Hi! I'm, Paul Lehmann, the Missouri Green Party candidate for Governor of Missouri, in the November 5, 2024, General Election. I am a life long resident of Missouri, except for two brief periods of employment in Illinois. I have a Bachelor of Science in Education degree from Southeast Missouri State University, Cape Girardeau, MO. (1971), and a Master of Divinity degree from Eden Theological Seminary, Webster Groves/St. Louis, MO (1975), and served 34 years as an ordained minister in churches of the United Church of Christ.

I am also a life-long organic gardener and farmer, and live on a 167 acre organic farm south of Fayette, Mo. in Howard County in central Missouri. I have two adult children, a son and daughter, who live in Chicago. My daughter and her husband have two young sons and a daughter. I am 74 years old.

Because global warming is the greatest existential threat to Missouri, I want to be the first environment-focused governor of the “Show Me” state, and want to lead a coordinated effort to transform existing practices that harm the environment into a clean, healthy world and culture, where we can all live together in peace and harmony with one another, and with the earth.

As Governor, I would revive the forgotten role of government in the 200 year-old standard encapsulated in the Constitution of Missouri, Article I, Section 2:

“That all constitutional government is intended to promote the general welfare of the people; that all persons have a natural right to life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness and the enjoyment of the gains of their own industry; that all persons are created equal and are entitled to equal rights and opportunity under the law; that to give security to these things is the principal office of government, and that when government does not confer this security, it fails in its chief design.”

Areas needing transformative attention environmentally and otherwise include; “chemical” urban and rural agriculture, transportation, education, criminal justice and the prison system, mental health, polluted air, land, and water, militarized policing, short sighted immigration policies, housing crisis, concentration and control of wealth into the 1% oligarchy, unfair taxation, hunger, women's and families' reproductive rights, children's identity rights, discrimination in all areas of life (race, class, disabilities, immigrants), workers rights, food integrity and safety, basic healthcare needs, inflation, privacy rights, local control, and corporate control in the public arena, etc.

The previous Democratic and Republican Governors and the General Assembly have repeatedly failed to advocate for the rights of ALL of us and the “pursuit of happiness” guaranteed in the Constitution: 1). by their repression of the reproductive rights of women; 2). by using taxpayer money to send the National Guard to Texas to serve a federal function, rather than assisting immigrants to be incorporated into Missouri society; 3). by seeking to restrict voters rights and safety with frivolous rules and obstacles to voting; 4). by economically and educationally starving public schools, and then taking limited funds to give to private, for-profit, less regulated schools; 5). by designating tax funds from gambling for schools, and then reducing the education budget by the amount gained from gambling, leaving no actual increase in funding!; 6). by allowing the four day school week for public schools to persist, where there are fewer hours for education each week, and longer “work” days for students, and where the benefit of taxes paid for five days of child education and care places an extra burden on already financially stressed families to provide child care for that fifth day, causing a double tax; 7). by constantly seeking ways to cut medicaid and any programs, like support of child care, and mental health, to support the poor and the working poor; 8). by resisting increasing a guaranteed minimum wage to a level still below a living wage; 9). by taking away local control over a community's right to set their own budget for law enforcement; 10). by taking away local control and the right of communities to ban CAFOs (Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations) from setting up shop to pollute the environment, abuse animals (pigs, cattle, and chickens), and harm public health; 11). by refusing to implement Country of Origin Labeling (COOL) for meat, meant to promote and celebrate Missouri beef production and consumption, and to benefit small and medium (and large) sized family farms; 12). by not prosecuting the Agricultural Industrial Complex for price fixing and discrimination against small and medium-sized farmers, and for removing competition from the agriculture markets; 13). by refusing to implement universal and complete health care (expanded Medicare) for all people living in Missouri; 14). by cutting funding for hospitals and social services and marginalized patients in the Medicaid budget; 15). by refusing to show solidarity with the Palestinian people suffering from the aggressive displacement and annihilation policy of the nation of Israel, and demanding and implementing policies of sanctions and an arms embargo against the government of Israel, to force them to accept a ceasefire in Gaza, and a plan to give Palestinians equal rights with the Israeli citizens; 16). by not restoring full and equal rights including voting rights to ex felons, who completed their punishment terms; 17). by not examining the courts and judges and lawyers for ongoing abuses and discrimination against persons in criminal and civil cases before the court; 18). by continuing to incarcerate prisoners who have been exonerated of their crime by a court; 19). by not establishing a commission with a broad base of representation to reform policing practices and structure, in order to restore community service to an overly militarized structure and culture now in place; 20). etc.

ENVIRONMENTAL INTEGRITY PROGRAM PROPOSALS

--Convert all chemically-based farmland to Organic/Regenerative production and lifestyle. One third of all greenhouse gases comes from “chemical” agriculture, promoted and sustained by the Agricultural Industrial Complex. The State can lead the way through education, incentives, grants, no interest loans, penalties for pollution causing practices, and caps on government support for corporate farms. The goal is to restore Missouri farmland into a carbon sink, instead of a carbon producer.

--Oppose government involvement/imminent domain in corporately-owned trans-state gigantic projects, land destruction, health damaging electric power lines originating from out of state, and instead focus on developing and incentivizing local production of renewable energy, including; small wind, solar, and geothermal sources.

--Require an overhaul of building codes so that all new construction of homes and business buildings be required to be individually nearly independent of the grid, and that existing buildings be retrofitted with the latest technology for energy conservation and savings. The state could financially incentivize this massive overhaul of our energy production with fair share taxation of the wealthy, no-interest loans, tax breaks, grants, and control over price gouging from private, for-profit investment and construction companies and electric power companies/producers.

--Replace the plans for four more lanes on Interstate 70 with the construction of a rapid transit rail line, with depots and stations for access to the rail line, and an improved system of moving tractor trailer freight by rail for long hauls, and the construction of a dedicated rail line for Am Trak passenger train service, along side the freight line currently shared with Am Trak.

--Promote the growing of hemp with its multi-faceted uses of making paper, clothes, rope, fossil-free “plastics”, animal and human food products, etc., to replace fossil fuels currently depended on, and establishing the making of these products right here in Missouri. For farmers, growing hemp could replace the growing of corn for the making of ethanol, a greenhouse gas producing fuel.

--Promote the growing, selling, buying and consumption of organic food raised in Missouri, not only to reduce the carbon footprint of our current food production, but also to improve the mental, physical and psychological health of the general population that has been damaged from foods that contain traces of glyphosate, and other chemicals from applications in agriculture and processing and by GMO (Genetically Modified Organism) food itself, which alters the nutritional quality of grains, vegetables, and fruit, and affects the health of animals, and the quality of meat.

The Governor plays an important role in government, as one who models compassion for ALL people in Missouri, and who advocates for the rights to experience happiness in ALL our lives.

Sincerely, Paul Lehmann

Email: [email protected]

Telephone: 660-248-1134

Address: 165 County Road 425

Fayette, MO 65248