David Dolan, retired circuit judge, to run for House District 148 seat

Retired judge David Dolan has decided to make a run at the statehouse.

Dolan -- who, until March 15, had served as the presiding judge over Scott and Mississippi counties, the 33rd Judicial Circuit, since 1998 -- filed to run for the District 148 seat in the House of Representatives, which will be left vacant as current Rep. Jamie Burger seeks the District 27 Senate seat. Formerly a registered Democrat, Dolan will challenge Oran Mayor Gary Senciboy for the Republican nomination for the seat that covers Scott County in the Tuesday, Aug. 6, primary election.

"I've been doing legislation work for a long time," Dolan said. "I was on the board of directors of the National Drug Court and worked on legislation there which we were able to push through. (It was) national legislation that amended the National Highway Safety Transportation Act to get treatment courts, the DWI courts, added to the national highway safety transportation bill, which basically allowed the states to be able to use federal highway money for treatment courts."

Dolan is originally from Memphis, Tennessee, and graduated from law school at Memphis State University, where he and his wife met, in 1981. After earning his degree, Dolan and his wife moved to Sikeston where they've lived since.

In addition to his 26-year tenure as 33rd circuit judge, Dolan has spent 31 years on the bench and has practiced law for 38 years. He has served on several boards and committees, including becoming one of the first presidents of the Missouri drug courts and sat on the Missouri Supreme Court Legislative Committee for the past decade. Dolan said he also was responsible for creating the first juvenile drug court in the state.

Dolan said his main priority is addressing the mental health issues he said he has seen in his court over the years.

"Most of the people that I see that would come through my criminal court," Dolan said, "their mental health was involved one way or another. ... Mental health is a big issue because there are no more mental health hospitals -- a couple maybe -- in Missouri. Mental health is a part of our community, and how we address that and how the community lives with that is a big deal, and it's going to become a bigger deal as we go on.

"Our jails have now become the mental health depository for a lot of people that can't cope in the community, and that's really not a place for mental health. It's not good for the jails, and it's not good for the defendant that comes in front of you."

Additionally, Dolan said he hopes to focus on improving transportation and public safety in the state.

"I have a particular interest in transportation because, I don't know how often you drive our roads, but they're not in very good shape compared to a lot of other states," Dolan said. "With public safety, I've seen more innocent people get shot and killed, and it's, a lot of times, heartbreaking for a judge to sit on those cases, where you see these innocent people that needlessly get killed."

While he named the previous three issues specifically, Dolan emphasized he isn't going to be a single-issue representative.

"I don't have an agenda," Dolan said.