Lincoln County/Wentzville, Mo. – To many people, Mike Carter is the most recognizable face in the Missouri District 10 State Senate race.
If he weren’t running for public office, one could turn on the television, where he co-hosts a public affairs show, “The Cowboy & Judge Show,” on the local ABC affiliate in St. Louis, and see him every week.
Nevertheless, he is running in a crowded field of hopefuls vying to see who takes the first step in replacing Jeanie Riddle in the Aug. 2 Republican primary, with the winner facing Libertarian candidate Catherine Dreher in the November general election.
Riddle is retiring due to term limits.
Carter decided to enter the race once the new district lines were drawn, which included Wentzville, where he currently serves as a municipal judge.
“I like politics, and I’ve tinkered around the edges of politics for a long time,” Carter said. “No one knew what the district lines looked like until March, so once that happened, I thought that was the perfect time to make a run.”
Carter, who is also a vice-president for CarShield, has self-financed his campaign for State Senate, and said taxpayers should be treated with a level of customer service not often seen by state government in the past.
“I would be a different type of citizen-legislator. I’m pouring my own money into this campaign,” he said. “I wasn’t pushed to run for office. All I have is my brother, my wife and my son.
“Taxpayers are left in the lurch here (in Missouri). Government needs to realize taxpayer need to be treated with respect.”
Carter said Lincoln County is one of the fastest-growing areas in the state, and he witnessed that kind of growth first-hand in Wentzville. He said he is the only representative who can help lead the area through that kind of growth.
“We’re learned those bumps and bruises Lincoln County is about to go through in Western St. Charles County – and we can help them with that,” Carter said. “(Lincoln County Prosecuting Attorney) Mike Wood called Troy ‘Little Wentzville,’ on my show once, and I believe that, because we’re ‘sister cities.’ We have a lot of commonalities in our areas.
“The biggest difference is (Lincoln County) is it hasn’t been hyper-suburbanized yet. It is growing, yet it still has the rural charm. It has the best of both worlds.”
Carter has been supremely confident of his chances at the polls. However, his biggest issue with his opponents is the fact he is a “political outsider,” even though he is a municipal judge.
Travis Fitzwater and Jeff Porter are retiring district representatives, and Bryan Spencer retired in 2020 after serving eight years in the General Assembly.
“I think it’s nearly a foregone conclusion. We’ve been looking at the polling,” said Carter, who majored in political science and philosophy at the University of Missouri-St. Louis. “A lot of people have been acting like they’ve been ‘waiting their turn’ for this – and they’re saying ‘oh, Mike Carter hasn’t waited his turn, so he shouldn’t be running.’
Carter believes, as a lawyer and a jurist for 18 years, he brings a different perspective to the General Assembly.
“It’s important for someone who can see bad laws, and get those out and get good laws in,” he said. “Should every lawyer or judge be in office? Of course not. That would dumb, but it wouldn’t be a bad idea to have more serving in office.”
With no Lincoln County representative running in the race after District 41 Representative Randy Pietzman dropped out of the race in June, Carter said, of all the candidates running for District 10 State Senate, he is the most like the well-respected retiring representative.
“Randy Pietzman has owned a construction company for 29 years. I’ve started as general counsel, and now I’m vice-president for Car Shield, with over 1,300 employees,” Carter said. “I started Carter Law Offices. No one has the business experience I have.
“I’ve had bumps and bruises, but I worked through those for two or three decades to talk about them.”
Carter and his wife, Hollie, live in Wentzville.
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