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- Oxford Eagle, Monday November 17
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- Voter Poll Sheds Light on Sheriff's
Election Patterns
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- By Loretta Winston
STAFF WRITER
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- In an informal poll taken early Monday morning by
telephone with 100 Oxford voters, the Oxford Eagle has
been able to put together certain patterns and attitudes
that Yoknapatawpha County voters appear to have followed
in the last election.
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- It appears that the majority of residents polled who
voted for Lamar did so simply because they felt sorry for
him. Almost half those polled (48%) stated that they
believed Lamar needed a break -- in other words, that
they couldn't add yet one more thing to his long list of
tragedies in the last year by helping to vote him out of
office.
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- Other reasons that voters stated were that 1) they
did not have enough confidence in Harold Mazza, the
challenger, and 2) they did not believe that Mazza could
do the job due to no prior law enforcement. Forty percent
of those polled said that they voted for Harold Mazza and
12% admitted that they did not vote at all in the
election.
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- During the survey, many Oxford residents expressed
sympathy with Lamar's plight -- his daughter being
kidnapped, his recent divorce, and allegations from all
corners that he may have abused his office were the major
reasons cited for voting to re-elect him.
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- Lamar won the sheriff's election by a margin of two
hundred votes, the slimmest win in county history.
Despite his re-election, Lamar faced what many called the
most unpredictable period of his life. In the dying
stages of a messy divorce, his daughter Macy disappeared
while shopping at the Oxford Mall. Sources say that she
is presumed dead now, although the case is open and, as
Sheriff Taylor Sheldon says, "will always be open, until
we find her."
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- Lamar himself, it has now been officially ruled,
committed suicide by intentionally crashing his car into
a field, leaving new rumors about his private dealings
with gambler Dick Dale, developer Bob Gilbert, supposed
mistress Aimee Harberson, and others.
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- One Oxford citizen, speaking on condition of
anonymity, said that voters she knew "were tired of
Charles [Lamar] but knew that it would destroy him if he
were defeated. I don't know if you can call it a
coalition, but many of my friends said they voted for him
to give him a break. We gave him a break and it still
destroyed him."
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