Hamilton County: Latest election results

The latest election results

Hamilton County Sheriff

With 99.3 percent precincts reporting

Greg Beck - 7832

Jim Hammond - 17,748

Tim Akins - 410

Jim Winters - 3149

School Board

District 2

With 96.3 percent precincts reporting

Chip Baker - 2863

Joe Dumas - 2316

District 4

With 95.7 percent precincts reporting

Gregg Juster - 918

Debra L. Matthews - 1256

Kenneth Simpson - 96

District 7

With 94.7 percent precincts reporting

Kevin Burke II - 148

Michael Dzik - 1425

Linda Mosley - 2060

Tennessee House of Representatives, 31st Representative District

With 94.4 percent precincts reporting

Jim Cobb - 909

Jim Vincent - 1938

Tennessee Senate, 10th Senatorial District

With 98.6 percent precincts reporting

Oscar Brown - 2168

Basil Marceaux Sr. - 685

With nearly all precincts reporting, Jim Hammond has won the Hamilton County Sheriff race, beating out Greg Beck by a rate of about 2 to 1.

State Rep. Jim Cobb, R-Spring City, appeared headed to victory over Republican challenger Jim Vincent in the race for the House District 31 seat encompassing Rhea and Northern Hamilton counties.

With 99 percent of precincts reporting in Hamilton County, Rep. Cobb, with 909 votes, trailed Mr. Vincent, who had 1,938.

However, in Rhea County, with 100 percent of precincts reporting, Rep. Cobb outpaced Mr. Vincent by 2,644 votes to 553 votes, giving Rep. Cobb a combined total of 3,553 and Mr. Vincent 2,491

There is no Democratic candidate for the seat, so the winner of the Republican primary faces no opposition in the November general election.

In Hamilton County School Board District 2, incumbent Chip Baker appears headed for victory with 55 percent of the vote over Joe Dumas’s 45 percent.

With nearly all precincts reporting, incumbent school board member Debra Matthews is beating her primary opponent for the District 4 seat, Gregg Juster, by nearly 15 percent.

With nearly 95 percent precincts reporting, Linda Mosley is beating her District 7 opponent, Michael Dzik, with nearly 56.62 percent of the vote. Mr. Dzik has 39.17 percent.

After almost 92 percent of the votes have been counted in District 1, unopposed District 1 representative Rhonda Thurman has collected 96.39 percent of the vote, with 3.61 percent going for write-in candidates.

HOW IT WENT DOWN

Hamilton County sheriff candidate Jim Hammond led opponent Greg Beck by a rate of 2 to 1 in early voting numbers and held on to take the race, county elections commission records show. School board District 2 candidates Chip Baker and Joe Dumas were neck-and-neck at one point, but as more precincts reported Mr. Baker pulled away.

Mr. Baker, an eight-year school board veteran, currently serves 10 schools covering his Signal Mountain community as well as Red Bank and parts of North Chattanooga and Hixson. Mr. Baker received 936 votes so far and Mr. Dumas received 1,047.

Rhonda Thurman carried District 1 in the only unopposed school board race.

Voting closed at 8 p.m. tonight for Hamilton County and state primary elections. All vote totals, which include federally mandated provisional ballots, are unofficial until certified by county or state officials.

Election commission officials said they expected a low turnout in today’s voting. The county’s two-week early voting period brought in 8,059 votes.

In one irregularity, election officials sent a poll worker home after she told a voter to cast a ballot for Mr. Hammond, Ms. Mullis-Morgan said.

A supporter of write-in candidate Fred Fuson witnessed the incident at the Bayside Baptist Church polling place in Harrison and complained. Mr. Fuson characterized the suggestion as “borderline criminal.”

Ms. Mullis-Morgan said the woman who was sent home was a longtime poll worker who made a mistake. A voter had said he did not know for whom to vote, and the worker told him he should vote for Mr. Hammond, the Republican candidate for sheriff, Ms. Mullis-Morgan said.

HAMILTON COUNTY SHERIFF

In the running for sheriff are GOP nominee Jim Hammond, former chief deputy; Democratic nominee and County Commissioner Greg Beck; business owner and independent Jim Winters; former sheriff’s staff sergeant and independent Tim Akins; and Hamilton County Chief Ranger Fred Fuson, a write-in candidate.

Mr. Hammond served as chief deputy under Sheriff H.Q. Evatt from 1978 to 1994. He also was a probation officer in the Hamilton County Juvenile Court and an international police trainer.

This year’s election comes just two years after voters elected former sheriff Billy Long, a Democrat, over incumbent John Cupp, a Republican. Mr. Long resigned in February and has since pleaded guilty to federal gun, drug, extortion and money laundering charges. His resignation made this year’s special election a necessity.

Mr. Long’s chief deputy, Allen Branun, has been serving as the county’s interim sheriff since April.

In his 1994 and 1998 runs for sheriff, Mr. Hammond ran as a Democrat, then switched to the GOP about three years ago.

COUNTY SCHOOL BOARD

Only one of the four Hamilton County Board of Education races today is uncontested, that of school board member Rhonda Thurman in District 1.

Board member Debra Matthews in District 4 faces a challenge from retired businessman Gregg Juster, and District 2 school board member Chip Baker is up against Joe Dumas, a professor at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.

Ms. Matthews has served on the board the past 10 years and says she wants to continue representing nine downtown schools in the Alton Park, Bushtown and Avondale neighborhoods. Mr. Baker, an eight-year school board veteran, currently serves 10 schools covering his Signal Mountain community as well as Red Bank and parts of North Chattanooga and Hixson.

With the retirement of Joe Conner, who has served on the board for the past 12 years, Michael Dzik and Linda Mosley are vying for the District 7 spot. Kevin Burke appears on the ballot, but he has withdrawn from the race.

HOUSE 31st DISTRICT

Rep. Jim Cobb, R-Spring City, faced Republican challenger Jim Vincent in the state House District 31 race, after Mr. Vincent decided to run again for the seat he held from 2000 to 2004.

There is no Democratic candidate for the seat, so the winner of the Republican primary faces no opposition in the November general election.

Mr. Vincent ran a campaign that questioned Rep. Cobb’s vote last year on the funding formula for the Basic Education Program. Rep. Cobb voted against the measure, saying it would harm Rhea County. Mr. Vincent maintained the formula would not have hurt the more-rural Rhea and said Rep. Cobb was “uninformed” in his vote.

The campaign has been heated, with accusations being hurled at Rep. Cobb that he has been dishonest for putting campaign signs out with endorsements he had not yet received.

Questions arose over a 2004 fracas in a Nashville bar that Mr. Vincent was involved in while he was a legislator. He’s also been asked about attempts to help his brother-in-law regain an insurance license.

Legislators earn $16,500 a year, according to the Tennessee General Assembly. The winner of the race will take his seat Jan. 12, 2009, under General Assembly rules.