A surprise character attack in the local treasurer’s race and an outburst from a candidate’s family member against the Nodaway County sheriff highlighted Thursday’s candidates forum.

Following hours of listening to candidates for various state and local offices, a crowd of more than 75 area patrons were taken aback when W. Lewis Rice, republican candidate for collector-treasurer, ended his campaign speech with an attack against fellow republican candidate Michael Striplin.

Rice claimed Striplin lied to potential voters by not revealing that, years ago, he filed for bankruptcy.

Striplin responded, once it was his turn to speak, that he would not get into a mud-slinging match and that anyone who wanted to know about it could ask him.

Rice then held up a large brown envelope and proclaimed he “had proof” of the matter.

That proof is the copy of a bankruptcy filing from about 20 years ago.

“What Mr. Rice did was way out of line and he doesn’t have the full story,” Striplin said. “I never misrepresented myself and Mr. Rice should get all the facts before he speaks."

Striplin explained that with two properties to pay for, medical bills and other expenses and challenging circumstances, he chose to file.

“It had nothing to do with money. I did it to protect my family,” Striplin said. “And tonight, Mr. Rice attacked my family.”

Rice, however, said he did nothing but inform the public about his political opponent. He added he waited to speak last to give Striplin a chance to reveal the bankruptcy filing himself.

 “He (Striplin) could've turned this around himself if he had chosen to acknowledge this and inform voters himself,” Rice said. “He should have at least acknowledged something this important.”

Following the forum, Nodaway County Sheriff Ben Espey congratulated Striplin for handling the matter calmly.

Espey himself was put on the spot when a family member of Darren White, a democratic sheriff candidate, verbally attacked him and accused him of firing White when he worked for Espey years ago.

Espey is seeking another term as the republican candidate and has no opposition from his party.

“Do you really want to do this here? With all your family here,” Espey asked.

He then said White wasn’t fired and that he quit his office.

Espey also came under fire about deputies not doing radar stops. Espey responded that his deputies had other responsibilities, such as solving robberies and other crimes. This statement earned him some applause.

Prior to the outburst, White informed the crowd he would like to make the sheriff's office more “accountable” by taking a harder look at the sheriff budget -- that he deemed the largest of all the other county budgets.

White also said he’d like to see prisoners on work release and rearrange deputy work schedules to always have 24 hour coverage within the county.

In response, Espey said prisoner work release poses problems, such as deciding which prisoners can be trusted to do so and return to the jail. He said prisoners also try to smuggle contraband items into the jail and that deputies can’t do certain searches to locate certain items, such as when prisoners hide items in their bodies.

As to the 24 hour coverage, he said after the forum that deputies take vehicles home and, when needed, can quickly respond to calls as needed.

“This is my ninth forum in this courthouse since becoming sheriff,” Espey said, “I anticipated it would be like this.

“I think things went alright. There were some legitimate questions asked and hopefully people walked away knowing more than before.”

Maryville Citizens for Community Action, along with the Maryville Chamber of Commerce, sponsored the forum to allow area residents a chance to meet state and area republican and democratic candidates for positions that include county coroner (which received a number of questions from audience members), assessor, north district commissioner, collector-treasurer and state representative.

Voters will have their chance to vote for their choice of democrat or republican candidate during the Tuesday, August 5 general election. Top party picks will then proceed to run for the Tuesday, Nov. 4, general election.

For a list of those running for offices and their parties, go to www.maryvilledailyforum.
com/news/x2043505361/Candidates-to-square-off-in-public-forum.