New city council selected, Norris wins school board race

Posted November 9, 2016 at 10:24 am

Like the rest of the nation, Clinton County voters went to the polls in big numbers Tuesday, just over 60 percent of eligible voters, to cast their votes for a handful of offices ranging from the highest in our nation, to a few local races that involved only a few precincts.

In local races, among three seats on the Clinton County Board of Education that appeared on Tuesday’s ballot, it was Gary Norris who picked up a narrow six point win in the District 4 race. Norris, a first-time candidate and retired school teacher, garnered 417 votes to earn the seat in over Crystal Irwin who finished the balloting with 411 votes.

Irwin was the current school board seat holder, having been appointed to the seat earlier this year after the position had been vacated when Junior Cecil resigned, citing a conflict of interest after being hired as the Clinton County Extension Agent for 4-H.

Norris won two of the three precincts involved in that district voting, with 93 votes in West Albany while Irwin had 81 votes and in East Albany, Norris finished with 126 votes to Irwin’s 114 votes.

Irwin won the North Albany precinct with a vote total of 138 to Norris’ 121 votes and she had a one vote win in absentee balloting finishing with 78 votes to Norris’ 77 votes.

A third candidate in that race for school board in the District 4 was Donald Story who finished the race with 73 votes.

Two other school board seats also appeared on Tuesday’s ballot, although in both cases, the incumbent board members appeared unopposed.

Paula Key, the District 3 school board member and currently the Chair of the school board, received 870 votes Tuesday while board member Jeff Sams of District 2, received 450 votes in his unopposed race.

The only other race on local ballots in Tuesday’s general election involved voters within the Albany City Limits who were choosing the six members of the Albany City Council.

A total of eight candidates were seeking the six seats on the council and when the vote totals had been tallied Tuesday night, all five of the incumbent council members who had sought re-election were successful in their bids to retain their respective seats, while one newcomer to the council was chosen by voters.

Incumbent city council members, along with their respective vote totals, who were reelected Tuesday were: Steve Lawson (548), Tonya Claborn Thrasher (520), Tony Delk (424), Leland Hicks (394), and Frankie Stockton (373).

Carl Ferguson, one of three non-council members seeking a position, was successful in his bid Tuesday to become a member of the Albany City Council.

Ferguson finished in Tuesday’s voting as the third highest vote getter with 456 votes.

The two candidates who were not elected on Tuesday’s ballot, both newcomers to the political game, were Jon Cowan, who finished with 326 votes, and Jarred Parrigin who finished with 323 votes.

Brad Thrasher, a current Albany City Council member, did not seek re-election.

Of course the race that saw the most attention across the nation was the race for our nation’s highest position, President of the United States.

Democratic nominee and former Secretary of State Hillary R. Clinton was successful in her bid to become the first woman President of the United States when Tuesday’s voting had finished, by defeating Republican nominee Donald Trump.

Although at press deadlines many of the precincts on the west coast were still open, it had become clear that Clinton had won Tuesday’s election and would be sworn in as our next president in January.

In Clinton County, however , it was Trump that garnered the most votes, with 3,809 to Clinton’s 547 votes.

In other races of interest to Albany and Clinton County voters, it was Republican James R. Comer, the former Kentucky Commissioner of Agriculture from nearby Monroe County, Kentucky, who won the race for U.S. Representative.

Comer, who handily defeated Democrat Samuel L. Gaskins across the 1st Congressional District, will be filling the seat formerly held by long-time U.S. Congressman Ed Whitfield.

Not only did Whitfield not run for re-election to the seat after some 22 years in office, he also announced he would resign from the seat rather than serve out his current term.

That created the unique situation of the need for a special election on Tuesday’s ballot, also between Comer and Gaskins, in a race that Comer also won to fill out the unexpired term vacated by Whitfield between now and when the new term begins in January.

The result was that Comer will immediately be sworn into office and will spend the next two months as our new Congressman in Washington and will hold a slight seniority edge over any newcomers who were elected to congressional seats Tuesday.

In other races appearing on Tuesday’s ballot, U.S. Senator Rand Paul was successful in his bid for re-election Tuesday, defeating challenger Jim Gray, the current Lexington Mayor.

Paul, the Republican nominee, was selected by Republican caucus voting in Kentucky this past spring, a move he designed when he was also making his failed run to become the Republican nominee for President, enabling him to continue to appear on the ballot in the senate race when his Presidential hopes ended.

Clinton County voters also voted heavily in favor of Paul, giving the incumbent Republican 3,513 votes to Democrat Gray’s 679 votes.

Jeff Hoover, the current Kentucky Representative, received a favorable nod of approval in Clinton County, receiving 3,699 votes despite being unopposed on Tuesday’s ballot.

Across Kentucky, voters also gave Republicans control of the House of Representatives, which likely translates into Hoover, the current Minority Speaker of the House of Representatives, becoming the new Speaker of the House of Kentucky.

Readers are reminded that vote totals noted in this article are unofficial totals.