After nearly five weeks of qualifying and about three weeks togo, the number of people who have submitted paperwork to campaignfor the primary elections in August has continued to slow in areassurrounding Lincoln County.

On Jan. 23, 59 candidates decided to hit the campaign trails inCopiah, Franklin and Lawrence counties and only six more candidateshave declared their intentions to run since then.

The new qualifiers bring the total to 65. However, new qualifiersin Franklin County are not included in the updated list becauseofficials were unavailable on Friday.

LAWRENCE COUNTY

With all the incumbents previously qualifying, except Post TwoConstable Brad Davis who has decided to run for sheriff, the newchallengers to qualify include Billy Showers, for District Twosupervisor and Phillip M. Wells and Bruce DeLaughter, both forDistrict Three supervisor.

The new addition of candidates looking to become supervisors makesthe District Two and Three races the most heavily contesteddistrict contests in Lawrence County. The incumbent supervisors inDistrict One and District Five will run unopposed thus far and theincumbent supervisor for District Four has one challenger sofar.

With only 17 business days left to qualify, Circuit Clerk James”Sandy” Brister said he is not sure how the rest of the qualifyingrace might play out.

“I’m sure there will be one or two more in some races, I feellike,” said Brister. “But there is no way of knowing.”

Brister added that he is not sure why some people might wait toenter the political arena, but thought it was best to hit thecampaign trail early.

“I haven’t stopped campaigning from four years ago,” jokedBrister.

COPIAH COUNTY

Copiah County has also seen the addition of three new challengersto qualify since Jan. 23.

The new additions to the Copiah County qualifying list includeStephanie Ervin Malone for coroner, Mathew M. Kunjappy for DistrictOne supervisor and James H. Whittington for Post Twoconstable.

Copiah County is still waiting for District One Supervisor EarlDixon to stake claims to his title. Dixon was involved in anaccident more than a month ago, but Circuit Clerk Edna Stevensstill expects Dixon to qualify.

“As far as I know he is improving every day,” said Stevens.