County voters join in GOP revolution

The Republican Revolution is alive and well in Morgan County.
Local GOP candidates came out the winners in every race Tuesday, and county voters threw their support behind Republicans in statewide races, too. According to the Secretary of State’s office, there were 39,543 ballots cast in Morgan County, a turnout of some 59 percent.
The margin on those voting a straight party ticket held up throughout the ballot. Sixty-six percent of those pulling the lever for an entire party’s candidates were on the Republican side. That translates to 9,897 people voting straight Republican vs. 5,089 straight Democratic voters.
In the race for the state’s top job, Tuscaloosa physician Robert Bentley captured 69 percent of the county vote, or 26,959 votes, compared to 31 percent, or 12,161 votes, for former Agriculture Commissioner Ron Sparks.
That’s an even larger margin than Bentley enjoyed across the state, where he won 58 percent, or 856,831 votes to Sparks’ 42 percent, or 623,202 votes.
Similar results were seen in the lower office races. County voters opted for GOP candidates for Lt. Governor, Fifth Congressional District, Attorney General and Secretary of State. Kay Ivey, Mo Brooks, Luther Strange and Beth Chap-man were top vote getters in Morgan County and in the state.
Brooks, a Republican and member of the Madison County Com-mission, defeated Demo-crat Steve Raby to replace Parker Griffith. Griffith, a Democrat turned Repub-lican, was defeated by Brooks in the GOP primary.
District-wide, Brooks received 58 percent, or 130,927 votes, to Raby’s 42 percent, or 95,078.
Eva native Susan Parker came the closest of any Democrat seeking statewide office in winning the county vote. Parker received 43 percent, or 16,553 votes in Morgan County in her reelection bid for the Public Service Commission.
Her opponent, Terry Dunn, received 57 percent, or 21,826 votes, in Morgan County.
Those figures held up statewide, with Dunn receiving 55 percent to Parker’s 45 percent.