Jones elected to fourth term as presiding commissioner

Southeast Missourian

Cape Girardeau Presiding Commissioner Gerald Jones cruised to a fourth term Tuesday, winning a landslide victory over challenger Victor Farrow.

Jones, a Republican, ran on a record of sound fiscal management and economic expansion. Farrow, a Democrat, was almost invisible on the campaign trail, not attending many events or campaigning to any extent.

Jones racked up 17,277 votes to Farrow's 9,666, a victory of 64 percent to 36 percent.

Jones, 66, has said repeatedly during the year that this will be his final four-year term in office. He has promised to be an active lame-duck, keeping watch over county funds and pushing the paving program approved by voters in the Aug. 8 primary.

Jones won all but four of Cape Girardeau County's 35 precincts, losing only in northeast Cape Girardeau among the voters at the Red Star Baptist Church and in the south-central part of the city among voters who cast ballots at Cape Girardeau City Hall, the Church of Christ and at the House of Hope in the old May Greene Elementary School.