The political front in Warren County is expected to get more lively as independents and others who didn’t face a primary challenge last week kick off their campaigns for the Nov. 6 general election.

Such hopefuls for county supervisor and in legislative races have been running low-profile campaigns, raising only token amounts of money waiting for the party favorites to be winnowed.

Tommie F. Rawlings, independent candidate for District 2 supervisor, indicated he is &#8220fired-up” and ready to walk from one end of the county’s largest district to the other seeking support against incumbent Democrat William Banks.

&#8220It’s full steam ahead,” Rawlings said last week after Banks won more than 80 percent of the vote in Tuesday’s primary.

&#8220I’ll give him a dogfight.”

Rawlings, who works in construction, said he will step up the tone of his campaign in the coming weeks. He has been a fierce critic of the unit system of county government, where the roles of road and bridge maintenance are centralized with the contracted engineering firm.

Unit systems began replacing beat systems in the late 1980s following numerous instances of wrongdoing statewide. Rawlings, however, is likely to keep the issue alive despite the unlikelihood of a change in the structure of county government.

District 2 covers northwest Warren County including north Vicksburg and Eagle Lake.

Races in other districts offer intrigue in different ways.

In District 1, incumbent David McDonald comes off a hair’s-width primary victory to face Vicksburg Factory Outlets manager Margaret Gilmer in November.

Gilmer, a licensed Realtor and active for years in a number of community groups, plans to tout economic development as the rationale for her first bid at public office.

&#8220It’s a priority for me,” Gilmer said last week. &#8220I can run on my record on what I’ve done in Vicksburg and Warren County.”

Gilmer acknowledges the popularity of running on attracting new businesses and forging what she calls a &#8220consolidated plan” for Warren County, but also admits the other aspects of being a county supervisor will be acquired tastes for the longtime retail maven.

&#8220I will have to educate myself on prioritizing road maintenance,” she said.

Campaigning will become a weekly event for District 4 Supervisor Carl Flanders, who kicks off his race against former supervisor Bill Lauderdale and Republican nominee C.L. &#8220Buddy” Hardy.

Describing hitting the campaign trail as &#8220the most enjoyable part of my role here,” the former middle school teacher said he will make the most of the time he has with constituents between now and November.

&#8220I’m looking forward to three months of Saturdays working,” Flanders said.

Outspoken at the outset of his term, Flanders has been quieter the past several months. Efforts he championed earlier this year to implement building codes and ordinances dealing with signs on county rights-of-way and towing of abandoned vehicles have fallen by the wayside for lack of support from other supervisors.

As for Lauderdale, his stumping began slowly last week.

&#8220We’re pounding the pavement in this heat,” he said. Lauderdale, an auditor with the Mississippi State Tax Commission, said he may still be able to campaign and maintain his work schedule.

If voters in the southwest Warren County district send Lauderdale back to Jackson Street, he could be reunited with Selmon, McDonald and District 5 Supervisor Richard George, all of whom sat on the board in the previous administration.

George said his focus remains to &#8220do the duty of conducting this election and having it held properly.”

The third-term supervisor and cattle rancher faces the most crowded field among the five supervisor races, opposed by Democratic nominee Frank Gardner, Republican nominee Joe Wooley and independents Robert Hubbard and Kenneth Sharp Jr.

Gardner and Wooley have run against George and lost each of the past two election cycles. Hubbard and Sharp are both employees of the City of Vicksburg looking to enhance relations between the city and county.

&#8220I plan to get as many people to participate as I can,” said Hubbard, who plans to take a leave of absence from directing community relations for the city.

Sharp, an inspector with the city’s building and inspections department, said he will hit the streets soon and has begun advertising.

&#8220I’m thinking positive right now,” Sharp said. &#8220People are ready for new faces and new ideas.”

In the legislative races, Democratic Eric Rawlings faces Republican nominee W. Briggs Hopson III for Senate District 23.

For a brief time, the two were paired against each other for the Democratic nod until Hopson switched to Republican on the final day of qualifying.

Rawlings has staked out positions such as funding a veterans health care facility in Warren County and a populist on issues he says affect working people.

&#8220It crosses racial lines and it crosses party lines,” Rawlings said.

Hopson has also stressed health care and education, themes usually not reserved by Republican candidates. He’s also received monetary support from the Mississippi Association of Educators’ Fund for Children and Public Education.

Senate District 23 covers all of Warren and Issaquena counties and southwest Yazoo County.

Supporting education in Mississippi seems to be a dominant theme in the race for House District 54, where Republican nominee Alex Monsour will face Democrat Jennifer Thomas and independent Tom Setser.

Monsour won his first campaign after two previous tries by defeating Sadler in Tuesday’s primary. Setser opted out of the Republican primary and filed as an independent on the final day of qualifying.

While Monsour continues to hammer away on issues such as industrial recruitment and finding ways to bring more entertainment venues to the area, Setser said his effort will focus on education and taxes.

Reading programs and ensuring laws are written to support teachers in the classroom are pressing needs, Setser said.

While efforts have stalled to ease the tax burden on groceries and lower them on cigarettes, Setser indicated the issue will come up often during the campaign.

&#8220Why does the state sue the tobacco industry over health care yet refuses to raise the tax on the substance which was the basis of the lawsuit?” Setser said.

Thomas, an operations officer for Warren County Emergency Management, was unavailable for comment.

Thomas has talked about making education affordable, particularly on the post-high school level. In another departure from Democratic Party norms, social issues have also been a part of her early campaigning.

Mississippi Right To Life issued recommendations to candidates in both primaries. The group stopped short of considering their nods as endorsements because none had legislative experience, its chairman Barbara Whitehead said.

Senate District 23 covers non-municipal Warren County, Issaquena County and part of Sharkey County.

Countywide races also include those for district attorney and tax assessor.

In a rematch of four years ago, Incumbent Gil Martin, an independent, is opposed in his bid for a fifth term by attorney Ricky Smith. Smith, an independent in his first run, was unopposed for the Democratic nomination to the office.

Smith has promised to personally prosecute cases and rely less on assistants. Martin has said the case load demands the assistance.

In the assessor’s race, Democratic incumbent Richard Holland is challenged by independent Pat Ring.

In seeking a third term, Holland has touted making tax records available online via the county’s Web site as a major accomplishment. Ring, a real estate agent, favors notifying county residents of impending changes in their tax bills, not now a requirement of assessors in Mississippi.