Edwards, Coffey, Owen retain county offices; Chism going to senate

Circuit Clerk Phyllis Stanford reads election results to a courtroom full of candidates, family members and supporters.

In what was predicted to be a close race, incumbent Democratic sheriff Jimmy Edwards defeated Republican challenger Ashley Kidd, 53 percent to 47 percent in Tuesday’s general election. Kidd a police and school resource officer, had mounted a strong campaign and it had been speculated that he could also benefit from voters favoring a straight Republican ticket.

Edwards had defeated Danny Dillard in the Democratic primary and Kidd won over Brandon Garrett.

Three of the five county supervisors’ races were on Tuesday’s ballot as well and voters favored the incumbents.

The First District seat was up for grabs, however, after first-termer Evan Denton was ousted in the primary, losing to Sam Taylor in the runoff. Republican Jerry Burke and Democrat Taylor were vying for the seat Tuesday and Taylor came up as the winner, defeating Burke by 56 percent to 43 percent.

In the Second District, first-time incumbent and Democrat Chad Coffey was defending his seat against Republican Jim Gann and Coffey did win by a difference of 74 percent to 26 percent. Each was unopposed in the primary.

Democrat Randy Owen, who has served several terms as Fourth District supervisor and defeated Keith Roberts in the primary, was challenged in the general election by Republican Junior Courtney. Like Coffey, Owen was able to retain his seat getting 66 percent of the vote.

Fifth District Supervisor Steve Watson was unopposed and Third District Supervisor Dave Kitchens was defeated in the Republican primary by C. J. Bright, who was in a close race with Kitchens four years ago.

The only other strictly county race undecided before Tuesday was for East Post constable. Incumbent Republican P. J. Doyle was challenged by Democrat Mickey McGill but Doyle won the seat again, getting 78 percent of the votes.

The next-to-last race, both local and district-wide, was for the Third District state senate seat.

Long-time incumbent Nickey Browning had decided to retire and several hopefuls chose to run for his seat. Making it out of the Republican primary was Union County resident Kathy Chism, who was to face Democrat Tim Tucker, also of New Albany.

Chism easily won Union County, getting 82 percent of the local vote. The district includes all of Union County but also all of Benton County and approximately the north half of Pontotoc County.

The district total was not available at the time of posting this story.

The District 14 House seat was settled in the Republican primary after Sam Creekmore defeated Robbins Ellis Rogers. That seat was open following the announcement that incumbent Republican Margaret Ellis Rogers would not seek re-election.

Finally, the race for the District 13 House of Representatives seat, which includes a small part of western Union County, was between incumbent Republican Steve Massengill and challenger Democrat Pam Denham. Massengill won the county with a majority of the votes, 70 percent in contrast to Denham’s 40 percent.

The total for this district also was not available at time of posting.

Nine Union County incumbents were unopposed this year. They include Circuit Clerk Phyllis Stanford, Chancery Clerk Annette Hickey, Tax Assessor-Collector Tameri Dunnam, County Prosecuting Attorney Joe Davis, Fifth District Supervisor Steve Watson, East Post Justice Court Judge David Garrison, West Post Justice Court Judge Chris Childers, West Post Constable Ronnie Goudy and District 18 Representative Jerry Turner.

The county was expected to favor Republican candidates and did for district and state offices particularly, giving Tate Reeves 70 percent of the vote for governor as opposed to Jim Hood’s 29 percent.

In the lieutenant governor’s race local voters favored Delbert Hosemann four to one over Lafayette County candidate Jay Hughes.

Voter turnout here was relatively good with 57 percent of the 16,012 registered voters participating Tuesday.

There will be no runoffs, although a quirk in state law dating back to Reconstruction decrees that a state candidate must not only win a plurality but also each of the state’s representative districts. Otherwise, the election will be decided by the state House of Representatives, which is Republican-controlled.

Below is a summary of totals in local races, including both machine votes and absentee ballots. About 56 affidavit ballots were also cast, not enough to substantially affect any local race.

A detailed precinct-by-precinct list of voting results will appear later.

Governor

Jim Hood                                   2636

Tate Reeves                                6273

Bob Hickingbottom                     33

David R. Singletary                     83

Lieutenant Governor

Delbert Hosemann                       7147

Jay Hughes                                 1837

Trans. Comm.

John Caldwell                             7160

Joe T. “Joey” Crist                      1659

State Senate District 3

Kathy L. Chism                          7280

Tim Tucker                                1647

House of District 13

Pamela J. Denham                       350

Steve Massengill                         813

Union County Sheriff

Jimmy Edwards                           4811

William Ashley Kidd                    4228

District 1 Supervisor

Jerry C. Burke                             714

Sam Taylor                                927

District 2 Supervisor

Chad Coffey                               1518

Jim Gann                                   537

District 4 Supervisor

Tommy “Junior” Courtney            555

Randy Owen                               1969

Constable East Post

P J Doyle                                   3166

Mickey McGill                           878

For Precinct by Precinct spreadsheet: http://newalbanyunionco.com/union-county-general-election-results-by-precinct/