By Wally Kennedy

wkennedy@joplinglobe.com

MOUNT VERNON, Mo. — Republican voters in Lawrence County selected a nominee Tuesday to represent them in the race for the Missouri House in District 132.

Incumbent Don Ruzicka, 51, of Mount Vernon, fought off a challenge by Mark Peters, 51, an attorney and former mayor of Pierce City, to be the Republican nominee this fall. The vote was 3,799 for Ruzicka and 963 for Peters. Ruzicka received nearly 80 percent of the vote.

The race this fall will again pit a conservative Democrat against a conservative Republican. Ruzicka will face Democrat Charles Dake, 69, of Miller, who held the seat for one year after winning a special election in February 2006. Dake was not opposed in Tuesday’s primary.

Dake, a veterinarian, pulled off an upset in 2006 over Republican Eric Seifried, an insurance agent from Aurora, to complete the term of Rep. Jack Goodman, R-Mount Vernon, who was elected to the state Senate in a special election in November 2005. Dake, a resident of Miller since 1969, was only the second Democrat in 70 years to win the seat.

Ruzicka, a retired conservation agent, defeated Dake by a slim margin to reclaim the seat for the Republicans in the 2006 general election. Ruzicka received 6,499 votes to Dake’s 5,922.

Ruzicka has lived in Mount Vernon for nine years. He was a conservation agent for 27 years.

The primary race in the 132nd District was the only one for a House seat in the immediate Joplin area and one of only three in the area that will be contested in November.