Why I will support Welker's opponent

Let's break the ice right now. I cannot and will not support Mark Welker for the Office of Prosecuting Attorney. Some may see my reasons as being personal. I see them as objective. I have known Mr. Welker for several years when he was working on someone else's campaign. At the time I was president of board of directors, of the Millersville Rural Fire Protection Dist. We were involved in a property acquisition at the time. I was becoming increasingly frustrated with our attorney at the time, due to lack of progress being made on the case. Mr. Welker offered to take the case pro bono. I could not look a gift horse in the mouth. Unfortunately, Mr. Welker proved no more adept at a case resolution than the previous attorney. The case remained unsolved until after I left office. During this period, Mr. Welker left his private practice in Jackson and moved to Cape Girardeau. He did not extend to me the common courtesy of telling me he had moved his practice.

When Mr. Welker became president of the Pachyderm Club, he and his cronies nearly destroyed the organization. We are just now getting the club straitened out. He failed to preside over many of the meetings, leaving that duty to a board member or former president. His executive staff: vice president, treasurer and secretary also failed to attend or carry out their duties. He failed to demonstrate any leadership traits in this matter. I believe to be a member of a group that signs their name on the dotted line but does no work. He did not hold regularly scheduled board meetings either.

He lost track of Pachyderm supplies for some time which created problems until located. He has participated very little in manning the GOP tent at the Semo District Fair or Homecomers, or parades. While he does attend Central Committee meetings on a regular basis, his spouse does not. She is a committee member and fails to bring her proxy. This creates problems if you are trying to achieve a quorum.

Lately, Mr. Welker played the Limbaugh card, as if becoming a junior member of this firm is a guarantee for victory. Let's face some facts, Mr. Welker has only been out of law school for five years. He has little to no trial experience. His opponent on the other hand has 18 years of criminal trial experience, 16 years as a prosecutor, over a 100 Jury Trials of various offenses, and a 95 percent conviction rate. The only thing Mr. Welker can bring to the table is a newspaper advertisement with numerous endorsers, many whose judgment I used to value but now I have doubts.

James C. Roche', 3137 County Road 349, Jackson, MO 63755