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The 109th District takes in northeastern Franklin County and a portion of St. Charles County.
Both candidates believe their backgrounds and careers are suited to serving in the Missouri Legislature.
Cunningham said his work in organizing the Labadie Sewer District in 1989 and his job with Land O' Lakes/Purina Feeds as a research biochemist, has helped him develop the "team building" skill sets needed to be a state legislator.
The most important aspects of being a public servant, Cunningham said, is to be fair and equitable to all the citizens, know the issues and be tenacious in protecting the public's interest.
Dieckhaus said he's always felt it is important to serve the citizens and community. He said he feels his background in education - as a teacher of history and government - suits him for the job. "It gives me the opportunity to serve the people in a way that I feel I'm best suited," he remarked.
Dieckhaus said with the present state of the economy, the biggest priority facing the Legislature is to carefully watch the budget "to make sure we stay on solid ground. Now, we're fiscally solvent but we're seeing a drop in sales tax revenue and costs are higher."
Cunningham said health care is one of the biggest issues facing the state with fewer people having access to affordable medical insurance. There has been a 14 percent reduction in employers offering health insurance to their workers, he said, noting that there needs to be an effort to cover that segment of citizens who are working but can't purchase health insurance on the open market.
Cunningham proposes organizing a large risk pool for entrepreneurs, small businesses and their employees that would make them able to access affordable insurance plans. "This would be a state organized, not state funded pool," he explained. A key component would be to attract young, healthy people, 20 to 30 years old, into the risk pool which would get insurance companies to compete for clients. He said his focus would be on catastrophic medical coverage.
"I think health care is one of the economic factors we need to address if we're going to move forward," Cunningham said. "It's about providing leadership to get the pool together to make it work."
Both Dieckhaus and Cunningham agreed that another major issue facing the state is the need to find a way to fund transportation infrastructure improvements.
"MoDOT has done a great job pulling us up, but now we have to start paying back for improvements" that were funded through the sale of bonds, Dieckhaus said. "We can't let it deteriorate," he said.
"We'll have to take a hard look at funding alternatives," he continued. Ultimately, he said, "it's going to be at the feet of the voters.
"We're going to have to find a new revenue stream," Cunningham said. "We're entering the phase now of having to pay for the borrowing for MoDOT." He suggested that that an economic stimulus package by the federal government should be used for a jobs program directed at transportation projects.
Any new revenue stream, however, must be tied to the state of the economy, Cunningham stated.
On public education, Dieckhaus said he would work to return more control to local school districts, including allowing districts decide how teachers acquire professional development hours to maintain certification. Now, teachers are required to take half-day training sessions. In other states, he said, teachers can remain a half-hour at the end of the day to obtain the required training hours which is not as inconvenient for parents or the teachers.
"We need to let the districts decide how to do that," Dieckhaus said.
Cunningham said the state needs to recapitalize MOHELA to underwrite more low-interest loans for college students. He also supports expanding the A-plus program to get more students interested in going to college and enrolling in technical schools.
Cunningham said he supports real estate tax reforms, but said the state should research existing "models" in other states that are working. "We need to explore ways to make the tax fair and predictable."
Dieckhaus said he supports exploring the possibility of making pseudoephedrine a prescription medication as a way to reduce the number of methamphetamine labs. After the state of Oregon passed similar legislation, there was a 93 percent reduction in meth labs within a year and a half, he said.
"We have to put the public's safety first, he noted.
