PRIMARY SHOULD DECIDE MISSISSIPPI COUNTY RACE

MISSISSIPPI COUNTY, Mo. -- Although general elections won't take place until November, Mississippi County voters will select a first district County Commissioner from a field of five Democratic candidates during the primary election Aug. 8.

Incumbent Homer Oliver is seeking another term in office. He will have to defend his seat against challengers John D. Goodin, Tom Green, G. Clay Shelby and Steve Ledbetter.

Oliver refused an interview request regarding his candidacy. Calls seeking an interview with Steve Ledbetter were not returned.

Ledbetter, a former associate commissioner for six years, was unsuccessful in his 1998 attempt to unseat Presiding Commissioner Jim Blumenberg. Ledbetter won the primary by five votes, but Blumenberg successful challenged the election after irregularities were found in the balloting. Blumenberg regained his position after a special election was held.

Goodin and Green are competing in their first elections, while Shelby is serving his third term on the Charleston Board of Education. All three said the commission needs to monitor spending of tax funding more closely.

Green advocates improving salaries of county employees and actively recruiting new business and industry to the county.

The commission should help provide training opportunities for residents to ensure they are employable by new and existing businesses, he said.

"Mississippi County is a fairly smaller county and we just don't have the funding to do a lot of things we'd like to do," Green said. "We should seek grants as often as possible to save our taxpayers' money."

Goodin said drug use, manufacturing and selling has become widespread in the county. He would like to see the county commission divert funding to law enforcement efforts to combat that drug culture.

He also sees the county's sales tax -- the second-highest in the state -- as being a hardship to residents.

"The sales tax is strangling the county. It's certainly not very conducive to having people come in and establish their businesses here," said Goodin. "It seems to me there's a lot of money being spent that needs to be spent in other directions."

Shelby said his role in county government would be to ensure the county gets "a piece of the pie" in terms of federal and state funding and development of highways and other projects. Good fiscal management will be the key to being involved in larger projects, he said.

"Everybody fights over pieces of the pie," said Shelby. "We need to do whatever we can to make sure our taxes are not wasted and that our taxes can be lowered at the first opportunity.".