Each week GOPAC will spotlight a candidate running for election. This weeks Candidate in the spotlight is Governor Matt Blunt of Missouri. Governor Blunt is running for reelection in 2008. He campaigned on a platform pledging to make education the state's top budget priority; create new family-supporting jobs by strengthening Missouri's economy and entrepreneurial climate; expand access to high-quality, affordable health care; and help family budgets, farms, and small businesses by holding the line on job-killing tax increases. He has followed through on each promise, providing effective leadership for some of the most successful and productive legislative sessions in many years.
Governor Matt Blunt was born in Greene County and spent his early years in the town of Strafford, near Springfield. He learned at a young age the values of faith, family, and hard work. He attended Missouri public schools and graduated from Jefferson City High School. Blunt is a sixth generation Missourian.
Prior to his election as Governor, Blunt served as Missouri's 37th Secretary of State, represented the 139th Legislative District of Greene County in the Missouri House of Representatives, and worked in private business. Upon his graduation from the United States Naval Academy in 1993, he began a naval career that has spanned 14 years, including more than five years on active duty. He serves as a Lieutenant Commander in the United States Naval Reserve.
Governor Blunt served in Operation Support Democracy, which involved the United Nations blockade of Haiti. He also participated in the interdiction of illegal Cuban immigrants and drug interdiction missions off the coast of South America. Blunt was awarded several military commendations, including four Navy and Marine Corps Achievement medals and the Humanitarian Service Medal.
On October 9, 2001, Matt Blunt became the first statewide elected official in the history of Missouri to be called into active military duty. He served for six months in support of Operation Enduring Freedom, the nation's military response to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. He was promoted to his present rank subsequent to his return to the U.S.
The people of Missouri elected Matt Blunt their 54th Governor on November 2, 2004. Blunt carried 101 of the state's 114 counties. He campaigned on a platform pledging to make education the state's top budget priority; create new family-supporting jobs by strengthening Missouri's economy and entrepreneurial climate; expand access to high-quality, affordable health care; and help family budgets, farms, and small businesses by holding the line on job-killing tax increases.
The Governor has followed through on each promise, providing effective leadership for some of the most successful and productive legislative sessions in many years.
Governor Blunt inherited a billion dollar budget deficit when he took office, but through responsible management, Missouri’s budget is balanced with a significant surplus. In his first three budgets, Governor Blunt has increased education funding by more than half a billion dollars with no new taxes on working families. Blunt's budgets put children, schools, and taxpayers first. Under his leadership, more than 90,000 new, family-supporting jobs have been created. The old, broken Medicaid system, which was bankrupting the state, has been replaced with Governor Blunt’s bi-partisan supported MO HealthNet. MO HealthNet focuses on prevention and wellness instead of only sickness and treatment, empowers individuals to be participants in their own health care decisions, and improves health.
Pledging in the campaign and in his Inaugural address to honor and strengthen Missouri's values, Blunt enacted pro-life legislation to protect innocent children; is appointing men and women with sound values and strong credentials to the state judiciary; won passage of widely hailed legislation to fight the plague of meth production that endangers our children; and signed bills honoring Missouri's veterans, ensuring that that this and future generations will honor the contributions of these men and women to our great state and to America.
In leading Missouri in a new and constructive direction, the Governor has ended the liberal tax-and-spending policies that wrecked the state budget. Blunt ended the former administration’s anti-child policy of cutting aid to schools and stopped the practice of taking dollars from classrooms and putting them into social welfare programs that were growing uncontrollably. Governor Blunt’s record speaks for itself, and Missourians know they have a Governor who will do what he promised, with no new taxes, more for schools, and fiscally responsible state budgets.
An active duty veteran and current Reserve officer, Blunt is a member of the American Legion and the Missouri Farm Bureau. Matt and his wife, Melanie, were married in March of 1997. Their first child, William Branch, was born March 9, 2005. They have a home in Springfield and attend a Baptist Church near their home.
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