Three months remain before candidates begin filing papers to run in party primaries for seats on the Warren County Board of Supervisors, and more than three years until the next mayoral election in the city of Vicksburg, but the announcement last week by former District 4 Supervisor Bill Lauderdale to run for his old seat in 2007 has been a catalyst for some current and would-be officeholders to talk about their plans.

Most significant among them is Mayor Laurence Leyens’ strong hinting of running for a third term in 2009.

&#8220If we keep making progress, I’m going to run again,” Leyens said Tuesday, a move he said was brought on by Lauderdale’s announcement.

&#8220I’m watching these county races,” Leyens said. &#8220Especially with Lauderdale coming back (to run).”

Lauderdale served as supervisor from District 4 from 1988 until a narrow defeat by Carl Flanders in 2003. Since then, Lauderdale has kept busy working as a special agent with the Mississippi State Tax Commission.

Flanders, who was teaching sixth grade at Vicksburg Intermediate at the time of his election, has said he will likely run for re-election next year to offer voters &#8220a clear choice.”

If re-elected to his old post, Lauderdale likely brings a more deliberative style to the board, a contrast with Flanders, who has made his mark in trying to reshape the structure of county government.

Also Tuesday, North Ward Alderman Michael Mayfield downplayed aspirations for occupying the center seat on the city board, or thinking about 2009 at all at such an early stage.

&#8220It’s the furthest thing from my mind,” Mayfield said. &#8220I just take things one day at a time.”

Variables aside from financing, such as health, always play into the mix of contemplating runs for office, South Ward Alderman Sid Beauman said.

&#8220I don’t have to think about (the next election) right now,” he added.

Like Leyens, Beauman is in his second term. Mayfield is in his first, having previously served on the Warren County Board of Supervisors.

In Warren County, District 4 is not the only race with likely contenders to be on the ballot in November 2007.

&#8220I think that means there’s going to be a lot of candidates for supervisor,” District 3 Supervisor Charles Selmon said.

Selmon, a former mayoral candidate and third-term representative of the only supervisor district entirely within city limits, said candidates were already being chosen to run against him.

Though Selmon would not name them, it does not figure to include Betty Jackson, who represented District 3 from 1991 to 1995 and ran unsuccessfully against Selmon in 2003.

&#8220Most likely, I would not run,” Jackson said, adding her job running the Cherry Street Cottages Bed & Breakfast /Shlenker House has &#8220kept me busy enough.”

One supervisor sure to see a challenge is District 2 in northwest Warren County, the largest of the five districts in terms of land area.

Independent construction contractor Tommie F. Rawlings, 43, said last week he will run against William Banks, chosen in a special 2005 election to succeed Mayfield.

&#8220I am 99.9 percent sure I will run,” Rawlings said. &#8220A lot of people believe in me. I have a team behind me this time.”

Rawlings ran for North Ward alderman in 2005, but garnered just 114 votes out of 3,508 cast.

Rawlings has been outspoken on many issues since his initial foray into politics, none louder on the county side than on returning the county to a beat system of government, one abandoned in the late 1980s amid years of scandal and abuse statewide.

He said he plans to gather enough signatures to put the measure to a countywide vote to get rid of the unit system, where functions such as road maintenance, engineering and fire protection have been departmentalized, and return to the system where the elected supervisor was a one-stop contact for those functions.

&#8220I want to see county maintenance trucks in Kings. You shouldn’t have to go out into the country to see a maintenance truck,” Rawlings said.

For his part, Banks said he is running for election to a full term. Banks, who came to politics from a career in finance and still owns 3MW Cash for Titles on Clay Street, scoffed at the notion of ditching the unit system after nearly 20 years.

&#8220You can get as much accomplished within this system,” Banks said.

The beat system &#8220wouldn’t work in today’s time because a lot of projects require matching money,” he said.

Banks has made headway getting roads in District 2 on the list to be paved.

At his urging, the full board restored portions of Joe Edna Drive, Boler Street and Vinson Road to the county’s paving contract after they had been initially dropped by the Road Department and the county engineering firm, ABMB.

Elsewhere, David McDonald said he plans to run for a third term in District 1, covering the northeastern sector of the county.

&#8220Unless something drastic happens between now and then, I’m running for re-election,” McDonald said.

In 2003, the former transmission shop owner drew three opponents in the general election after winning the Republican primary.

District 5 Supervisor Richard George, the most tenured of the current board, said he will also seek re-election.

Like McDonald, George said he knows little about what opposition he may draw.

&#8220I really have no idea,” George said.

George represented the southeastern district from 1992 to 1996 and again from 2000 to the present.