Wednesday, May 23, 2018

Incumbents On Oconee County Board Of Commissioners, Board Of Education Survive Primary Challenges

***Judicial Races Unsettled***

Oconee County Board of Commissioners member William “Bubber” Wilkes emerged victorious from the Republican Party Primary on Tuesday, with 71.9 percent of the vote to John Laster's 28.1 percent.

Incumbent Board of Education Member Amy Parrish also won the Republian Party nomiation for her Board seat, getting 71.0 percent of the vote to 29.0 percent for Adam Spence.

Wilkes has no Democratic opposition, so he and Chuck Horton, another Incumbent Commission Member, are guaranteed they will return to the Commission in January unless someone mounts a write-in vote campaign.

Parrish will face Democrat Anderea Wellitz on Nov. 6, and Board of Education Member Kim Argo, who had no opposition Tuesday in the Republican Primary, will face Fran Tompson, who had no opposition in the Democratic Primary.

House And Judicial Races

Marcus Wiedower bested Steven Strickland for the Republican nomination for the Georgia House District 119 seat in the Oconee County vote, but the district is nearly equally split between Clarke and Oconee counties, and results for Clarke County were not posted to the Secretary of State web site at 10:45 p.m.

Wilkes

U.S. Representative Jody Hice handily defeated (79.3 percent of the vote) his two Republican challengers on Tuesday, and Tobitha Johnson-Green (56.8 percent) bested her two Democratic colleagues in the Democratic Primary.

These results were as of 11:05 p.m. Tuesday and represented only 76 percent of the precincts in the district.

Hice and one of the Democrats will meet up on Nov. 6.

In two local nonpartisan judgeship races on the ballot on Tuesday, voters in Oconee County selected incumbent Eric Norris (66.1 percent) as Superior Court Judge for Western Judicial Circuit and incumbent Regina Quick (64.8 percent) for a second judicial election.

Results for 50 percent of the precincts were listed on the Secretary of State web site as of 11:30 p.m., and those results show Norris with 51.9 percent of the vote versus Allison Mauldin with 48.2 percent.

The incomplete results show Lisa Lott with 54.1 percent of the vote and Quick at 45.1 percent.

Statewide Races

Republicans had five candidates contending for the governorship at the top of the ballot on Tuesday while Democrats had two.

Parrish

The statewide ballot has impact on Oconee County races, which historially have been decided in Republican Primaries.

In the election that ended Tuesday, voters who wanted to help decide who will be the next county Post III Commissioner had to vote in the Republican Primary, since the Democrats did not field a candidate.

Turnout in Oconee County was light, with 22.0 percent of the county’s 26,261 active registered voters turning out in early voting or on elections day.

State Senate, House Races

Neither incumbent Republican Bill Cowsert nor Democat Marisue Hilliard faced opposition in their primaries on Tuesday.

Senate District 46 contains all of Oconee County and parts of Clarke and Walton counties.

A Wiedower vs. Wallace contest is a modified replay of the special election in November of last year to fill the seated vacated by Republican Chuck Williams.

The difference is that Tom Lord, Strickland and Wiedower were all running as Republicans, while Wallace was the sole Democrat.

Even in the crowded field, Wallace got a majority of the vote. He was unopposed on the Democratic ballot on Tuesday.

All of Oconee County except for three large precincts along the Clarke County line are in the 119th House District.

Those three precincts by Democrat Deborah Gonzalez.

Houston Gaines was unopposed on the Republican Party Ballot on Tuesday setting up a rematch of their race from November. Gonzalez also was unopposed on Tuesday’s Democratic ballot.

5 comments:

Mike Horsman said...

Lee,
Thank you so much for your unwavering coverage of what is going on in our County. Your dedication to unbiased, factual reporting is always a pleasure to read, especially in this day and time.
Kindest regards,
Mike Horsman

Lee Becker said...

Thank you, Mike.
Lee

Anonymous said...

Ditto, Lee!!! Most appreciated.

Without watchdogs, the foxes would be totally guarding the chicken house.

BEST / John Dewey

Anonymous said...

Ditto.

Anonymous said...

Hope all candidates remove & recycle all of their campaign signs!!