Huffman tops incumbent Fuhrman for GOP nod in County Council District 1

Wayne Huffman

On a night that was not kind to incumbents facing challenges from within the GOP, the race for Putnam County Council District 1 was no exception.

Challenger Wayne Huffman topped three-term incumbent Dave Fuhrman by a count of 507-403.

It was a common theme in Tuesday’s primary election, as three fellow incumbents who faced opposition also fell. Longtime County Surveyor David Penturf fell to Greg Williams 2,171-1,886. Meanwhile, in Franklin Township, Zach Bowers topped incumbent Trustee Clyde Flynn Coulter Jr. 99-54. And in Cloverdale, Ward 3 Councilor Cindy Holland fell to Brandon Tancak 123-113.

While several incumbents were unopposed for the GOP nod, no incumbent who faced opposition in the county won his or her race on Tuesday.

Both men reflected on this fact following the announcement of results at the Putnam County Courthouse.

“Mostly what I’ve heard is voters are kind of disappointed with the direction the county is going right now,” Huffman said, “so they’d like to see some change.”

Fuhrman said it’s a feeling that seems to go beyond Putnam County.

Dave Fuhrman

“Right now, the country has a lot of disgruntled voters,” Fuhrman said. “I think that came out tonight, not only in this race, but many others.”

While he knows he will not be on the council come Jan. 1, Fuhrman still has nearly eight months not only on the council, but as the current president.

“We still have some very big challenges,” Fuhrman said. “Fuel costs right now are going to play havoc with our budget. That’s probably the single biggest thing.”

He added that the county is still figuring out the finances of running its own EMS service.

Whatever the challenges, Fuhrman expressed his gratitude at being able to represent the people of Russell, Franklin, Jackson, Floyd and Monroe townships for 12 years.

“We’ve done some majorly good things on the Council in the last 12 years,” Fuhrman said. “We balance the budget. We make sure the county has what it needs, and not always what it wants, to take care of all the myriad things that have to be taken care of.”

Though he does not know yet if he’ll have an opponent from the Democrat Party or otherwise, Huffman is going to spend the next several months preparing himself should he win the general election in November.

“I’m going to spend the next five or six months going to County Commissioners and County Council meetings to try to get up to speed on what’s going on and get myself prepared,” Huffman said.