Critical decisions

I live in District 1 of Cape Girardeau County. and my new commissioner is probably going to be Paul Koeper.

He is mature, well-qualified and certainly has knowledge of road and bridge construction, one of the major areas of contention in the county.

Koeper comes highly recommended by people who know and have worked with him over the years.

I can't vote for or against Rock Finch or Jay Purcell in District 2 as I don't live in that district. This is a key race in Cape Girardeau County, which now exceeds an estimated 71,000 in population.

Finch is running as an independent and is well-qualified for the job because of his successful experience in the insurance business and road construction from the years he sold asphalt and dealt with chip-and-seal paving.

He also has the Christian principles that I like in people with whom I have dealings.

Purcell, the Republican candidate, has city government and now county experience, but I have strong negative feelings about someone who secretly tape records someone without their knowledge (let alone another commissioner with whom he has to work). And then he distributed the tape to the media and put it on his webpage. That's the first time I've ever heard of such an action, not to mention that he sued the commission of which he's a member.

Purcell's charges of dishonesty and behind-the-scene dealings of Presiding Commissioner Gerald Jones are, frankly, outrageous to me and most anyone who knows Jones.

I guess Purcell would say this would make me one of the "good old boys," which is the straw man argument he has set up as one of the foundations of his campaign for re-election. I was told he said that he believes "anyone who supports Finch" is a part of that network.

I have also had some personal negative experience with Purcell dealing with his activities and efforts to unionize Dana Corp. employees. The company has since moved from Cape Girardeau.

Being in the media business, I certainly believe in transparency and the Sunshine Law but not in his use of it as a political campaign tool.

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Proposition B, which deals with home caretakers, is really an effort led by the Service Independent Employees Union to backdoor the unionization of home-care workers.

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Scott Charton, the spokesman for passage of Proposition A, which also is on next Tuesday's ballot across Missouri, is a good friend of mine, but he has been given a tough case to argue.

Certainly the restriction of the number of any business (in this case casinos) by government action (whether you like casinos or not) should be one that requires a better argument than is available in this case.

I will be interested to see the outcome of this vote, as Proposition A has a mixed message: removing the gambling $500 loss limit and increasing the casino taxes, limiting new casinos, uncertain funding increases for education. The proposition is probably too cleaver by half in putting all of these items into one measure, an effort which the Missouri Legislature has refused to pass in at least five years.

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The vote for president and Missouri statewide offices is already underway with absentee ballots, and I only hope that all of the voters take the time to be informed before they cast their ballots. I've always been able to live with the outcome of this privilege to vote that we have here in Missouri and the United States, whether my candidates win or lose.

Gary Rust is the chairman of Rust Communications.