Franklin, Chunn, Clark and Tarpley win re-election in landslide

Morgan County voters will be heading to the polls July 15 to decide who will be the Republican nominees for Morgan County Commission District 2 and Morgan County License Commissioner.

Incumbent Randy Vest will take on Tommy Halbrooks in Commission District 2 while Sharon Maxwell and Carolyn Wallace will compete in a run-off for the License Commissioner nomination.

Vest had the most votes in the District 2 race with 6,163 for 39.8 percent of the vote. Tommy Halbrooks was second with 4,921 for 31.8 percent of the vote. Rounding out the five-candidate race were Hal Lee with 1,702, Martha Humphrey with 1,378 and Robert Irvin with 1,315.

“I am happy to get as many votes as we did with having five candidates in the race,” said Vest who is facing his first run-off as an incumbent. “I will be looking forward to the race and I’ll be looking to get more support July 15.”

Halbrooks said he is pleased with where is campaigned is positioned heading into the run-off.

“We had a lot more support than I thought we would get,” Halbrooks said. “I think we are positioned very well heading into the July 15 run-off. I am very grateful for all of the support that we received today.”

Maxwell garnered nearly one-third of the vote for the License Commissioner nomination with a total of 5,319.

“I am overwhelmed and honored that they citizens of Morgan County placed so much confidence in me,” Maxwell said. “I believe my experience and qualifications helped to get me this far. I will continue to work hard and ask for your continued support.”

Hilda Etienne led Wallace most of the night for a spot in the run-off.

However, Wallace took the lead at the halfway point and eventually held on for second place with 3,637 votes. Etienne finished with 3,002 votes followed by Jerry Smith with 1,427, Van Glasscock with 1,370 and Wade Dinsmore with 1,257.

“We still have work to do. The first round is over and we made it to the next one.”

In other races, Ana Franklin easily won re-election for the sheriff’s post with 79 percent of the vote. Randy Cavnar was a distant second wtih 16 percent followed by Darrell Childers with 5 percent.

Jeff Chunn also collected 79 percent of the vote to win re-election for coroner over Earl Holt.

Jeff Clark defeated Randy Turner with 73 percent of the vote for re-election to the Morgan County Commission in District 1.

“I appreciate the faith put in me for another term,” Clark said. “I will do my best not to let the voters down, and I appreciate Randy running a clean campaign.”

Mike Tarpley had more than two-thirds of the vote to win re-election over Lance Stidham for Morgan County Board of Education District 3.

James Henderson defeated Adonis Bailey 8,772-3,855 to be elected to state Republican executive committee for Morgan County Place 4. George Hearring beat Franklin D. Turney 113-79 to win the state Democratic executive committee male District 9.

Randy Garrison and Joy Harris contributed to this report.