Joplin Globe: Don't bother to vote for Lane Roberts; the election's already settled

As has become customary in the Carol Stark era, the Joplin Globe is overlooking a powerful news story- perhaps on purpose.

In the election preview in today's paper, reporter Emily Younker described the race for two three-eyar seats on the Joplin R-8 Board of Education in this way:


A three-way race for two three-year terms on the board had developed among incumbent Anne Sharp, 54, who currently serves as board president, and challengers Jeff Koch, 41, and Lane Roberts.

But that contest evaporated with the recent gubernatorial appointment of Roberts, who retired about a year ago as Joplin's chief of police, to the directorship of the Missouri Department of Public Safety.

Roberts' departure leaves Sharp, a volunteer for the school district, and Koch, business development manager for Umicore Optical Materials in Quapaw, Oklahoma, essentially unopposed and virtually assured of election to the two three-year terms.

Apparently, the Globe is unaware that there is a movement to elect Lane Roberts anyway to keep Anne Sharp from being re-elected. It is a story that has the same type of local interest as Mel Carnahan's victory over John Ashcroft for U. S. Senator, coming after Carnahan's death in a plane crash.

A possible victory for Roberts is the kind of political story that usually has reporters salivating.

Roberts' election is unlikely, but Koch and Sharp are anything but virtually assured of election- there are three candidates in the race, no matter what the Joplin Globe says.