Luckett in race for tax assessor
Published 12:02 pm Thursday, February 24, 2011
An employee of the Warren County Tax Assessor’s Office qualified Wednesday for the position his boss said 24 hours earlier he would vacate.
Ben Luckett, 38, a field appraiser in the assessor’s office since four-term assessor Richard Holland’s first term, entered the Democratic primary for the office in charge of determining and assessing property values.
“I have the experience and I want the job,” Luckett said.
Luckett attended Hinds Community College and, in 1999, became a certified appraiser by the Center of Governmental Training at Mississippi State University.
Holland’s decision to retire leaves two countywide offices open in fall elections, the other being chancery clerk. Six have qualified to run for that office, from which incumbent Dot McGee is retiring at year’s end. Qualifying ends at 5 p.m. Tuesday for statewide and local races and June 1 for legislative races. Party primaries are Aug. 2, and the general election is Nov. 8.
In Warren County, voters will decide winners in eight statewide races and 24 district-level and countywide offices. Voters in November also will decide the fate of three initiatives placed on the ballot by separate petitions — the definition of a person, voter identification and eminent domain.
Three of five county supervisors have drawn challengers, as has Sheriff Martin Pace.
In the Legislature, state Rep. Alex Monsour and state Sen. Briggs Hopson III, both Republicans, have qualified for re-election. State Rep. George Flaggs, D-Vicksburg, has not filed officially but is expected to seek a seventh term.
District 1 Supervisor David McDonald faces a primary challenge from businessman Joe Channell. Reed Birdsong, the county’s permitting inspector, entered the race as an independent.
District 2 Supervisor William Banks, a Democrat, has picked up a primary opponent in city zoning board member Tommie Rawlings, who was defeated by Banks four years ago.
District 5 Supervisor Richard George has two opponents, J.W. Carroll, a retired electrician, and Ellis Tillotson, a farmer. All three are independents.
Supervisors Charles Selmon in District 3 and Bill Lauderdale in District 4 have qualified and had drawn no challengers through Wednesday.
In the chancery race, City Clerk Walter Osborne is in the Democratic primary while three have filed to be on the Republican ballot — City Accounting Director Doug Whittington, retired health care administrator Donna Farris Hardy and Dawn Cain Barnes, a dental hygienist. Two independents, legal assistant Alecia Ashley and retired forester Gene Thompson, also have filed.