Low voter turnout was the word across the board in our local races last night in the primary election, with Daviess, Pike, Martin, and Knox County averaging about 25 to 27 percent turnout overall in each county. The contested local races were all on the Republican ticket. Candidates from other parties will have until July to file to be on the November ballot.
With a 25 percent voter turnout in Daviess County, it took every vote as the race for Daviess County Commissioner in District 1 was tight all night. The final results gave the challenger, Tracy T.C. Cook, the advantage over the incumbent 1998 votes to 1951 for Ron Arnold. Cook will now move on to the November ballot.
Tracy Cook gives thanks after picking up the win last night
In Martin County, the contested races were all Republican; for County Commissioner District 1, Retha Warner was the winner with 847 votes, Cody Roush finished with 641, and Kevin Boyd had 272 votes. For the District 3 Commissioner seat, Aaron Summers was the winner, receiving 800 votes; John Daniel finished with 462; and Dana Strange had 448 votes. For County Council at Large, the three Republicans moving to November will be Warren Albright, Gerald Montgomery, and Jim Woody, each receiving over 1000 votes. Mattew Copeland had 589 votes, and Stephen Shout had 425 votes.
In Pike County. Evan Biesterveld won the Pike County Circuit Court Judge seat with 1426 votes, or 69 percent, to 634 votes, or 31 percent, for Boyd Toler. For county coroner, Nick Hensen defeated Jim Gladish by 1244 votes to 736. Jeff Harding, Eric Smith, and Greg Willis were the three nominees moving on for County Council at Large.
For Knox County Coroner, Joe Milspaugh Junior won his race against challenger Kira Dent. The vote counts from 2,806 to 1824. Milspaugh- Junior had just over 60% of the vote. It was a tight race for County Commissioner District 1, with incumbent T-J Brink finishing with 2,320 votes while challenger Cher Wehrman had 2,235. In County Commissioner District 2, Trent Hinkle ran for re-election against Tim Ellerman the Second and Pam Hazel. Ellerman upset the incumbent, garnering 2,065 votes. Hazel was second with 1,423, while Hinkle was last with 1,226. In the County Council At-Large Race, the top 3 vote-getters in the 7-person race were Kevin Meyer with 2,939 votes, or just over 25%. Incumbent Dan Reitmeyer finished with 2,506 votes, or 21%, and Jon Hillenbrand had 2,103 votes, or 18%.
