County Judge Candidates Give Views at Forum

RISON - Three of the four candidates running for Cleveland County Judge participated in a political forum hosted by the Cleveland County Republican Party last Thursday evening in the Family Life Center at Bethel #1 Missionary Baptist Church near Rison.County Judge candidates Jim Houston of the Rye community, Stephen McClellan of New Edinburg and Rosemary Sinclair of the Staves community responded to five undisclosed questions during the forum. A fourth candidate running for county judge, Rickey Spencer of Kingsland, told organizers he had an emergency come up and did not participate.The entire forum can be viewed  online through the Herald’s website at clevelandcountyherald.com.Pastor Cody Robinson of Rison Baptist Church served as moderator of the forum. Each candidate was given a minute and a half to respond to each question. The order of the responses to each question were rotated among the candidates.Each candidate was given an opportunity to introduce themselves during the forum. The  following is a summary of those introductions as well as their responses to the questions:IntroductionsHouston said he has a 35-year business background with about 25 of that coming overseas, mostly in Southeast Asia. “I’ve worked in various levels of manufacturing and various levels of operations: running companies, moving companies, shutting companies down. So I’m well versed in everything that is required to run county government,” he said. “The county government is a small business. You’re funding the company by buying the product which means your tax dollars… We’ve got to do what we need to do to justify the expenses, and justify the expenses we ask of you.”McClellan said he is a Cleveland County native, having been raised in the New Edinburg area where his family had a farm, chicken houses and a store. He said he worked in behavioral health for several years as well as for the Dallas County She...