Oktibbeha County’s District 1 constable position became a contested race last week after county transport officer Joe Morse qualified to run against former Constable Shank Phelps.
Morse, a former Navy serviceman and auxiliary law enforcement agent with the Oktibbeha County Sheriff’s Department, has served in his current capacity for 10 years.
Phelps has more than a decade and a half of public service experience, which includes more than 20 years with the sheriff’s department and an almost two-year stint as Oktibbeha County Emergency Management Agency’s director.
Phelps resigned his OCEMA and constable posts this summer to draw state retirement, and supervisors named his wife, Mitzi, as District 1’s interim constable.
Both Morse and Phelps were among six people who ran for constable in 2011. Phelps, the eventual winner, emerged from the Republican primary’s three-person field and defeated Democrat Curtis White by about 800 votes. Morse finished second in that year’s Democratic primary.
Phelps was unopposed in the 2015 county election.
The winner of Nov. 7’s non-partisan race will complete Phelps’ term, which expires concludes at the end of 2019.
The November ballot also includes special elections for the Mississippi House of Representatives’ District 38 seat; Oktibbeha County’s chancery and circuit clerks; and a referendum on a potential sale or lease of OCH Regional Medical Center.
Carl Smith covers Starkville and Oktibbeha County for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter @StarkDispatch
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