GAMBILL UPSETS STOVALL; BOCK KEEPS HIS SEAT

JACKSON, Mo. -- Cape Girardeau County voters Tuesday re-elected 1st District Commissioner Larry Bock to a four-year term.

But 2nd District Commissioner Max Stovall, 76, lost in his re-election bid to Republican Joe Gambill, 73, had a healthy lead over Stovall with most of the votes counted.

With most of the votes counted, Republican Joe Gambill was leading 6,401 votes to 5,621 for Stovall. Gambill garnered about 54 percent of the vote to 46 percent for Stovall.

Gambill, reached at his home late on election night, refused to declare victory. "It looks very good now," said Gambill.

Stovall spent much of the evening at the Cape Girardeau County Administrative Building watching the returns come in.

This was a rematch for Gambill and Stovall.

Gambill defeated Stovall by 39 votes for the commission seat in 1994 when the term was for two years. Stovall turned the tables in 1996, capturing the seat and a four-year term by less than 500 votes.

Bock, a Gordonville, Mo., Republican handily won re-election, defeating Democrat Doug Flannery, 39, of Whitewater, Mo.

Bock, 62, polled well throughout the 1st District, which covers all of the outcounty, Jackson and the western section of Cape Girardeau. Many voters who cast their ballots for Bock also voted against county planning.

Bock, like other members of the county commission, had voted to put the county planning issue on the ballot and personally supported the measure.

Flannery, on the other hand, campaigned largely on the issue of planning and zoning. He was one of the leading opponents of the issue. Voters handily rejected county planning.

"I spent a lot of time on planning and zoning that I probably should have spent campaigning," Flannery said.