Undecided Voter Reacts to Steelman Visit

An undecided voter in the race for Governor wrote me today reflecting on Sarah Steelman's visit to Springfield's Chamber of Commerce Tuesday.

Eric Naegler is the president of Senior Recruiters, Inc. and is very interested in the issues of healthcare and how to deal with our aging population.

Here's what he wrote after I asked him what he thought of Steelman's visit:

"She struck me as being very sincere. She did not come across to me as a "polished” politician, which I like but this will probably cause her problems against a polished opponent. Overall, I was pleased with the thought that she recognizes that she does not have all the answers. The idea of having independent committees was appealing to me. The idea of an open, honest, transparent government that puts the people above politics sounds great, I’m just not sure how she can accomplish it. An Einstein Quote says something on the line of you cannot use the same level of thinking that created a problem to solve the problem."

"I also am a proponent of free market solutions in many cases. When you look at our current health care system at every level, there is no incentive for cost control or cost reduction. Hospitals, health providers, Medicare reimbursements, Medicaid reimbursements, insurance companies, etc all work on margins which create more revenue with higher costs. I believe I differ from her on stem cell research. I do not think it came up the paper article this morning indicated she opposed this research. I wish we had asked her that question. I am in favor of stem cell research."


"I am looking forward to hearing both Hulsohf and Nixon. At this point, I am truly undecided."