INCUMBENT DOLAN WINS SIX YEARS ON BENCH

BENTON, Mo. -- Scott County voters sent Circuit Judge David Dolan back to the bench for a six-year term.

Dolan was the incumbent candidate in a Democratic primary race for the seat, which serves the 33rd district and includes Scott and Mississippi counties.

He defeated David Mann by a vote of 5,661 to 2,602 in Scott County, which amounted to 60 percent of ballots cast.

Dolan earned 52 percent of the votes cast in Mississippi County. Voters in that county cast 1,857 votes for Dolan and 1,693 for Mann.

Circuit judges in Missouri are elected to six-year terms. Dolan has already served two years of an earlier term.

Both Dolan and Mann had earlier vied for the seat when Anthony Heckemeyer resigned from office in 1998 to run for U.S. Congress. Gov. Mel Carnahan appointed Dolan to fill the vacancy.

Dolan was later elected to fill the remainder of Heckemeyer's term. He had been the Division IV associate circuit judge prior to being appointed as circuit judge.

Dolan, 46, is a native of Tennessee and moved to Sikeston, Mo., to set up his legal practice after passing the Tennessee bar in 1981 and the Missouri Bar the following year.

He was elected in 1992 to fill an unexpired term left and then began serving as associate circuit judge in 1993. He was re-elected in 1994. He is a former prosecuting attorney for the county. He is a graduate of the University of Memphis.

Mann has been the associate circuit judge in Division V since 1979, and will retain that seat.

No Republican candidate filed for the seat, so Dolan faces no contested race in the November election.