A Landslide Win For Late Mayor

"I figured he'd win because he seemed to get even more popular after he died," said Lincoln County Clerk Elaine Luck. Harry Stonebraker, has been granted a fourth term by the voters the small Missouri town of Winfield, however winning the election is one thing, being around to serve is another. 

It seems that the great equalizer snatched Harry away on March 11, at the age of 69 (Heart attack). Still, it didn't effect his approval ratings as he trounced Alderman Bernie Panther in Tuesday's general election grabbing 90 percent of the 239 votes cast. Luck said she wasn't surprised by Stonebraker's win, noting how Harry had led the community through the devastating "Flood of 200" caused by a muskrat who borrowed through a levee causing it fail and damaging about 100 homes. The town's aldermen will now appoint a mayor to serve until a special election can be held next in April to pick a mayor to serve out two-year term. Winfield has about of 1,500 residents and is about 50 miles northwest of St. Louis.

This is not the first time a MO politician has managed to pull off a win from the great beyond. In the 2000 U.S. Senate race, Democrat Mel Carnahan defeated incumbent Republican John Ashcroft even though Carnahan had perished in a plane crash just weeks before the November election. Carnahan's wife, was appointed to fill her late hubby's Senate seat but lost to Republican Jim Talent in special election in 2002.