With now less than three weeks away from the deadline to file for office in the upcoming May primary election, filing for office–both locally and otherwise, continues to be extremely slow.

Since the first of the year, only two additional candidates–one local and one district-wide candidate–had filed as of press time Tuesday morning, January 7.

The local candidate who filed is John D. Beaty, a Republican candidate for the office of Jailer. This brings the total number of persons seeking that seat to five, all Republicans.

Also announcing his re-election bid last week is 83rd District State Representative Jeff Hoover. State candidates file with the Secretary of State’s office in Frankfort. Hoover, a Jamestown Republican incumbent, is the current House Minority Leader, a position he has held since 1997.

As of early this week, the local number of candidates seeking office in Clinton County stood at 36 total, with 33 of those being Republican and three Democrat.

Counting state, federal and judicial related races, a total of 44 persons have officially filed whose names will appear on the Clinton County ballot in the spring.

Filing deadline for all offices is January 28 at 4 p.m.