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| Thompson awaits GOP winner in state Senate race |
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Posted: Friday, August 3, 2012 10:00 pm
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By CHRIS MENEES
Staff Reporter
Obion County native Brad Thompson will face John Stevens of Huntingdon in the bid for the Tennessee Senate seat from the 24th District.
Thompson was unopposed in his bid to earn the Democratic nomination in Thursday’s state primary election. He received 4,035 complimentary votes districtwide in Thursday’s state primary election — including 666 votes in Obion County.
Stevens claimed 5,418 votes (61 percent) to defeat Obion County challenger Danny Jowers of Kenton to earn the Republican nomination for the Senate seat. Jowers received 3,475 votes (39 percent) districtwide.
In Obion County, Jowers garnered 1,004 votes to top Stevens, who received 589 votes, according to unofficial totals.
Thompson and Stevens will now be vying for the opportunity to fill the state Senate seat being vacated by Roy Herron, a Dresden Democrat who did not seek re-election.
Thompson told supporters at an official campaign kick-off event Thursday night he plans to put politics aside and focus on lowering taxes Tennessee families pay at the grocery store and in the form of soaring tuition costs.
“I’m not a politician; I’m an advocate,” Thompson said. “One of the first things I’ll work on when I’m in the Senate is lowering the sales tax on food. It is unreasonable to me that Tennessee ranks the highest in the nation for combined state and local sales tax, and we’re sitting on a surplus of over half a billion dollars. That means we can give real relief to our families at the grocery checkout line. It’s time we do it, and I’ll put the politics aside to get the job done.”
Tennessee ranks first in combined state and local sales tax rate at an average of 9.43 percent, according to the Tax Foundation. In the 24th District, all rates are 9.75 percent because of local options of 2.75 percent, except for Henry County with a local option of 2.25 percent, according to Thompson’s campaign.
“We should also use part of this surplus to freeze soaring tuition costs,” Thompson said. “UT Martin’s tuition is going up 6 percent because politicians in Nashville don’t have the political will to keep that from happening. That’s an unnecessary tax on our college students and families, and we have more than enough in the surplus to freeze tuition.”
Jowers could not be reached for comment this morning, despite several attempts to reach him.
Stevens thanked the voters of District 24 “for their overwhelming support” in a post to his Facebook campaign page a few hours ago.
“As a first-time candidate, it is truly humbling to receive the shows of support at polling stations, on Facebook, via text, email and telephone. We now need greater participation in the most important election of our lifetime,” Stevens told supporters.
Other races
In the races for Tennessee House of Representatives, recent redistricting has resulted in Obion County now being served by two different state representatives — those for the 77th Representative District and the 76th Representative District.
In the 77th District, Republican Bill Sanderson of Kenton drew 919 complimentary votes in Obion County in his bid for re-election, while Democratic challenger Mark Oakes received 302 complimentary votes locally.
For the 76th District race, Andy Holt received 384 complimentary votes in Obion County as the Republican candidate seeking re-election, while Democratic challenger Mark Maddox drew 231 complimentary votes.
They will square off again in November in the state’s general election.
In other state primary results from Thursday’s balloting in Obion County:
• U.S. Senate, Republican — Fred R. Anderson, 111 votes; Mark Twain Clemens, 49 votes; Bob Corker (winner), 1,171 votes; Brenda S. Lenard, 42 votes; and Zach Poskevich, 164 votes.
• U.S. Senate, Democrat — Mark E. Clayton (winner), 172 votes; Larry Crim, 19 votes; Gary Gene Davis, 74 votes; Dave Hancock, 71 votes; Park Overall, 108 votes; T.K. Owens, 25 votes; and Benjamin Roberts, 56 votes.
• U.S. House of Represen-tatives, 8th District, Republican — Stephen Lee Fincher (winner), 1,401 votes; and Annette Justice, 182 votes.
• U.S. House of Repre-sentatives, 8th District, Democrat — Wes Bradley, 239 votes; Timothy D. Dixon, 170 votes; and Christa Stoscheck, 96 votes.
Published in The Messenger 8.3.12 |
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