Sheriff race victor Lawson won big in key Bradley County precincts

After a victory march to the courthouse, Steve Lawson speaks to his supporters at the Museum Center at 5ive Points after defeating incumbent Eric Watson for Bradley County Sheriff on Tuesday in Cleveland, Tenn.
After a victory march to the courthouse, Steve Lawson speaks to his supporters at the Museum Center at 5ive Points after defeating incumbent Eric Watson for Bradley County Sheriff on Tuesday in Cleveland, Tenn.

CLEVELAND, Tenn. - Bradley County's Republican primary voters came out in force Tuesday, unseating Sheriff Eric Watson in favor of challenger Steve Lawson.

They also turned out Dan Rawls and Robert Rominger, who hold the two District 6 seats on the Bradley County Commission.

"The people of Bradley County did what an inept or corrupt state government would [sic] or couldn't," Rawls, one of Watson's most vocal critics, said in a recent text message. "The trash in the sheriff's department was thrown out!"

The sheriff has weathered scrutiny by several state agencies including the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, the state comptroller's office and the Tennessee Department of Commerce & Insurance amid allegations of wrongdoing over the last two years.

Watson did not respond to requests for comment.

District 6, which includes the communities of Valley View, Blue Springs, Waterville and Black Fox, stood as one of Watson's few bulwarks against Lawson. Combined, the four precincts gave him a 124-vote edge over his opponent, but Watson could not repeat the feat elsewhere.

Precincts in South Cleveland and eastern Bradley County also leaned more for Watson, but they netted him only 129 more votes than Lawson.

In comparison, Lawson carved out margins exceeding 50 percent over Watson in District 2 and District 3, which encompass northern Bradley County and East Cleveland, respectively. Between the two, he hauled in around 900 more votes than Watson.

North Cleveland and western Bradley County precincts - in District 7 and District 1, respectively - put Lawson ahead of the sheriff by more than 500 votes.

Overall, Watson trailed Lawson by nearly 1,200 votes.

Republican voters cast 15,213 ballots to decide the county's next sheriff, who does not face a Democratic opponent in the Aug. 2 general election.

The election office reported 15,552 primary voters in all, amounting to 25.28 percent of the county's 61,531 registered voters. That comes out to a 17.4 percent jump over the 13,242 voters in the 2014 primary, in which turnout fell just shy of 20 percent of registered voters. The 2010 primary tells a similar story.

Two District 6 precincts - Valley View and Waterville - surpassed a 30 percent turnout for their registered voters. Only two other precincts of the county's 17 polling places achieved that distinction: Prospect and Hopewell in District 1.

Tim Mason, an environmental officer in charge of the litter grant program with the sheriff's department, upset Rawls' re-election bid for District 6, Seat A.

He credited volunteers, family and friends with his avalanche win, taking in 1,816 votes to the 639 votes Rawls received.

"We worked really hard," Mason, a Valley View native, said. "We ran a grassroots campaign."

Rawls has said he has no regrets about his long-standing public opposition to Watson, even if it played a role in his losing his race.

Erica Davis thanked voters for giving her a victory in a three-way race with Rominger and fellow challenger Tommy Ledford for Seat B. She also thanked Rominger for his eight years of service on the county commission and his years as an educator.

"He is a man of deep faith and integrity, and I am proud to call him my friend," Davis said in an email. "Bradley County owes him a debt of gratitude. I know I do."

She received 1,233 votes, giving her more than half of the total cast for the seat and the top spot in all four precincts in District 6. Rominger and Ledford brought in 692 votes and 468 votes, respectively.

Davis did especially well in Valley View and Black Fox, where she pulled in 55 percent of the votes. In comparison, Rominger and Ledford ran dead heats in those precincts, which put them at less than 25 percent apiece.

Rominger took larger shares at Blue Springs and Waterville, where he came in at 35 percent and 31 percent, respectively.

On election night, he credited Davis with running a good race.

"It was time for me to step down," Rominger said. "I gave it my all and it was not good enough."

Contact Paul Leach at paul.leach.press@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter @pleach_3.

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