Lichtenegger wins 146th House seat

Receiving 52 percent of the vote, Donna Lichtenegger has secured a second term in the Missouri House of Representatives.

Lichtenegger received 4,327 votes to defeat two primary opponents, Gerald Adams, who polled 2,807 votes and Van C. Hitt with 1,143 votes. She said she worked hard, going door to door in every precinct for the redrawn 146th District, many of which had never voted for her before but had voted for longtime Jackson School Board member Adams.

"I never dreamed I would win every single precinct. I was blown away by that,"

Lichtenegger said.

Lichtenegger, a former dental hygienist, has represented Missouri's 157th House District, which included part of Perry County, since 2010. The boundaries were changed as a result of redistricting to include Jackson, Pocahontas, Oak Ridge, Whitewater, Gordonville and Delta in Cape Girardeau County.

This is the third time Adams has run to represent the Jackson area in the House. First in 2002 when both Lichtenegger and Adams lost in the primary, and then again in 2010 when he lost by 300 votes to Lichtenegger. This was the first run for public office by Hitt, a retired teacher and coach at Jackson High School.

In her first term, Lichtenegger was one of only three freshmen state representatives out of 60 who introduced a bill that was passed in both chambers and signed into law by Gov. Jay Nixon last year. She also co-sponsored a bill to largely eliminate pensions for those who are elected to the Missouri Legislature.

Lichtenegger said she's looking forward to working with the new speaker of the house, who she expects to be Tim Jones, R-Eureka.

In the upcoming session, she plans to focus on education.

"I plan to speak with teachers and parents and find out what they think we can do better in education. We're lucky in Cape Girardeau County, we have great school districts, but that's not true everywhere," she said.

Lichtenegger will run unopposed in November's election.

mmiller@semissourian.com

388-3646

Pertinent address:

Jackson, MO