The county commission will have six new members come September 1 as a result of Thursday’s elections. Seven incumbent commissioners will be returning and a former member will be rejoining the commission. Meanwhile, three persons were elected to fill vacant constable positions.
(CLICK LINK BELOW TO VIEW ELECTION BOXES OF LOCAL RACES BY PRECINCT)
http://www.wjle.com/results/
In the fifth district Democratic Incumbent Rick Cantrell lost a bid for his first full term on the county commission Thursday, falling to Democrat Anita Puckett and Incumbent Republican Jerry D. Adcock. Cantrell was appointed several months ago to fill the unexpired term of John Green, who had resigned. Adcock led the race with 364 votes (37.72%). Puckett was next with 354 votes (36.68%) and Cantrell had 247 votes (25.60%).
First district voters returned Incumbents Mason Carter and Elmer Ellis, Jr. to the commission. Carter, a Republican, had 386 votes (50%) to 253 (32.77%) for Ellis, a Democrat. A third candidate, Democrat Bennett H. Armstrong received 128 votes.
The second district will have two new members, James (Jimmy) E. Midgett, an Independent and Joe N. Johnson, a Democrat. Midgett led with 277 votes (28.47%) and 252 (25.90%) for Johnson. A third candidate, Clarence Trapp, a Democrat received 220 votes (22.61%) and Republican Incumbent, Bobby Joines, who had earlier withdrawn from the race due to an illness, garnered 224 votes (23.02%).
In the third district, Democrat Jack E. Barton will return to the commission. He formerly served in the second district but had to resign that position after he moved to the third district. In the race Thursday, Barton got 347 votes (40.21%). Democratic Incumbent Bradley Scott Hendrix was re-elected with 300 votes (34.76%). Independent candidate Wesley Nokes was unsuccessful with 215 votes (24.91%).
Democratic Incumbent Jeff Barnes was re-elected in the sixth district along with Betty Jean Atnip, also a Democrat. Independent candidate Danny McGinnis was unsuccessful. Both Atnip and Barnes each received 337 votes (37.82%) while McGinnis had 217 votes (24.35%).
In the fourth district Democratic Incumbent Wayne Cantrell was re-elected along with Democrat Jonathon Norris. They ran unopposed. Cantrell received 476 votes while Norris had 373.
Democrat Larry Summers won re-election in the seventh district. Democrat Kevin Robinson also won. Both were unopposed. Summers got 290 votes and Robinson had 280.
In those constable races. Democrat Chad Curtis defeated Republican Lee Plummer in the first district. Curtis received 287 votes (58.81%) to 199 (40.78%) for Plummer.
Republican Chris Tramel won the constable seat in the second district beating Independent challengers Tony D. Lawson and Jonathan Low. Tramel received 345 votes (62.73%). Lawson had 159 votes (28.91%) and Low got 46 votes (8.36%)
In the third district, Travis Bryant defeated Lou Ann Sanders for constable. Bryant garnered 301 votes (68.10%) to 139 votes (31.45%) for Sanders. Both ran as Independents.