Charlotte Peak Jones wins Bradley County race

CLEVELAND, Tenn. — Businesswoman Charlotte Peak Jones won the Republican primary race Tuesday to complete the last two years of a vacant Bradley County Commission term in District 4.

"I will be here to serve the people," she said after the victory. "I'm not here for my own agenda."

Former Commissioner Jim Smith, runner-up in the race, said, "Everyone running that I met was a good candidate. Hopefully this will help get more people out to vote."

Jones, owner of Kace Construction & Development and Charlotte's Wallpaper, will serve until 2014 in the district with fellow Commissioner Adam Lowe.

A key campaign issue was the wheel tax referendum coming in August.

The commission voted 12-2 on Feb. 21 to call the referendum on whether voters would accept a $32 wheel tax on vehicles. Commission appointee Cliff Eason voted to send the question to voters.

"I promise to oppose new taxes like this," Jones told supporters in a campaign letter.

She will serve the remainder of a four-year term vacated in 2011 by Howard Thompson. After 17 years on the commission, Thompson resigned in May 2011 after charges that he knowingly sold stolen goods at his flea market. He pleaded guilty to attempted theft and was sentenced to two years on probation.

Eason, principal at the Teen Learning Center, the Cleveland City School System's alternative school, had been appointed to fill the vacancy until the March election.

All vote totals, which include federally mandated provisional ballots, are unofficial until certified by the Tennessee Division of Elections.