Williams Starks will step into the role as Lowndes County prosecutor today and hold the position until Nov. 2, perhaps even longer.
Lowndes County supervisors voted unanimously to hire Starks to fill the vacancy created by the death of Steve Wallace, who defeated Starks by 816 votes in the 2019 county prosecutor race.
Starks will serve until a special election is held on Nov. 2 to fill the remainder of Wallace’s term, which expires at the end of 2023.
The county prosecutor represents the county in the justice and youth courts.
It will mark the second time since 2018 that supervisors have appointed an interim prosecutor. In December 2018, the board appointed Hal McClanahan to take over from Allison Kizer, who was elected as county judge with one year left on her term as prosecutor.
In 2019, Wallace defeated Corky Smith in the Republican primary before edging Starks, a Democrat, in the general election.
On Monday, supervisors chose Starks over three other applicants — Smith, Chuck Easley and Joseph Van Every. Starks was the only applicant nominated Monday and was selected unanimously without board discussion.
Unlike in 2018, when supervisors stipulated the interim prosecutor should not run for position in the subsequent election, Starks’ appointment leaves the door open for a more permanent position.
“I appreciate the board appointing me to the position,” Starks said Monday. “Obviously, it’s something I’ve been interested in doing for a while now. So I’ll go to work and see how it goes, see if it’s something I want to pursue (in the special election). I can’t say right now I’ve decided to run, but I am leaning in that direction. We’ll see. For now, I’m happy to take on this role.”
Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].
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