OPINION |
Answer Man: Mike Moon lives in Greene County but represents the 29th District, which does not include Greene County. How is that possible or legal? — Jeanette Lawlor, rural Polk County
First, let me get to the point. Mike Moon does not live in Greene County. He lives in his district.
I don't know Jeanette Lawlor and I might have spoken to Moon once before, but I don't recall what we discussed. When I Googled our names, I didn't find anything.
Regardless, I've certainly heard about Moon, especially lately.
He is a cattle farmer in the Ash Grove area, which is where he has always said he lives.
But many of you probably know him not because he is a cattle farmer, but because earlier this month he suggested preteen children should be able to marry in some circumstances.
In a legislative debate, Moon said he knows a couple who were married at age 12, with parental consent, and seem to be living happily ever after.
He didn't say whether they are now in their 40s or now 14.
You might also remember Moon because in 2017 he made a video from his Ash Grove farm showing him beheading a chicken. He pulled out its guts and organs, including its heart.
Moon says he's been getting death threats
Reporter Will Schmitt wrote a story about this for the News-Leader, where we both worked at the time.
Schmitt, an outstanding reporter, gave Moon latitude and space in the paper to explain why he killed that chicken and what it had to do with abortion and what it had to do with being called into a special legislative session by then-Gov. Eric Greitens.
The special session focused on restricting abortion in Missouri.
I linked to the story, above. Let me know if you can figure out what Moon was trying to say.
Some might call Moon a bit eccentric. Nevertheless, voters keep re-electing him to state office, although they have three times declined to make him a Congressman.
Moon tells me he lives in his district — on his farm, which has an Ash Grove mailing address. The farm is in Lawrence County, which is in his district.
Moon asks me to be cautious about disclosing where he lives because he has received death threats recently regarding his comments on preteen marriage. I said I would not mention addresses. The Hauxeda also chose not to run a photo of a home Moon owns in Greene County near southwest Springfield.
Jeanette Lawlor didn't say in her email why she thought Moon lives in Springfield.
I checked property records and, sure enough, Moon bought a new home in 1987 just southwest of Springfield city limits. Greene County is not part of his district.
Yes, Moon tells me, he once lived there, but that was in the 1980s and before he moved to the cattle farm and before he was first elected to the state House in 2012.
He termed out in the House and was elected to the state Senate in 2020.
He has kept the Springfield house as an investment, he tells me.
I was worried about what I might see inside
I drove by the house on Monday and it looked unoccupied. The porch light was on midday and there were wires where the doorbell should have been.
I thought about peeking in the window but suddenly imagined images of a man decapitating a chicken.
Moon's legislative bio states he is a member of the Springfield-Southeast Rotary Club.
I tell him that that might lead someone to believe he lived in Springfield.
What it actually means, he tells me, is that he became a member of the Rotary Club when he lived in the southwest Springfield area and still attends an occasional meeting.
Moon spent 27 years in marketing for Mercy, according to his online bio. He is an active member of High Street Baptist Church, where he serves as a deacon, Sunday school teacher and on mission committees.
This is Answer Man column No. 41.
