Dozens of seats will be contested in April election

Weldon Macke was 38 when he ran for Cape Girardeau County auditor for the first time. The 71-year-old Macke, who was challenged only twice in elections since then, will give up the job at the end of the year simply because he thinks the time has come to retire.

After two terms, Tom Neumeyer must give up his Ward 2 seat on the Cape Girardeau City Council this year due to term limits. Neumeyer, who ran unsuccessfully for state representative in 2000, says it's a good time for him to give way to someone else, too.

The two men ran for elective office differently and for different reasons, but both say public service is worth the effort.

In April 2 elections, more than 100 different seats -- from mayor to special road district commissioner -- will be contested in Cape Girardeau, Perry, Bollinger and northern Scott counties. The filing deadline for the April 2 election is Tuesday, with the exception of the Cape Girardeau elections. Government entities are required by law to advertise the seats up for election prior to the opening of filing. (See chart for offices up for election, qualifications and salaries.)

Macke ran for auditor because he wanted to exercise his love for working with numbers. "I have always enjoyed figures," he says. "You can pick a crook out. It shows how they're running their operation."

But there hasn't been much crookedness to ferret out in Cape Girardeau County during Macke's long tenure.

Cites code as success

Eight years ago, the Downtown Neighborhood Association put Neumeyer forward as a city council candidate just as the city was switching to the ward system. One of his goals was to improve the quality of life downtown by establishing a minimum property maintenance code. That code is one of the successes of his eight years, Neumeyer says, though he thinks it should be strengthened.

Macke was just one semester short of graduating from college with a degree in accounting when his father's heart attack forced him to quit school to help run the family farm equipment business in Gordonville, Mo. He eventually decided to run for auditor in 1969 when it became an elective instead of an appointive position for the first time. He defeated Jim Haynes, who was holding the job as an appointee.

Haynes couldn't believe his Republican opponent carried so many wards in then-Democratic Cape Girardeau, Macke says. The winner attributes his popularity to the job his wife's Cape Girardeau family did convincing their Democratic neighbors and friends to vote for him.

Campaigning door-to-door never worked for Macke. He'd spend hours getting nowhere because people wanted to talk about their problems or make complaints about the way the county was run.

He much preferred electioneering at the front door of a factory, where he handed out $1 bills made of rubber, symbolizing that he could stretch a dollar. He showed up at any church dinner he could.

More money to spend

Auditor, which he likens to an administrative police officer, posed different challenges when he started than it does now. His first budget was about $1 million compared to $14 million now.

When he came into office, the county needed to borrow money by March each year that couldn't be repaid until tax collections began in the fall. Now that there's more money to spend, it's more difficult to say no to county commissioners and departments.

In the last couple of years, the county spent $11 million on buildings -- a jail, an archives center and juvenile home improvements -- that were paid for from surpluses. He wonders if the county should have borrowed some of the money. "Right now we are in a building crunch," he says.

Now that Cape Girardeau is a first class county, the auditor's pays much better -- $55,000-$60,000 per year with 3.5 annual increased built in.

His last day in office will be Dec. 31. Cape Girardeau City Councilman Matt Hopkins and Jackson Alderman David Ludwig both have indicated they will run for the auditor's job.

Former Cape Girardeau policeman Charles Herbst, who now works for a computer company, is running unopposed for Neumeyer's seat after another candidate was disqualified. He is leaving office happy that his seat will be occupied by someone as capable as Herbst, Neumeyer said.

He is a big backer of the ward system. Prior to the creation of wards, he says, most of the councilmen lived in the northwest part of the city. "This side of town was ignored for many years."

Another advantage is that candidates need less money to campaign since their constituency, at least during the campaign, is much smaller than for citywide elections. "Working people can run," he said.

He raised a couple thousand dollars to finance his first campaign. He was unopposed the second time.

In his first election, Neumeyer defeated two other candidates by going door-to-door and stopping at almost every house in his ward, which has a population of 5,500 people. "This job, if it's done right, is listening and giving a proactive response," he said.

Meeting people has been one of the perks of the job, he said. "I've developed hundreds of friends and acquaintances because of it."

'Expect to be a listener'

Being a city councilman means going to many different meetings on top of the regular council meeting and requires plenty of accessibility once you are home, he said. "Expect to be a listener. If you would be bothered, don't run."

The amount of responsibility city government takes on with relatively little revenue is one of the frustrations he has encountered. "The city gets the smallest piece of the pie but we provide the necessary services," he said.

The esplanade that will run the length of the floodwall in downtown Cape Girardeau, a project to begin construction in the spring, is another mission accomplished, Neumeyer said. Closing the Taste Lounge is another. "We have a safer environment for the Good Hope area and for our police officers," he said.

The third-generation Democratic committeeman lost to Republican Jason Crowell in a race for state representative in 2000. But getting 40 percent of the vote in the strongly Republican 158th District was a respectable showing, he says.

Neumeyer has enjoyed public service and says he could run for an office again. "I wouldn't rule anything out."

sblackwell@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 182