Rowland, Springer to board
John Rowland and Pat Springer emerged as the overwhelming winners of the five-candidate contest for two Morgan County School Board seats in yesterday’s School Board & Primary Election.
Rowland led the School Board ballot with 1,429 votes unofficially, while Springer rolled up 1,161, more than twice as many as third place candidate James Price.
In the other most closely watched local race, Vince Shambaugh won the Republican Party nod for a second term as county sheriff.
Shambaugh defeated Tim “TJ” Johnson, a Town of Bath police officer and former deputy, by a 70% to 30% margin.
In November’s General Election, Shambaugh will face Larry Bradley, a former State Police detachment head here, who was unopposed for the Democratic nomination.
Some 2,917 people – or about 25% of Morgan County’s registered voters — cast ballots in the May 8 elections.
Of those, 2,435 people voted yesterday, a gray rainy Election Day locally, while the other 492 cast early ballots.
Aside from school board and the Republican sheriff’s nomination, there were no contested races on the Morgan County ballot.
Romney gets GOP backing
Local Republicans favored Mitt Romney as their presidential candidate. Romney received 69% of the Primary vote, with the remainder
split among Ron Paul, Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum and Charles “Buddy” Roehmer.
Statewide, Republicans favored Romney by about the same percentage. He appears assured of the nomination and will face incumbent President Barack Obama in November.
For governor, Morgan County Republicans lined up behind Bill Maloney, who will oppose incumbent Earl Ray Tomblin in a rematch of last year’s special election.
The General Election will also see Democrat incumbent Joe Manchin and Republican John Raese again battle for a U.S. Senate seat as they did in 2010.
Local November races
Voters will see a local rematch in November when Republican incumbent Ronald McIntire and Democrat John Allen Swaim, a former assessor, face off for the assessor’s post. Both were unopposed in the Primary.
Bob Ford, a former commissioner, won the Republican endorsement in his uncontested race for Morgan County Commissioner.
In November, he will face Democrat incumbent Brenda Hutchinson, who was also unopposed in seeking her party’s nomination.
The magistrate race in November will find three candidates — incumbents Kermit Ambrose and Greg Miller, both Republicans, and Debra Ditto, a Democrat — vying for the two offices.
State contests
In a highly contested statewide race in the Democratic Primary, Walt Helmick was leading at presstime for the party’s nomination for Agriculture Commissioner. Now a state senator, Helmick narrowly won in Morgan County.
Robin Jean Davis and Letitia “Tish” Chafin were leading the six candidate field for the two Democratic nominations for State Supreme Court justices. They were also the winners locally.
They will face Allen Loughry and John Yoder, who were unopposed in seeking the Republican nomination to the state’s highest court.
Vote canvass
The Morgan County Commissioners will meet to certify the official vote at 9:30 a.m. on Monday, May 14.
