By Debby Woodin

dwoodin@joplinglobe.com

MOUNT VERNON, Mo. — Lawrence County voters will decide three county races in Tuesday’s balloting.

There are races for sheriff, Eastern District associate commissioner and assessor.

In the primary election in August, five candidates sought the Republican nod for sheriff after incumbent Ed Weisacosky chose not to seek re-election.

Brad DeLay, a former lieutenant with the department who has since been appointed to fill Weisacosky’s unexpired term, won that race. He faces Democratic candidate Melodee Mefford, of Miller, in Tuesday’s balloting.

In the Eastern District commissioner’s race, Republican Joe Ruscha defeated incumbent Earl Dotson, of Marionville, in the primary and will face Democrat Eddie Breeding, of Aurora.

The incumbent assessor, Doug Bowerman, of Miller, defeated Jerry Lee West in the Republican primary and faces Democrat Wilma J. Sanders, of Miller.

Sheriff

DeLay, 37, has worked for the department 15 years. He was appointed acting sheriff on Sept. 26.

Before the appointment, he served as patrol lieutenant, supervising eight uniformed officers, 22 reserve officers and the victims’ advocate, a program that started three years ago.

A major task for the department if he is elected, he said, would be investigating drug cases. “This is basically the key to everything,” he said. “Any crime we have we can trace to drugs or drug usage.”

His said his priority as sheriff would be to “provide the best service we can to the people. We’ll serve and protect in any way that we can.”

Mefford, 54, retired after 25 years with the Las Vegas Metro Police Department. She was an administrator in dispatch when she retired. She helped to open several new 911 centers. Before that, she worked in patrol, as an undercover officer in vice, narcotics and intelligence, and in crime-scene investigation.

She left the department in 1991 to work as an attorney specializing in labor-relations law. She returned in 1993 to the Police Department, where she stayed until retirement in 2001.