Republicans sweep county election

Tuesday, November 3, 2020

To the degree that there were contested county races on Tuesday, the county GOP took care of business, sweeping the two contested races on the ballot.

Republicans Stephanie (Summitt) Campbell, Larry Parker and Phil Gick took the three spots in the County Council at-large race, while Jon Myers garnered nearly 70 percent of the vote in the race for coroner.

In a four-way race for three spots, Campbell, the former two-term Putnam County auditor, was the top vote-getter with 10,297 votes.

“It’s an honor for the voters to put that much faith in me,” Campbell told the Banner Graphic. “I’m going into this eyes wide open. I’m hoping to look at every angle of every department to help the taxpayers out as much as I can with the funding.”

Incumbents Parker (8,568) and Gick (8,240) weren’t far behind in taking the other two spots on the ballot, while Democrat Benny Whitlock was a distant fourth with 4,060 votes.

This will mark Parker’s seventh term on the council, as he is finishing up his 24th year. He knows that some tough decisions are ahead for the council as the county deals with tax shortfalls in the coming years due to the COVID-19 economic downturn.

“I think this coming year of 2021 is not going to be too bad,” Parker said. “But I’m looking at ’22 and ’23 with COVID, I think we’re going to have some tough times with our budgets. We’ll work through it because we’ve been through some tough times.”

Gick, finishing up his 10th year on the board, agrees that it will be difficult, but share’s Parker’s optimism.

“Although it’s going to be tough, I think we’ve put ourselves in a good position over the last four or five years,” Gick said.

He added that this was assisted by the county passing the public safety local income tax to fund the 911 Center.

“I’m not generally in favor of raising taxes, but I think we put ourselves in a good position,” Gick said.

Beginning his third full term after being appointed to the council in 2011, Gick looks around and sees an experienced crowd in which Campbell will be the only first-term member.

“Even Stephanie may be ‘new’ to the council,” Gick said, “but she is very seasoned with eight years as auditor under her belt.”

Campbell said she will lean on that experience in her new role.

“I think I have a really good understanding of the budget system, the departments themselves and how most of them operate,” Campbell said. “I get along with all the current council members, so I think it will be a very smooth transition from one to the other.

“I’m definitely looking forward to being back involved in county government, seeing everybody and making some good improvements for the county in the future.”

Meanwhile, in the race for coroner, Myers captured 11,297 votes to take the position over Democrat Perry Wainman, who garnered 4,892 votes.

“I’m overwhelmed by the number of votes that I actually received,” Myers said. “That’s just beyond comprehension at this point. I appreciate their faith in me and I’m going to do a good job for them.”

Myers said he has worked with retiring coroner Dave Brown, but knows there’s more to learn.

“I’ve worked a little bit with Dave back around the time of the primary, but I haven’t a whole lot since then,” Myers said. “But I’ve had some conversations with him and been to his office a little bit.”

He will have to go through a 40-hour class to learn the ropes as well as completing continuing education classes each year and attend the annual coroner’s convention.

Myers also hopes to keep a number of Brown’s deputies in the office.

“Hopefully they’ll all decide they want to work for me,” Myers said. “I know there’s at least one of them who’s actually planning on retiring. Since the primary, I’ve gotten some interest from a number of different people who’d like to be deputies. And talking to Dave a little bit, I think he keeps a file of people who might be interested.”

The GOP swept all other county offices, though no others had a challenger from outside the party.

Republican incumbents re-elected on Tuesday include Superior Court Judge Denny Bridges, Treasurer Kathy Minnick and District 1 Commissioner David Berry.

Additionally, former two-term auditor Kristina (Warren) Alexander was again elected auditor after a 16-year absence from the office and eight-year absence from county government.

Tom Helmer, who defeated incumbent Don Walton in the Republican Primary, was elected the District 3 county commissioner.

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  • Sickening.

    -- Posted by Queen53 on Wed, Nov 4, 2020, at 10:10 AM
  • Queen53: would you like to elaborate? Otherwise your comment is meaningless.

    -- Posted by Ben Dover on Wed, Nov 4, 2020, at 11:15 AM
  • No, Ben.....thanks anyway.

    -- Posted by Queen53 on Wed, Nov 4, 2020, at 3:51 PM
  • I guess we only respect the perspective of the voters when the voters agree with me!

    Does fit the new definition of tolerance though

    -- Posted by beg on Wed, Nov 4, 2020, at 11:01 PM
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