East Texas

By MALENA OGLES
Staff Writer

Early voting begins Monday for the Smith County Precinct 3 Constable Republican nomination after no candidate in the field of four won a majority during the primary.

Former deputy constable Gary Guthrie led with 40.1 percent of the vote, followed by Whitehouse police officer Dustin Rust with 27.8 percent. Other votes cast include: Precinct 4 chief deputy Terry Brunk, 901 votes, or 17.6 percent; and former Arp City Marshal Rod Langlinais, 747 votes or 14.6 percent.

All registered Smith County voters living in voting precincts 23, 25-31, 45, 55, 56 and 59 are eligible to vote in the runoff as long as they did not cast ballots in the March 4 Democratic primary.

Rust, 27, is a graduate of the East Texas Police Academy and has more than 13 years of law enforcement experience, eight of which is in Precinct 3. He is a former Smith County Sheriff deputy, and currently works as a Whitehouse police department officer. He is also part-owner in a company that services and installs emergency equipment in law enforcement vehicles.

Rust is endorsed by the Fraternal Order of Police, the Smith County Employees Association and the Smith County Chapter of the Disabled American Veterans.

"Danny has done a great job holding the constables office and I would like to keep up with his community oriented approach," Rust said. "One of my goals is to expand the patrol division to provide the citizens of precinct 3 with more officers to respond to their calls for service and needs."

In 2003, he was awarded the HOPE Award for domestic violence prevention and in 2005 he received the Judicial Certificate of Merit for response to a gunman who opened fire at the Smith County Courthouse that year.

Rust has also received endorsements from Precinct 3 Constable Danny Smith and Precinct 4 chief deputy Terry Brunk, who ran against Rust in the primary.

"I feel like I have the experience the county needs," Rust said.

Guthrie ran and lost the election in 2002 to fill the unexpired term of Smith County Precinct 3 Constable Rick Waller, and ran for a second time in 2004 and lost to incumbent Danny Smith.

"I'm counting on my experience and qualifications; that's all I'm going with," Guthrie said.

Guthrie said he is a certified civil deputy constable with 16 years of experience and 25 years of experience total as a certified peace officer.

He is a certified master peace officer with the Texas Comm-ission on Law Enforcement Standards and Education, and said he is certified to teach civil process and firearms classes.

"I've taught civil process to virtually every constable and deputy constable in East Texas," he said.

His plan, if elected, is to focus the constable's office on civil process.

"I have to get the office back to civil process, which is why it was started. It's not to expand to DUI enforcement or other law enforcement activities. You have to do the civil process first then you can expand to different duties," Guthrie said.

He retired from the Air Force in 1994 after a break of service in his military career he took a non-paid position with the Precinct 3 Constable's Office. Guthrie returned from Iraq earlier this year where he worked as an instructor training Iraqi police in firearm use.

He is married to Kathleen Guthrie and has three children and three step children.

The Precinct 3 constable office serves the Troup, Whitehouse and Arp areas. Early voting ends April 4 and Election Day is April 8.