Republican incumbent Jeff Hoelscher will serve another four years as Cole County Eastern District commissioner.
Hoelscher beat Democrat Ed Williams in Tuesday's general election. The unofficial results had Hoelscher receiving 12,361 votes (70.44 percent) compared to Williams' 5,157 votes (29.39 percent).
"I ran on my strengths and experience, and I appreciate the citizens with trusting me to be on the commission again. I've learned a lot in the eight years I've been on the job, and I look forward to learning a lot more the next four years."
"I did everything I knew I could do," Williams said. "Running against an incumbent of a majority party was too much for me to overcome."
Hoelscher said he believes his willingness to work with "anybody and everybody" was what won him the election.
"I want to see work on improving county employee salaries," he said. "We need to improve those to keep good quality people in those jobs. I also see us having to deal with stormwater issues, so we'll have to figure something out on how to deal with that. When it's all said and done, I just enjoy the job of commissioner."
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