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3 On Webster Council To Seek State Offices

Three members of the Webster Groves City Council have announced plans to run for the Missouri legislature next year.

Council members Randy Jotte and Jeanne Kirkton will both be candidates for the House of Representatives for Missouri's 91st district, a position currently held by State Rep. Kathlyn Fares, R-Webster Groves, who cannot run for reelection due to term limits. Jotte will run as a Republican, and Kirkton as a Democrat.

The 91st district includes Webster, Glendale, Oakland, and Shrewsbury.

Council member Kevin Gunn, a Democrat, will seek the Missouri Senate seat for the 15th district, which is currently occupied by state Sen. Michael Gibbons, R-Kirkwood. Gibbons, who also faces term limits, is running for Missouri Attorney General.

The 15th district covers a large area of southwest St. Louis County, including Webster and Kirkwood.

The general election will be held in November 2008, following an August primary.

Jotte, whose four-year term on the Webster council ends in April, said he will not file for reelection there. He said his term has been very productive but he is running for the state seat because of critical problems in the areas of health care, education, and the environment, which he intends to make the main focus of his campaign.

An emergency room physician at Barnes-Jewish Hospital and associate professor of emergency medicine at Washington University, Jotte also currently serves as mayor pro tem in Webster and as council liaison to the city's health and environmental services advisory board.

Kirkton's current term on the council does not end until 2010. She said she finds it rewarding to help solve problems for the people she represents, and she will continue to serve on the council next year during her campaign for state representative. If elected to the legislature, she said she would resign her council seat in January 2009.

A registered nurse and certified registered nurse anesthetist, Kirkton also cites health care, the status of the health care delivery system, education, and the environment as major issues in next year's campaign. She currently serves as council liaison to Webster's greenspace advisory commission.

Gunn was appointed to the Webster Council in 2005 to fill the vacancy created by the death of council member Dotty DeLassus. In 2006 he was elected to complete the final two years of her unexpired term.

An attorney with Sonnenschein, Nath & Rosenthal, Gunn said he will not seek reelection to the council. He said that decision was a difficult one but he didn't think it fair to the people of Webster to run for reelection to the council while knowing he would be running for the state Senate.

Gunn identified major issues in his upcoming campaign as economic development, health care, education and scientific research. He calls his term on the Webster council "a wonderful experience, working with great people."

Kathy Hart is the third Webster council member up for re-election next April. Hart is an administrative law judge for workers compensation in St. Louis City and County and said she plans to run for reelection on the council on the April ballot. She would be the only one of the three Webster council members up for re-election in 2008 to file for another term.

Katie Nakazono, Webster city clerk, said candidates seeking to file for next year's April 8 election for city council may do so from Dec. 18, 2007, to Jan. 22, 2008.