In a primary election Tuesday that saw a lighter than expected turnout amongst mostly Republican voters in Clinton County despite favorable weather conditions throughout most of the day, voters decided to make several changes to the local government lineup.
With several of Tuesday’s Republican primary races being “winner take all” match-ups with no Democrat opponents this fall, Clinton County government will see a new sheriff in town as well as a new jailer and one-half of a new fiscal court.
In the races that determined office winners Tuesday night, Jeff Vincent won the sheriff’s race over incumbent Jim Guffey, Tracy Thurman won the race for Clinton County Jailer over incumbent Johnny Thrasher and three other challengers, and the Clinton County Fiscal Court will see newcomers Ray Marcum, Gary Ferguson and Jerry Lowhorn joining incumbents Johnny Russell, Terry Buster and Mickey Riddle in January, 2019.
And despite there being a Republican-Democrat matchup this November, voters also casts ballots that resulted in a new Clinton County Judge/Executive being seated when the fall general election is completed.
In the race for the top elected office, Clinton County Judge/Executive, Ricky Craig, a current magistrate from the fourth district, came out on top of the six man race with 1,046 total votes across the county’s 13 districts and the absentee voting.
With that total, Craig defeated incumbent Clinton County Judge/Executive Richard Armstrong who finished second with 831 votes.
Armstrong will leave office in January after having served one term.
Also in that six man race with was tight through the top four spots, former Clinton County Judge/Executive Lyle Huff ran third with 808 votes, while political newcomer Lamon Hubbs ran fourth with 709 votes.
Also running for the office of County Judge/Executive was two other first-time candidates, Scott Sheffield who finished fifth with 136 votes and Daniel E. “King” Laib with 73 votes.
With his win in Tuesday’s primary election, Craig will earn the right to face off this fall against Democrat nominee Keith Dalton for the Clinton County Judge/Executive’s seat.  Dalton had no opposition on Tuesday’s primary election.
In Tuesday’s balloting for the Republican nominee for Clinton County Judge/Executive, Craig won the nomination by carrying seven of the 13 precincts in the county and finishing first in absentee vote totals.
Craig carried North Albany, South Albany, East Albany, Seventy Six, Neathery-Cave Springs, Highway and Illwill.
Huff carried West Albany, Hayes/Maupin and the Piney Woods precincts, while Armstrong carried the West Albany, Snow and Speck precincts .
In the race for the republican nomination for Sheriff, and the office winning bid as well, Vincent carried 12 of the 13 voting precincts as well as winning in absentee vote totals, losing only the Hayes/Maupin precinct to incumbent Guffey.
In the voting for Clinton County Jailer, which is also the over all winning result, Thurman won nine of the 13 precincts and absentee voting, losing only in the Hayes/Maupin, Nora and Piney Woods precincts to Ernest Guffey, and in the Highway precinct to incumbent Thrasher.
In the races for Clinton County Magistrates, incumbent Johnny Russell won with 190 votes over challengers Bobby McIver (148), Wayne Hughes (141) and Phillip Parrigin (76) in the first district.
Ray Marcum defeated incumbent Patty Guinn 292 to 263 in the second district while in the third district, incumbent Terry Buster retained his seat with 238 votes over Christie Coop (205), Jackie S. Stearns (99), Lucas Abner (86), Brian Daniel (37) and Nick Barber (34).
Gary Ferguson won the fourth district magisterial race with 162 votes, defeating Clint Ray (135), Johnny K. Riddle (80), Bobby Thurman (78), Lonnie Parrigin (65), Sam Hadley (37)Ricky Clark (29) and Donnie Daniel (22).
In the district five voting for magistrate, former magistrate Jerry Lowhorn will return to the fiscal court, winning with 174 votes over Johnny Shelley (142), David Harris (125), incumbent Hershell Key (103), and Charlie Hardin (79).
In district six, incumbent Mickey Riddle won with 271 votes, holding off challengers Jim Pennycuff (182) and Robin Clark (49).
In other voting Tuesday, Republican voters also chose three constables in district races, with three other district races for constable being unopposed.
Like most of the races Tuesday, no Democrats filed to be placed in the primary voting, meaning that Tuesday’s balloting in the Republican primary was also “winner take all” situations for all six constable races in Clinton County.
In those races that were unopposed, James W. Adkins will serve as constable in District One, David “Sidewinder” Cross in District Two and Gilbert Daniel In District Six.
In Tuesday’s races that did see voting, it was Chris Conner (506) winning over Terry Lee Weaver (97) in District Three, Ronnie G. Thrasher (392) winning over David Scroggins (82) Eddie Brunner (60) and Norman Dufault (56) in District Four and Jerry Craig (358) over Ronnie Appleby (191) in District Five.
In Tuesday’s Primary Election, Clinton County saw about 56 percent of it’s registered Republican voters take the time out of their schedules to cast ballots.
With 6,382 registered Republican in Clinton County, 3,603 voted in the race that saw the most activity, that for Clinton County Judge/Executive.
Very few Democrats made it to the polls to cast ballots Tuesday, as members of that party were only able to vote in two races on the ballot, one a Democrat primary for the nominee for U.S. Representative in the 1st Congressional District, with the winner going on to face incumbent James Comer, the Republican incumbent.
In that race, in Clinton County, Democrats favored Paul Walker with 135 votes, over Alonzo Pennington, who received 32 votes.
In the balloting for the Judge of the Supreme Court of the 3rd District, a non-partisan race that was the only race allowing voters from both parties to cast ballots, local voters gave a lop-sided nod to Dan Ballou with 2,228 votes, over Debra H. Lambert with 863 votes while David Tapp finished third with 316 votes.
In addition to the races mentioned earlier that were final result races Tuesday – judge/executive, sheriff, jailer, magistrates and constables, a handful of Republican candidates were unopposed Tuesday and did not appear on the ballot, but are considered winners for new terms as well.
Those office holders, all incumbents, include Clinton County Attorney Michael rains, Clinton County Property Evaluation Administrator Pat Campbell, Clinton Circuit Court Clerk Jake Staton, Clinton County Coroner Steve Talbott.
Two candidates are vying for Clinton County Clerk, Republican incumbent Shelia Booher will be facing Democrat challenger Dan Thomas in the fall general election.
Most of Tuesday’s voting was performed “live” at the respective 13 voting locations across Clinton County, although a considerable number chose to either vote by absentee paper ballot, or in the early voting absentee machine in the courthouse.
Some 351 voters chose to use the early voting machine for Tuesday’s primary, while 193 returned paper absentee ballots, with 11 of those being rejected for various reason by election officials.
Readers are reminded that all vote totals in this article are to be considered unofficial until the vote totals are certified by the Clinton County election Commission, which will come after a waiting period to see if any of the candidates call for a re-canvas of the voting machines.