Although filing for local and district-wide offices remained slow for the second straight week, after a flurry of activity the first week of filing, the total number of candidates that will be on the Clinton County ballot in next year’s May and/or November ballot topped the 30 mark as four persons filed this past week.

This brings the total number of candidates thus far to 31, not counting those persons who may have filed in the Kentucky Secretary of State’s office, such as those filing for judicial seats, state district seats and federal races.

Three of the four who filed are seeking local offices, while one district judge filed for reelection in the 40th Judicial District.

The candidates who filed last week were all Republican candidates, except that of district judge, which is a non-partisan seat.

Those who filed over the past week were Scarlett Latham, incumbent Division II District Judge of the 40th Circuit comprised of Clinton, Wayne and Russell counties.

Two district-wide candidates filed, including Gilbert Daniel for Constable in District 6 and Clint Ray for Magistrate in District 4. Also filing was Dexter Hiser, who is became the fourth candidate to enter the race for Clinton County Sheriff.

Through Monday of this week, November 22, just about two and a half months away from the filing deadline, the most popular county-wide offices seem to be jailer, where five candidates are in the running and sheriff, with four candidates in the race.

There were 11 total magisterial candidates for the six seats that had filed as of early this week.

Early in the filing period, some local offices up for election still have no candidates, while other races have only one thus far.

The deadline to file for next year’s May 17 primary for most offices is January 7, 2022, while other non-partisan local races, such as mayor, city council and school board candidates have until early June of next year to file.

Also, judicial candidates, district and circuit judge, state office races, including State Senate and State Representative, and federal races, U.S. House of Representatives (Congress) and the U.S. Senate, primarily file with the office of Secretary of State in Frankfort.

The NEWS will continue to publish local candidates on a weekly basis and periodically publish those who file with the Secretary of State’s office.