Lt. Gov. David Wasinger urged travelers Tuesday to skip Interstate 70 when they can and cross northern Missouri on U.S. 36, speaking at a Highway 36 Heritage Alliance meeting at the Comfort Inn in Macon.
"Interstate 70 is a freaking nightmare," Wasinger, a Republican, told the alliance. "I'm sorry."
Wasinger, a Hannibal native, told the group of tourism workers, lawmakers and community promoters that he drove to Macon through Hannibal and across U.S. 36. He said he made the same pitch in a radio interview that morning. He called driving I-70 "a nail-biter" and urged the group to use that message to promote the highway.
Promoting the corridor, he said, means "preserving our history, strengthening our communities, and introducing another generation of visitors to the part of Missouri that I think deserves to be discovered."
"I just don't think northern Missouri gets the attention it deserves," Wasinger said.
Wasinger, who serves on the Missouri Tourism Commission, said the state is "probably" having "the strongest tourism season in the history of the state of Missouri," citing World Cup matches in Kansas City and the Lake of the Ozarks Shootout boat races. He asked communities to tell his office about anything they want the state to promote.
He also urged businesses to join Buy Missouri, a program his office runs to promote Missouri-based businesses. He said membership costs nothing, applicants must show they are viable businesses, and several hundred businesses take part.
Wasinger, who presides over the Missouri Senate, said the chamber "has been very dysfunctional for the last few years." He said issues the legislature cannot pass are ending up in the Missouri Constitution through ballot measures, naming sports betting and marijuana.
"Marijuana should not be in the Missouri Constitution," he said.
He said close to a third of the state's senators will be new after the November election, and that Senate leadership probably will not be settled until then.
Wasinger praised state Rep. Greg Sharpe of Ewing, the Republican nominee for the 18th District Senate seat. He said Sharpe has an "easygoing, non-confrontational way" and that the relationships Sharpe builds in the Senate will help northern Missouri.
Sharpe told the group he has represented the 4th House District, in the state's northeast corner, for eight years.
Chris Stigall, the Republican nominee in the 6th Congressional District, said he wants to be an advocate for northern Missouri in Washington if he wins the seat of U.S. Rep. Sam Graves, who is retiring after 26 years.
"I do not want to go to Washington, D.C., to live in or be a part of Washington culture," Stigall said.
Stigall said Pike, Audrain, Lincoln, Randolph, Monroe and Ralls counties are back in the district for November after not being part of it in the August primary. The Missouri Supreme Court ruled Sept. 3 that the 2022 congressional map governs the Nov. 3 election, and the U.S. Supreme Court on Sept. 25 blocked federal orders to use the 2025 map. Stigall promised that, if elected, eastern parts of the district would see "a lot of me."
In November, Sharpe faces Democrat Nick Miller, and Stigall faces Democrat Josh Smead and Libertarian Andy Maidment, according to the secretary of state's office.
Jared Wilson, superintendent of Long Branch State Park, said crews are redoing the original loop of the park's campground. He said he hopes to have camper cabins and full campsites open by this time next year.