MORGAN COUNTY SHERIFF’S RACE: Barbs hurled over housing illegals at jail

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By Joyce L. Miller
Lake Sun Leader
Sat Nov 01, 2008, 12:06 AM CDT

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Morgan County, Mo. -
With just days to go before the election, the incumbent and his challenger are going head-to-head, pointing fingers and exchanging barbs in a last-minute attempt to get their message to the voters.
The last-minute wrangling began with a press release provided to the media by the incumbent, Sheriff Jim Petty, that said housing immigration detainees has added up to a total of $5 million in revenue for the county.
His opponent, Republican Chad Hartman, a Versailles city policeman, says the figures Petty provided are misleading.
Hartman says he believes it was a calculated move on Petty’s part to distract voters from the real issues such as improving law enforcement in Morgan County.
The truth, in Hartman’s opinion, is that the justice center improvements and the contract for housing illegal detainees has, so far, cost the county.
In the press release, Petty cited the fact that the “new fundsâ€