Race for presiding commissioner: Daume says now the time for Cape County to attract industry

Jobs, sensible growth rules and making the county commission work are the themes Stephen Daume is pushing as he seeks the Republican nomination for presiding commissioner of Cape Girardeau County.

Daume, a cattle breeder and farmer, is making his second bid for the commission after scoring a third-place finish in the 2008 primary for the seat now held by Paul Koeper. Like in that contest, he faces a large field -- six Republicans are on the ballot for the Aug. 3 primary -- but he sees an advantage that he didn't have two years ago. Daume is the only Republican candidate who lives in the unincorporated portion of Cape Girardeau County, and four of his opponents live within Cape Girardeau.

"It makes it easier to get help with fewer people from this side of the county and fewer agriculture candidates," Daume said.

The winner will face the Democratic nominee in the Nov. 2 election to replace Gerald Jones, who is stepping aside after 16 years in the job.

Daume and his wife, Shelly, live near Daisy and breed cattle -- his bulls won a championship at the National Western Stock Show in 2002 -- and raise row crops. They are partners in Deer Ridge Animal Hospital in Jackson.

Daume's ideas about the kind of jobs Cape Girardeau County should pursue have an agricultural focus. The county is coming through the national economic recession in fairly good shape and now is the time to use that strength to attract new industry, he said.

Value-added food and energy production focused on emerging technologies could help sustain the local economy, Daume said.

"Those things are going to be key, not only to the country but to the world as a whole," Daume said.

The county's role, he said, is to help recruit new industries and support it with tools such as bond financing that can reduce interest costs.

A county presiding commissioner, under Missouri law, has no more power than either of the two other commissioners. To get anything done, a presiding commissioner must have the cooperation of colleagues. And the only tool the commission has to influence how other elected officials do their jobs is through the annual budget, That puts a premium on being able to persuade people.

Supporter Weldon Macke said Daume has the qualities that will be needed at a time when the commission will be seeking to regain respect from voters after several years of infighting.

If Daume wins the elections, he will be required to work side by side with District 2 Commissioner Jay Purcell, who sued the commission unsuccessfully to prove a Sunshine Law violation. Purcell is also one of the five opponents Daume faces in the Aug. 3 primary.

Macke, a former county auditor, was also a candidate in the 2008 primary won by Koeper. During that campaign, Macke said he was impressed by Daume and when the call came asking for support this year, he signed on.

"I just kind of weighed them, and everybody is going to vote for someone to beat Purcell," Macke said. "The rest of them just didn't click my button."

What makes Daume a good choice, Macke said, is his temperament.

"He's pretty adept, and he's not a coward to say what should be said," Macke said.

During the next four years, the commission will need to put a premium on cooperation rather than confrontation, Daume said. Because Purcell has two years left on his current term, that means working together, Daume said.

The key, he said, will be to make the commission work as a team. Everyone will have assigned roles, he said, and his job will be "to hold people accountable for getting things done."

Mary Friese, who with her husband, Kenneth, operate Kenneth W. Friese Inc., a livestock transport company, was a supporter of Koeper in 2008. She and her husband knew Daume's father but felt in 2008 that Koeper, a civil engineer, fit better in the job that has primary responsibility for county roads.

Still, she said, longtime acquaintance didn't translate into automatic support this year, either. "I wanted him to have a position on issues and said to him, 'We need to know what you are going to do for us' and had to be convinced."

Now Friese is one of the people who meet weekly to plan campaign strategy.

"The role of all those commissioner positions has been magnified," she said. "If we want to continue to go forward with jobs and growth but retain that hometown country life, Stephen can offer the best of both worlds."

The commission will be asked soon by Cape Girardeau and Jackson to enact rules governing construction of subdivisions, a test of the two cities' ability to cooperate and craft something that is acceptable to rural residents averse to planning and zoning rules.

"We need to be extremely careful to protect property rights, but there needs to be some planning to move things forward, some minimum guidelines," Daume said.

In addition, the county has been pursuing a road paving policy that could make new construction in more remote locations an attractive choice for developers. But Daume said the policies that require each landowner to provide a 30-foot easement from the center of the road may not be the best way to approach paving.

"We could make more improvements faster if we were paving less width," he said.

All the policy ideas will require cooperation, Daume said. But most conversations about the commission eventually turn to the ongoing battles between Purcell and Jones, he said.

The biggest achievement for the commission over the years has been the stable finances built as spending was controlled. The county has a $5 million emergency fund set aside. That, he said, helps keep the county solid in uncertain times.

But that achievement is clouded by the feuding, he said.

"People say the conflict and inability to get along with each other is the biggest problem. That is the perception of the people. I want to get busy, move forward and make something positive happen."

rkeller@semissourian.com

388-3642

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