Supervisors race features full field

Thumbs up to the contested Madison County Board of Supervisors race. As things turned out at the close of qualifying earlier this month, eight candidates emerged to vie for the three seats that will be up for grabs in the Nov. 3 election. This earns a thumbs up because it is good for voters to have a choice in candidates.

Running as Independents are, in alphabetical order, James D. “Dave” Allen IV, Jerry J. Butler, Pete J. Elliott, R. Clay Jackson, Doris G. Lackey, M. Christopher Martino and Leri M. Thomas. Running as a Republican is A. Frank Stidman. No one is running as a Democrat.

Each of the three supervisor incumbents in the seats up for grabs this fall – Bill Crigler, Bob Miller and Clark Powers – did not file the forms needed to seek re-election.

Because election times for supervisor seats are staggered, Supervisors Chairman Eddie Dean and Vice Chairman James Arrington are not up for re-election this year.

Still, with three of the five supervisor seats definitely set to change in November, the course of the board as a whole could also change drastically – for good or for bad. Thus, we encourage voters to, over these next four-plus months, carefully examine each of the eight candidates running, so as to ensure the change will be in a positive direction.

We encourage the candidates to clearly and openly state their positions on the various issues facing Madison County, so that voters will have an easier time making an informed choice. We call on you, during this campaign period, to be sure to tell voters what you will do for them, why you will do it and how you will do it. We call on you to not take time away from this valuable objective by “going after” your fellow office seekers with the sort of negative campaigning that seems to be current fashion in recent years on the more state and national political scenes.

The Eagle will again submit identical candidate questionnaires to each of the candidates — as it does in all contested local elections — and a Rural Madison spokesman said that group will again host one of its candidates forums later during the campaign.