“I like it here,” Bost said, sitting in a barber chair in his wife’s beauty salon located behind their house. “It’s home. It’s family.”

Bost was born and raised in Murphysboro and has spent most of his life there with the exception of a three-year stint in the Marines after high school. He married his high school sweetheart, Tracy, who followed him through the Marines and back.

Tracy, a self-proclaimed political junky, is more of a politician than he is, Bost said. And she’s a big part of the reason he decided to run for office for the first time in Feburary 1984 to the Jackson County Board.

It’s a story he’s told many times. He was home from the military, sitting on the couch one day, frustrated about the issues of the day.

“My wife told me to get involved or shut up,” he said.

If you know Bost, you know he isn’t quiet, so he got involved. He has served Southern Illinois in the House since 1995 and is hoping to secure a fifth term. During his first year on Capital Hill, he was voted most effective freshman legislator, and this year he’s hoping to gain one of the 10 leadership positions in the House. Eventually, he would like to seek higher office.

Politics at this level isn’t exactly what his wife meant when she encouraged him to get involved 18 years ago.

“I just meant get involved locally fixing little things like holes in the alley,” Tracy said.

Several local positions, a bitter loss for a House seat in 1992 and four successful elections later, Bost is gearing up for the final two weeks of another run – but who’s counting?

“Thirteen days, two hours and 35 minutes until the polls close,” he spouted off.

And in case you’re wondering, he did cut his hair.

“I told my mother long hair is always going to be in and I’m always going to have it,” he said.

Oh, how things change.

Hitting the campaign trail

The Republican Bost is facing two opponents in the Nov. 5 election:Green Party candidate Richard Whitney and Democrat Gerald Deering.

As is required after every decadal Census, the legislature traced new lines on the Illinois map to divide the districts. That move expanded the 115th district from 98,000 to 106,000 people and stretches from Union County at its southern-most point to New Baden, 22 miles from St. Louis.

He starts campaigning almost as soon as the last election ends, and it’s not easy covering all that ground.

His Chevy truck is evidence of a man who campaigns hard:Bost flyers litter the passenger seat floor board along with wire cutters and gloves for putting up those blue Bost signs that sprinkle the district. A blue suit jacket hangs down the seat.

“You might be a redneck if your legislator drives a pick-up truck,” he said with a familiar southern accent.

Running as the incumbent candidate in a district that favors Republicans, Bost is expected to win, but he campaigns like the race will be a photo finish, walking his precincts almost every day and regularly attending parades and fund-raisers to pocket more votes.

“Remember, I lost in 1992, and it’s not a real fun time,” he said on his way to an open house at the Anna Fire Station that he helped secure funds for, even though Anna is not included in the new district. “That’s what keeps you knocking on doors.”

On Monday he went to Du Quoin to speak to a class about his job, then to Okawville for a meeting with senior citizens. He ended the night at a chili-cook off to raise money for the Jackson County Republicans.

“He doesn’t know it, but we’re going to auction him off,” said Susie Tebow, chairwoman of the Jackson County Republican Women, two hours before the event.

So how much is a day with Mike Bost worth? You’ll have to keep wondering, because he left for another meeting before he could be sold. The event still raised $615.

He enjoys the campaigning sometimes, but like anything, it gets old. Meeting after event after phone call, it’s the little things keep him going.

“There are days I’d like to have a clone,” he said. “If I had one of those, I’d never do a parade again.”

Looking out the window earlier this month, he was reminded it could always be worse. Five small children were crossing the street, women in tow. Seconds later his attention is torn as he waves to an old friend who has an antique shop in Murphysboro.

With his position, Bost gets to know a lot of people, but you could easily conclude that he’s been learning this area his entire life.

A familiar household name

Walk along the quaint streets of Murphysboro and it’s hard to find someone that who doesn’t like Bost and even harder to find someone who doesn’t know him or his family.

His relatives have been in the area since its formation. Distant relatives from Somerset, Penn., settled Summerset Township near Murphysboro, and some relative of Bost’s has been there ever since.

He’s known well in Tippy’s, Resturant, where a neon sign leads to Country Cooking.

“He comes in here and eats all the time,” said Kim Tarr, whose family has owned the resturaunt for about 35 years.

He’s known well by the local newspaper, the Murphysboro American, where Managing Editor John Gojkovich said Bost has “impressed me several times.”

The most notable thing, Gojkovich said, was when Bost substituted as a full-time firefighter for a man who had a dying daughter and needed to spend time with his family. He then donated the money he earned to the family for the trips they had to make to the St. Louis hospital. Bost was a full-time firefighter for two years and still serves as a pay-per-call firefighter.

“When I asked him why he did it, he said, ‘firefighters take care of their own,” Gojkovich said.

He also worked 10 years in the family business, Bost Trucking Services.

Sarah Doerr, who taught Bost in seventh grade math, said he was a good student and she’s not surprised he’s gone on to become a successful politician.

And of course, Bost is well known at the beauty salon, where customer Marilyn Meisenheimer of Jonesboro said she was one of the lucky ones not to be cut from the newly drawn district.

Despite all the attention, it’s his family that keeps him going. From politician to “pa,” which his new grandson calls him, he does the best he can to spend time with them.

“I don’t think you ever get as much time with your family as you’d like,” he said.

It’s all part of the job.

“He’s probably at more school activities than some fathers,” said Barb Troutman, who has worked with his wife for eight years.

All in the family

While his truck is the politician’s version of a paramedic with an emergency kit, a closer look reveals evidence of a proud family man.

A picture of his new grandson in the bathtub hangs from a 4-H strap on the rear view mirror, and one of his soon-to-be 14-year-old daughter is near the radio.

Consider this your warning. If you ask him about 18-month-old Spencer Michael Weldon Fred, he’ll pull out his wallet and make you look at all the pictures and hear countless stories about how he calls him “pa” and grabs for his cell phone when he visits.

With Bost busy in Springfield, Tracy holds down the fort when he is away working in her beauty shop.

“It’s the center of the balance – they always know where I’m at,” she said.

Bost was 19 and she was 17 when they were married, and together they own the White House Beauty Salon, where he does the books and she cuts the hair.

” If either one of us tried to do the other, it would mess up the business,” he said, adding that it’s been 16 years since anyone but Tracy has cut his hair.

The shop is often a place where political talk transpires because she “loves politics.”

“The first day of beauty school, they say don’t talk about politics or religion,” she said. “Boy, would my instructor would be proud.”

And so, as Bost and his wife prepare for yet another political event that night, the story ends in Murphysoboro where it began.

“We’ll probably be here our whole life,” he said.

Reporter Molly Parker can be reached at [email protected]