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Interim County Mayor Joe Ford became the Democratic nominee for mayor in the August county general elections Tuesday night.
And the August sheriff’s race will be a contest between Democrat Randy Wade and Republican Randy Wade.
All three were among the winners in Tuesday’s low turnout county primaries.
Approximately ten percent of Shelby County’s nearly 600,000 voters cast ballots in early voting and election day polling.
Ford, who was appointed interim mayor in December, beat County Commissioner Deidre Malone and General Sessions Court Clerk Otis Jackson in the Democratic primary. He will face Republican Mark Luttrell who had only token opposition in the Republican primary from perennial contender Ernie Lunati.
Luttrell has raised more money than all three of the Democratic primary contenders combined and began running television ads in the last week runup to election day.
The final unofficial totals in the Democratic mayoral primary are:
Ford 20,360 57%
Malone 12,916 37%
Jackson 2,168 6%
The pair of primaries for Sheriff featured eight candidates, seven of whom either currently work for the sheriff’s department or are past employees. Only Reginald French, in the Democratic primary was not a former or current department official.
Wade was the 2002 Democratic nominee, losing to Luttrell who is leaving as Sheriff after serving two terms. French was the Democratic nominee in the 2006 elections.
Oldham is Luttrell’s chief deputy, the number two position in the department. He is also a former director of the Memphis Police Department.
The final unofficials totals in the Republican primary are:
Bill Oldham 13,821 48%
Dale Lane 7,981 28%
Bobby Simmons 5,886 21%
James Coleman 943 3%
In the Democratic primary:
Randy Wade 22,643 67%
Reginald French 6,777 20%
Larry Hill 2,738 8%
Bennie Cobb 1,814 5%
Voters in the primary elections decided to return six Shelby County commissioners to new four year terms with Tuesday’s results. They also elected six new commissioners. The winner of the thirteenth commission seat will be decided on the August general election ballot in a contest between district 5 Democratic incumbent Steve Mulroy and Republican challenger Dr. Rolando Toyos. The winner of the match up will determine whether the commission remains majority Democrat or goes majority Republican.
Mulroy easily defeated Jennings Bernard in Tuesday’s Democratic primary.
Republican incumbent Mike Ritz ran unopposed as did new Democratic commissioner Walter Bailey.
In the remaining ten contests, the primaries decided who gets the seats since no one ran in the opposing party’s primary.
The most hotly contested contest among the commission races was for District 4 Position 1. Outgoing Probate Court Clerk Chris Thomas beat John Pellicciotti, appointed to a commission seat last year but running for a different position in the same district. Jim Bomprezzi, the former mayor of Lakeland, was the third contender in the contest.
The final unofficial totals in the Republican primary:
Thomas 7,631 52%
Pellicciotti 4,871 33%
Bomprezzi 2,298 15%
In position 2 of the same district incumbent Republican Wyatt Bunker easily overcame two challengers with former Lakeland alderman John Wilkerson finishing second and Ron Fittes finishing third.
Millington businessman Terry Roland claimed the third position in the district that takes in all six of Shelby County’s suburban towns and cities.
Roland beat George Chism to take the seat Pellicciotti was appointed to but opted not to run for in deference to Roland.
Heidi Shafer, an aide to outgoing County Commissioner George Flinn, claimed Flinn’s District 1 Position 2 seat over Albert Maduska.in the GOP primary.
District 1 incumbent Republican Mike Carpenter easily beat businessman Joe Baier.
In the Democratic commission primaries, Melvin Burgess claimed Malone’s District 2 Position 3 seat in a field of six contenders. His closest contender was Reginald Milton. Burgess, a city school system audit manager, had run for the seat before. He brought in 54 percent of the vote.
The other hard fought Democratic commission primary saw Justin Ford, son of the interim mayor, claim his father’s District 3 Position 3 seat.
Ford beat Edith Moore, a retired IBM executive, whom the commission appointed to the seat after the elder Ford became mayor.
The final unofficial vote totals are:
Ford 7,342 66%
Moore 3,822 34%
Democratic incumbent commissioners Henri Brooks, Sidney Chism and James Harvey were all re-elected over primary challengers.
The county-wide primaries for seven clerk’s positions saw the return of former Criminal Court Clerk Minerva Johnican 16 years after Republican challenger Bill Key took her job. Johnican decisively beat Ralph White and Vernon Johnson in her first bid for office since the 1994 defeat. She will face Republican Kevin Key, the son of Bill Key in the August general election.
The final unofficial vote totals are:
Johnican 16,381 51%
White 10,170 31%
Johnson 5,954 18%
Former Juvenile Court Clerk Shep Wilbun easily won the Democratic primary with 76 percent of the vote to face Republican Joy Touliatos in August for the office being vacated by Republican Steve Stamson. Touliatos was unopposed in the primary.
Democrat Coleman Thompson is back for another go at incumbent Republican Register Tom Leatherwood.
Aside from Leatherwood, Jimmy Moore is the only other of the seven clerks seeking re-election. Moore ran unopposed in the GOP primary. He will face Democrat Ricky Dixon in August.
Trustee Regina Newman was appointed to her office following the death last year of Paul Mattila. Newman easily overcame M LaTroy Williams in Tuesday’s Democratic primary. She will face David Lenoir, who beat former Shelby County Commissioner John Willingham in the Republican contest.
The final unofficial vote totals are:
Lenoir 15,922 58%
Willingham 11,569 42%
The other six candidate field on the ballot was in the Democratic primary for Probate Court Clerk. Sondra Becton posted impressive vote totals over her rivals, bringing in 35 percent of the vote with Peggy Dobbins her closest rival. Becton, who is making her fourth bid for the office, will face Republican Paul Boyd, who ran unopposed in his primary.
The final unofficial vote totals are:
Becton 10,929 36%
Dobbins 5,366 18%
Annita Hamilton 4,848 16%
Clay Perry 3,549 12%
Danny Kail 3,120 11%
Karen Tyler 2,782 9%
The closest contest of the evening was in the Democratic primary for County Clerk. Wrestling promoter and television personality Corey Maclin won his political debut by less than 1,400 votes over Charlotte Draper and LaKeith Miller. He will face Republican Wayne Mashburn who beat Steve Moore in the companion primary.
Early voting in advance of the Aug. 5 election day begins July 16. The August ballot will also feature state and federal primary elections including the statewide primaries for governor and the primaries for all nine of the state’s Congressional districts.
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