KZRG host: I support Koch, Martucci, and Roberts

A surprise moment occurred at the end of today's Morning News Watch on KZRG when co-host Chad Elliot offered his views on the Joplin R-8 Board of Education election.

"I would vote for Jeff Koch, Lane Roberts, and Jennifer Martucci," Elliot said.

Though Elliot never mentioned Superintendent C. J. Huff by name, he was clearly disgusted with the exchange of Facebook posts started by Huff on Saturday night when Huff, using a personal e-mail that was sent to him two years earlier, tried to sway the results of the election by characterizing Jennifer Martucci as a snob who does not care about all of the children in the school district.

"It's kind of embarrassing; it really is," Elliot said.

Elliot mentioned neither Huff nor Martucci but described the postings as "catty."

The Morning News Watch host also noted that Koch should have already been put on the school board after Dawn Sticklen resigned, when board members eliminated Martucci and Lane Roberts from consideration for the appointment, saying that they wanted someone who had run for the board, then chose by a 4-2 margin (with Debbie Fort and Jim Kimbrough casting the dissenting votes) Huff loyalist Shawn McGrew who received far less votes than Koch in the April 2014 election.

Eliot was also clearly chagrined at the Joplin Globe, which featured an article in its election preview issue Sunday saying that Koch and Board President Anne Sharp were virtually guaranteed of election since Lane Roberts was going to be head of the Department of Public Safety and could not serve. Roberts' name remains on the ballot and there is a strong push in the community to elect him to keep Anne Sharp from being re-elected.