© 2023 St. Louis Public Radio
Donate
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Politically Speaking: Boyko seeks to break GOP stranglehold on 15th Senatorial District

St. Louis Public Radio | By Jason Rosenbaum,
Jo Mannies
Published July 5, 2016 at 3:17 PM CDT
Mark Boyko
Jason Rosenbaum | St. Louis Public Radio

On the latest edition of the Politically Speaking podcast, St. Louis Public Radio's Jason Rosenbaum and Jo Mannies are pleased to welcome Democrat Mark Boyko to the show for the first time.

The Democrat is running for the 15th Senatorial District seat, which is open since Sen. Eric Schmitt is leaving due to term limits. The two Republicans for the seat -- state Rep. Andrew Koenig, R-Manchester, andformer state Rep. Rick Stream, R-Kirkwood -- were on the podcast last month. Boyko's opponent, Steve Eagleton, recorded a show that should be posted later this week.

Boyko is an attorney who represents clients who bring suit under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, better known as ERISA. He received his law degree from the University of Missouri-Columbia and a master's in law from New York University.

This is the first time Boyko has run for office. He’s emphasized his experience in legal-dispute resolution, which he says could help him bridge ideological divides in the Missouri Senate.

Here’s what he had to say during the show:

  • Boyko received encouragement to run for the Senate from such political figures as state Rep. Deb Lavender, D-Kirkwood, and Attorney General Chris Koster. He says for Democrats to make headway in the legislature, they need to seriously contend for Republican-held seats.
  • Boyko expects either Stream or Koenig to have significantly more money on hand, especially since the 15th District leans toward the GOP. "This is not the first time that someone's going to spend a million dollars trying to prevent me from doing what I think is right," he said. "And hopefully it's not the last time in my life that that happens either."
  • When asked why 15th District Democrats should support him over Eagleton, Boyko replied: "I'm the one that has a chance to win in November, that's the reason." He also emphasized his longstanding ties to the 15th District, including taking his children to soccer games.
  • He said that he supports abortion rights and has been critical of efforts to implement abortion restrictions.

Follow Jason Rosenbaum on Twitter: @jrosenbaum

Follow Jo Mannies on Twitter: @jmannies

Follow Mark Boyko on Twitter: @boyko_mark

Music: "Vices" by Brand New
Tags
Government, Politics & Issues Politically Speaking2016 Missouri electionsMark BoykoSteve EagletonAndrew KoenigRick StreamTop Stories
Jason Rosenbaum
Jason is the politics correspondent for St. Louis Public Radio.
See stories by Jason Rosenbaum
Jo Mannies
Jo Mannies has been covering Missouri politics and government for almost four decades, much of that time as a reporter and columnist at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. She was the first woman to cover St. Louis City Hall, was the newspaper’s second woman sportswriter in its history, and spent four years in the Post-Dispatch Washington Bureau. She joined the St. Louis Beacon in 2009. She has won several local, regional and national awards, and has covered every president since Jimmy Carter. She scared fellow first-graders in the late 1950s when she showed them how close Alaska was to Russia and met Richard M. Nixon when she was in high school. She graduated from Valparaiso University in northwest Indiana, and was the daughter of a high school basketball coach. She is married and has two grown children, both lawyers. She’s a history and movie buff, cultivates a massive flower garden, and bakes banana bread regularly for her colleagues.
See stories by Jo Mannies
Related Content