The race is on to fill the vacant Senate seat of Johnnie Walls

The citizens of Greenville will soon have a new voice in the state Senate. Today's race is between Gwen McClure, Dorothy Walls, and Derrick Simmons. All are from Greenville, and all are Democrats. Should be interesting to see who makes it out of this.

Senate District 12 seat still vacant

There doesn’t seem to be a rush to fill the vacancy left by Senator Johnnie Walls (D-Greenville) who was elected Circuit Court Judge for the 11th District in 2010.  Walls who had served in the Mississippi Senate since 1993, resigned from the Senate on January 3.

State law gives the Governor 30 days to call a legislative special election to fill a vacancy.  After that, the Governor must give 40 days notice of the election date.

If an election isn’t set quickly, there is a very good chance that thousands of Mississippians in Washington and Bolivar counties will go without a state senator for the 2011 legislative session. After all, the 2011 session's already off and running.