2008 primaries: The numbers are in

Tuesday night’s local election totals revealed big losses for some incumbents and landslide victories for others, while the hotly contested Jackson County Sheriff’s race was narrowed from 10 to just four candidates.

Incumbent Jackson County Superintendent of Schools Daniel “Danny” Sims is now out of the race, along with incumbent District 5 Jackson County Commissioner Milton Pittman.

Incumbent District 3 School Board member Betty Duffee soundly defeated her challenger, as did incumbent School Board District 2 board member Kenny Griffin.

The two school board members have finished their re-election battle in clear victories, while the rest of Tuesday’s winners will face challengers in the General Election this November.

In the hotly contested race for Jackson County Sheriff, Democrat Lou Roberts and Republican Jim Peacock will advance to face two challengers with no party affiliation, William Nelson and Zannie Williams, in the November general election.

On the state and national front, Jackson County voters clearly chose Congressional candidate Mark Mulligan over Eddie Hendry and Brad Drake emerged as a county favorite over Sherry Campbell in the State Representative District five race. The republican winner, unknown at press time, will in November face departing Jackson County Sheriff John McDaniel, the lone democrat running for State Rep. Dist.5 in the general election.

The unofficial totals for the 2008 Jackson County primaries were announced at about 9 p.m. on Tuesday. This total includes absentee, early and pecinct votes, but provisional ballots had not been totaled as of press time:

Republican candidate for sheriff Jim Peacock led with 1,372 votes over opponent republican Peter “Sonny” Fortunato, who had 969 votes.

Democratic candidate for sheriff Lou Roberts came out far ahead of other democratic sheriff candidates, with 45.9 percent of the democratic votes.

Roberts had a total of 4,052 votes. coming in second was Darryl Williams with 1,424;  then Robbie Wester with 1,368; John Dennis with 1,044; and Charles “Chucky” Anderson with 747.

Roberts and Peacock are now slated to appear on November’s general election ballot, along with sheriff candidates William Nelson and Zannie F. Williams, who have no party affiliation.

Democrat Lee Miller won over incumbent Daniel “Danny” Sims in the race for democratic candidate for Jackson County Superintendent of Schools. Miller had 59.6 percent of the votes, or 5,207 votes. Sims had 3,529 votes.

Now Miller will run against sole republican candidate Steve Benton in the general election this November.

Jackson County Commission Dist. 5 incumbent J. Milton Pittman was defeated in the democratic competition for a spot on the November ballot.

Pittman had 1,095 votes while opponent Kenneth Stephens received 1,203.

Stephens, who had 52.3 percent of the democratic votes, will now face off against republican candidate Howard Ben Odom.

Odom defeated opponent Jerry Neel for in republican race for Jackson County Commission Dist. 5. Odom had a total of 347 votes while Neel had 288. Odom had 54.6 percent of the votes.

Jackson County Commission Dist. 3 incumbent Chuck Lockey and challenger Seabron Chad Fears won’t face off until November, as Lockey is a democrat and Fears is a republican.

Kenneth “Kenny” Griffin will remain the school board member for Jackson County School Board District 2, having received 56.6 percent of the votes.

Griffin had 1,280 votes and his opponent Nancy G. Deese had 980.

Betty G. Duffee will remain in office for Jackson County School Board District 3, winning 75.8 percent of the votes.

Duffee had a total of 1,577 votes while her opponent, Dr. Horacio “Doc” Rodriguez, had 501 votes.

While regional totals were not in by press time, Jackson County totals for US Congressional Dist. 2 and State Rep. Dist.5 were reported as the following:

Republican candidate for US Congress Dist. 2 Mark Mulligan received a total of 1,525 votes, while his opponent Eddie Hendry received 539.

Whoever wins the primary will go on to face incumbent democrat Allen Boyd in the general elections this November.

Republican candidate for State Rep., Dist.5 Brad Drake had 578 votes and his opponent Sherry Campbell had 314.

Whoever wins the primary election will run against sole democratic candidate John P.  McDaniel in the general elections this November.

The total voter turn out in Jackson County was 43.5 percent of registered voters.