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Iron County, Missouri (view source)
Revision as of 01:34, September 10, 2020
, 01:34, September 10, 2020Added to page
===Village===
===Village===
* [[Des Arc, Missouri|Des Arc]]
* [[Des Arc, Missouri|Des Arc]]
==Government==
Local government in Iron County is provided by the elected officials. At present, these positions are dominated by the [[Democratic]] party, to which a majority of the officials belong.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Countywide official !! Name !! Party
|-
| Assessor || David L. Huff || Democratic
|-
| Circuit Clerk || Sammy (Gail) White || Democratic
|-
| County Clerk || Stephanie Lebron || Republican
|-
| Collector || Crystal Price || Republican
|-
| Commissioner (presiding) || Jim Scaggs || Democratic
|-
| Commissioner (District 1) || Dwayne Warncke || Democratic
|-
| Commissioner (District 2) || Joshua Campbell || Republican
|-
| Coroner || Tim Harbison || Republican
|-
| Prosecuting Attorney || Brian Parker || Democratic
|-
| Public Administrator || Lisa Light || Republican
|-
| Recorder || Karen K. Reagan || Democratic
|-
| Sheriff || Roger D. Medley || Democratic
|-
| Surveyor || Mark Nations || Democratic
|-
| Treasurer || Carol Hardy || Democratic
|}
At the state level, all of Iron County is part of the 144th District in the Missouri House of Representatives, which also includes parts of Reynolds, Washington, and Wayne Counties. It is currently represented by Chris Dinkins (R-Annapolis), who was elected to her second term in November 2018 without opposition.
In the Missouri State Senate, Iron County is part of the 3rd District, which also includes Reynolds, St. Francois, Ste. Genevieve, and Washington Counties, and part of Jefferson County. It was most recently represented by Gary Romine (R-Farmington), who was re-elected in November 2016, defeating [[Green Party]] candidate Edward Weissler.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Candidate !! Party !! Votes !! Vote Percentage
|-
| Gary Romine || Republican || 54,414 || 81.253%
|-
| Edward R. Weissler || Green || 12,555 || 18.747%
|}
Romine somewhat overperformed in Iron County, winning 3,359 votes to 582 for Weissler. Romine resigned his seat in January 2020 to serve on the Missouri State Tax Commission; the seat remains vacant pending the November 2020 general election.
At the federal level, Iron County is part of Missouri's 8th Congressional District, which includes most of southeast and south-central Missouri. It is represented by Jason Smith (R-Salem), who won re-election in November 2018, defeating Democrat Kathy Ellis.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Candidate !! Party !! Votes !! Vote Percentage
|-
| Jason Smith || Republican || 194,042 || 73.39%
|-
| Kathy Ellis || Democratic || 66,151 || 25.019%
|-
| Jonathan Shell || Libertarian || 4,206 || 1.591%
|}
Smith somewhat underperformed his average margin in Iron County, winning 67.560% of the vote.<ref>https://www.sos.mo.gov/elections/s_default</ref>
'''Political Culture'''
As the above numbers indicate, Iron County is at present a fairly reliably [[Republican]] county, although somewhat less so than other counties in southern Missouri. Like much of the Lead Belt, the presence of a large number of unionized mine workers made it a solidly Democratic district for much of its history, a tendency which still continues on the local level. It strongly supported [[Bill Clinton]] in 1992 and 1996, and was one of only a few rural Missouri counties to vote for [[Barack Obama]] in 2008. Since then, however, it has steadily trended Republican, as blue-collar workers became alienated by the Democratic Party’s social radicalism. In 2016, [[Donald Trump]] carried the county with 74.33% of the vote.<ref>https://enrarchives.sos.mo.gov/enrnet/CountyResults.aspx</ref>
Like much of southern Missouri, Iron County can be included within the [[Bible Belt]], combining social [[conservatism]] with economic [[populism]]--though the latter is more pronounced than in other areas, on account of the mining culture’s legacy. In 2004, it voted overwhelmingly in favor of Constitutional Amendment 2, which recognized marriage as between a man and a woman only--the measure passed in Iron County with 80.90% support. In 2006, while the state narrowly passed an amendment to fund embryonic stem-cell research, the county decisively defeated the measure with 56.03% voting against. At the same time, it often supports economic measures that appear to favor the working and middle class, more frequently than much of the region. In the November 2018 election, the county supported a proposed increase in the state minimum wage, with 57.81% voting in favor (it passed the state at large). These results mark Iron County as an independent but right-leaning county.
==References==
==References==