs to be done related to this?
Thanks for reading. See ya!
- sean
Sean Spence
Candidate, Missouri's 25th Legislative District
www.SpenceCampaign.com
seanspence@earthlink.net
573-823-1308
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