Republican candidates for office, whose names will appear on the August primary election ballot, presented brief remarks during a “Meet the Candidate” forum on Monday night. The event was sponsored by the Grundy County Republican Central Committee.
The local GOP ballot contains the only contested local race to be decided on Aug. 4 – that of second district county commissioner. The winner of that race will face no opposition from the Democrats on the general election ballot in November.
Incumbent Joe Brinser and challengers Brad Chumbley and Martha Roberts spoke about their qualifications as candidates for the four-year commission post. Because of the format of the evening program, however, none of the candidates answered specific questions.
Chumbley, speaking first, said he wanted residents of the second district to know he would be a representative of all patrons in the district, not just those who live within the city limits of Trenton. Chumbley is a resident of Trenton and served four years on the city council as the second ward representative. While on the council, Chumbley served on both the finance and administrative committees, which he said provides him with the experience in dealing with county financial issues, including the budget. In seeking the commission post, Chumbley said it is important for commissioners to work together, adding he realizes decisions made will never make everyone happy.
“But at the end of the day, we have to be able to compromise and move forward,” he said, adding that decisions should never be made that cannot be justified.
Mrs. Roberts said she had “no complaints, no axe to grind and no problem” with what the commission is currently doing, but feels she would have the time to devote in serving the county as a commissioner. She noted that with many persons now working from home due to the COVID-19 pandemic and students being asked to attend school online, she would like to see the county work with officials on improving infrastructure to provide good Internet service to all. She said the county also needs to provide its citizens with quality law enforcement and good healthcare options as well as support local school districts to help provide youth with a good education.
Brinser talked about the accomplishments of the county commission during his 11 1/2-year tenure including the replacement of the Charlie Dye bridge with no cost to local residents as well as the refinancing of bonds on the law enforcement center, which he said saved the county some $800,000 in interest payments for the facility. He said he has enjoyed working with all officeholders in the courthouse when preparing budgets, noting their efforts to work with the commission on holding down costs. He said that because of those efforts, the county remains in good financial shape.
Seventh District State Rep. Rusty Black of Chillicothe, who has no opposition in both the Republican primary and the general election, talked about how approval of Amendment 2 (to expand Medicare coverage in the state) could result in taking away funding from other areas of the budget – in particular public and higher education, which makes up much of the state budget expenditures. He said it is estimated that expansion will cost the state between $250 million to $350 million annually.
“Once we’ve approved this, we have signed a contract with the federal government and we have to continue doing this,” Black said. “If it passes, people are not going to like what we are going to have to do in other parts of the budget to come up with the (expansion) money.”
This issue will appear on the August ballot.
Black also discussed Amendment 3, also known as the “Cleaner Missouri” amendment and which will appear on the Nov. 3 ballot. This issue is on the ballot to make changes to a citizen-initiated measure that was passed statewide in 2018. The original amendment addressed such topics as redistricting, lobbying regulations, etc.
The 2020 amendment includes modification of the criteria for redrawing districts, including moving the responsiblity from the “non-partisan state demographer” to a bipartisan commission comprised of 20 members, including four commissioners appointed by the governor from nominations by the GOP and Democrat state committees. There would be no change regarding lobbying regulations as approved by voters in 2018.
Black expressed concerns about how he sees the current law allowing the auditor to have control over the districting process and urged those in attendance “to read the measure in its entirety, rather than the 50 words on the ballot.”
No other amendments scheduled to appear on the November ballot were addressed.
Also giving remarks was Dr. Jim Neeley of Cameron, who is a candidate for Missouri governor and was the only statewide candidate represented at the forum. Other speakers were Josh Halbert, representing U.S. Congressman Sam Graves; Scott Betz, representing President Donald Trump; and local candidates who are running unopposed in both the primary and general elections, including incumbent Barb Harris, treasurer and ex-officio collector; Nathaniel Curtis, assessor; incumbent Jill Eaton, public administrator; incumbent Rodney Herring, sheriff; and incumbent Dewayne Slater, coroner.
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