HOWARD HOLDS OFF SNIDER, BLACK IN 25TH DISTRICT RACE

POPLAR BLUFF -- In a hotly contested 25th District Missouri Senate race, which turned bitter in the last four days, incumbent Jerry T. Howard held off Poplar Bluff businessman Louie Snider and one-time Poplar Bluff city attorney, Mike Black.

With no Republicans having filed for the seat, Howard will be unopposed in the fall.

"One of the principal things is that the voters in the 25th District were concerned that we might lose all of the seniority from this area in the Senate," Howard said.

"With the change in the 27th District, they didn't want to see all of the senior leadership go at once.

"I also think that the campaign turned negative, and the people of this region didn't like it. We tried to take the high road, be positive, and I think this was recognized," Howard said.

In the last few days before the election, many registered voters in the district received phone calls from the National Rifle Association urging them to vote against him, said the senator.

"They (the NRA) must have called every voter in the district. Voters here didn't appreciate that, that a lobby group in Washington would try to control the voters of the 25th District," Howard said.

"It's ironic," Howard continued, "I'm an NRA member and my principal opponent wasn't and yet the NRA endorsed him. All of this, which stems from the fact that the NRA did not get a concealed weapons bill passed in the Missouri legislature last year."

While totals for Butler County gave Snider a 3,914 to 1,821 vote advantage early in the night, Howard won everywhere else.

As early as 8 p.m., Katheryn Snider at the Snider for Senate headquarters admitted, "What we hear is that it is not going well for us. There's just too many to make up at this point."