The Reporter newspaper, Camdenton Missouri

The Reporter covers Miller, Morgan and Camden County in Central Missouri's Lake of the Ozarks and is published once per week on Wednesdays.

Published November 13, 2024

Camden County November 5 election results

CAMDEN COUNTY – Voters have spoken and as usual in this county, Republicans ran away with every office up for a vote.

Running unopposed for their office (and winning) was James Gohagen (First District Commissioner) Steve Dougan (Second District Commissioner) Marty McGuire (Assessor) Kendra Hicks (Treasurer) Thomas Gorsline (Public Administrator).

Chris Edgar (Republican) faced off against Constitution Party candidate Patrick Cochran for the office of County Sheriff with Edgar bringing in 19,496 votes (83.18 percent) to Cochran’s 3,942 votes (16.82 percent).

Voters in the Camden County Ambulance District approved the district switching from a Personal Property tax to a sales tax of one-half of one percent. This will eventually eliminate the Personal Property tax people pay to the district to support it.

The district will then get its revenue from sales tax which is paid by those purchasing taxable products in the ambulance district area including visitors.

Another local issue for those in the Mid-County Fire Protection District was a question to raise taxes to support of the district. The question on the ballot was:

“Shall the Board of Directors of Mid- County Fire Protection District, Camden County, Missouri, be authorized to increase the operating tax levy of the District by fifteen cents ($0.15) per one hundred dollars ($100) of assessed valuation to provide funds for hiring additional firefighters and emergency medical personnel and to provide funds in support of the district?”

Voters in the fire district cast 3,790 for the tax increase and 3,567 against. Last Thursday the Mid-County Fire Protection District thanked the voters in a message on their Facebook Page.

“On behalf of the Board of Directors and the members of the Mid-County Fire Protection District, we would like to thank our community for its continued support of the fire district. With the measure passing, we will continue to grow to our department and serve our citizens for years to come. As always, we plan to continue to strive to provide the highest level of service to our community.”

Other races

U.S. Representative District 3 was won by Bob Onder (Republican) who brought in a statewide total of 240,137 votes (61.337 percent).

U.S. Representative District 4 was taken by Mark Alford (Republican) who brought in a total statewide of 259,496 votes (71.034 percent).

In the race for State Representative District 123 Jeff Vernetti was facing off against Nancy Bates (Democrat). Vernetti received 76.579 percent (17,185) with Bates getting 5,256 votes (23.421 percent)

Jeff knight (Republican) was running unopposed for the office of State Representative District 142.

Andrew Hardwick was running unopposed for the position of Circuit Court Judge Circuit 26 Division 1.

In statewide races, Republican Andrew Bailey kept his position as Attorney General soundly defeating Democrat Challenger Elad Gross and Libertarian Candidate Ryan Munro. Bailey received 59.795 percent, Gross 37.907 percent and Munro 2.298 percent.

Vivek Malek (Republican) kept his job as State Treasurer and Denny Hoskins (Republican) won the office of Secretary of State against three challengers.

The next Lieutenant Governor will be Republican Dave Wasinger and the next Governor will be the former Lieutenant Governor Mike Kehoe (Republican) who brought in 59.124 percent of the votes.

The ballot also asked voters if they wished to retain Supreme Court Judges Kelly C. Broniec and Ginger K. Gooch and they received enough votes statewide to keep their jobs.

Voters were also asked if Becky J.W. Borthwick and Jennifer R. Growcock should keep their positions as Judge for the Southern District Court of Appeals and voters said yes to both.

Democrat Lucas Kunce was once again trying to take the seat of U.S. Senator from Republican Josh Hawley and like last time didn’t even come close to winning.

Hawley brought in 1,639,359 votes statewide and Kunce 1,234,159 votes.

Donald Trump easily beat Kamala Harris in Missouri with Trump bringing in 1,739,020 votes (58.375 percent) and Harris bringing in 1,190,806 votes (39.973 percent).

Other parties running for the position made up the rest of the percentage points.

State Amendments

Several Missouri Constitutional Amendments were on the ballot with one being a gambling boat on the Osage River between Tuscumbia and the Missouri River (Constitutional Amendment 5). Voters shot that down with 1,511,586 no votes (52.429 percent) and 1,371,524 yes votes (47.571 percent).

But they did narrowly approve Constitutional Amendment 2 which will allow sports betting. It came down to 50.074 for and 48.395 against.

Constitutional Amendment 6 asked voter the following question:

“Shall the Missouri Constitution be amended to provide that the administration of justice shall include the levying of costs and fees to support salaries and benefits for certain current and former law enforcement personnel?”

This one wasn’t even close with 60.614 percent against and 39.386 for.

Constitutional Amendment 7 easily passed with 1,952,138 votes (68.459 percent) for and 899,408 votes (31.541 percent) against. That Amendment said:

Shall the Missouri Constitution be amended to:

Make the Constitution consistent with state law by only allowing citizens of the United States to vote;
Prohibit the ranking of candidates by limiting voters to a single vote per candidate or issue; and
Require the plurality winner of a political party primary to be the single candidate at a general election?

Very strong feelings were held on both sides of Constitutional Amendment 3 which would overturn Missouri’s ban on abortion and make it a part of the state constitution.

This vote was also close but the Amendment passed with 51.605 percent for (1,527,096 votes) and 48.395 percent (1,432,084 votes) against.

The only restriction on abortion was in the wording of the amendment in section 4.

“Notwithstanding subsection 3 of this Section, the general assembly may enact laws that regulate the provision of abortion after Fetal Viability provided that under no circumstance shall the Government deny, interfere with, delay, or otherwise restrict an abortion that in the good faith judgment of a treating health care professional is needed to protect the life or physical or mental health of the pregnant person.”

If the lawmakers in Jefferson City do not state when “Fetal Viability” is then abortions could be done up until the moment of birth.

Proposition A also passed. That proposition included, among other things:

increase minimum wage January 1, 2025 to $13.75 per hour, increasing $1.25 per hour each year until 2026, when the minimum wage would be $15.00 per hour;
adjust minimum wage based on changes in the Consumer Price Index each January beginning in 2027;
require all employers to provide one hour of paid sick leave for every thirty hours worked;

The financial aspects of this were also mentioned in the wording on the ballot.

“State governmental entities estimate one- time costs ranging from $0 to $53,000, and ongoing costs ranging from $0 to at least $256,000 per year by 2027. State and local government tax revenue could change by an unknown annual amount depending on business decisions.”

In Camden County the voter turnout was 73.28 percent of registered voters with 25,732 ballots cast.