A nonprofit publication of the Kentucky Center for Public Service Journalism

Primary results; Tally Smith falls in Boone; Pendery wins in Campbell; eight advance in Covington


NKyTribune staff report

Tuesday’s primary election saw high profile races in all three Northern Kentucky counties. There were a few upsets, and an embattled Commonwealth Attorney went down to defeat in an outcome that wasn’t much of a surprise to anyone. Highlights from each county are listed below with a link to complete results at the end of each recap.

BOONE COUNTY
Voter turnout was 14.46% in Boone County

Tuesday was a pretty good day to be an incumbent in Boone County, with a few notable exceptions.

Moore

For the most part, voters in the primary election decided to stick with incumbents to represent their party in November’s general election.

For example, in the contest to be the county’s chief executive, current Judge-Executive Gary Moore defeated Chris Reinersman with 58 percent of the vote. Moore has held the office since 1998.

He will not have an opponent in the November election, since no Democrat in Republican-heavy Boone County filed to run.

Sheriff Michael Helmig easily won the Republican nomination for sheriff, defeating Anthony “Tony” Wilson with 71 percent of the vote. Incumbent County Attorney Robert Neace also easily won the Republican nomination for his job, defeating Teresa Lyn Cunningham with 68 percent of the vote.

Neither Helmig nor Neace has an opponent in November.

Two of the county’s three commissioners won re-nomination as the Republican candidate this fall. Cathy Flaig defeated Justin Bailey with 55 percent of the vote and Charles Kenner defeated Elizabeth O. Smith with 54 percent of the vote.

Local businessman Jesse Brewer, however defeated incumbent Charlie Walton with 55 percent of the vote. Brewer told the Northern Kentucky Tribune before the election that since all the incumbents on the commission had several years of tenure, it was time to bring in some fresh perspectives and new ideas.

Tally Smith

Walton, a retired principal of Florence Elementary School, had served as commissioner for eight years. He also served 12 years as a state representative.

It wasn’t a huge surprise that Linda Tally Smith failed to regain the Republican nomination for commonwealth’s attorney for Boone and Gallatin counties. Although she had held the office since 2000, she faced multiple calls for her resignation over her handling of the David Wayne Dooley murder case.

Convicted in 2014 of killing Michelle Mockbee at the Thermo Fisher Scientific facility where both worked, Dooley was granted a new trial because evidence was withheld from his defense team.

It was also revealed during the CR 60.02 hearing that resulted in Dooley’s conviction being overturned, that Tally Smith had an affair with Bruce McVay, the lead investigator in the case. Tally Smith, who is married to District Judge Jeff Smith, admitted to the affair at the hearing, but said it began after the Dooley trial.

Moore, Neace, the Boone County Republican Party and the NKy Tribune were among those that called for her resignation.

During the campaign, Tally Smith’s opponent, Covington attorney Louis Kelly of Union, acknowledged that he hit on her conduct in the Dooley case pretty hard. He added that his win sends a message from voters that they’re going to hold elected officials to a higher standard.

Media accounts of the case persuaded him to run against Tally Smith because “it didn’t seem like anyone else was going to do it,” he said. A first-time candidate, he found the electoral process difficult but worthwhile.

Another incumbent who failed to win re-nomination was Circuit Clerk Dianne Murray, who lost to challenger David Martin by only 34 votes. She was running for a third term in that position.

See complete Boone County results here.

NKyTribune reporter Kevin Eigelbach

CAMPBELL COUNTY
Voter turnout was 13.47% in Campbell County

Pendery

Judge-Executive Steve Pendery held off challenger Anna Zinkhon by a 54.58% to 45.42% margin and Charlie Cleves captured 62.34% of the vote for Bellevue mayor.

Cleves will face off against Steve Brun, who finished second in the three-way race, but will have to make up a lot of ground to prevail in November.

While Patti Piatt won handily over Seth Hall and Chistina Lord in Campbell County, Hall prevailed in the Democratic primary in the race for U.S. Representative, 4th Congressional District. Hall will face Republican Thomas Massie in the fall.

County Commission seats went to Brian Painter, Geoff Besecker, and Tom Lampe.

Nicholas Warden narrowly won over Dennis Chad Zion for Constable in the 2nd Magisterial District. Only 37 votes separated them.

James Daily took 75.28% of the votes for Jailer over Chris Maloney.

In all, 9,961 votes were cast of 73,955 registered voters.

See all of Campbell County’s results here.

KENTON COUNTY
Voter turnout was 10% in Kenton County

Wells

In Kenton County, much of the attention was focused on the Covington City Commission primary.

The field in the nonpartisan race was reduced from 11 candidates to 10 when Alyssa “Dara” McDowell withdrew, though her name remained on the ballot.

The top eight vote-getters advanced to the November General Election, to battle for four seats on the Covington City Commission.

Incumbent Bill Wells led all candidates with 13.23 percent of the vote, followed by former Covington mayor Denny Bowman, with 12.09 percent. The other two incumbents, Tim Downing and Michelle Williams finished with 11.83 percent and 11.53 percent of the vote, respectively.

Current Commissioner Jordan Huizenga is running for state representative, so there will be at least one new face on the commission.

While the top four vote-getters all have incumbency or name recognition on their side, they could face some tough challenges in November.

John Flesch (11.25 percent), who ran for County Commission in 2016, and attorney Shannon Smith (10.32 percent), a political newcomer, both received strong support in the primary.

Christi Blair, 8.58 percent and Brandon Mimms, 6.55 percent, also advanced to the General Election, but will have to step up their game to compete in November.

M Spears, 4.88 percent, and Del Shawn Renee Hayes, 4.77 percent failed to advance beyond the primary.

Sheriff Korzenborn

In countywide races of note, Sheriff Chuck Korzenborn and Commonwealth’s Attorney Rob Sanders cruised to easy wins.

Korzenborn garnered more than 67 percent of the vote in defeating Marc Chapman (26.13 percent) and Seymour Fisk (6.24 percent).

Sanders captured 78.54 percent of the ballots cast, compared to just 21.46 percent for opponent Sean Fitzgerald.

In the race for Circuit Judge, Family Court, 16th Judicial Circuit 5th Division, Terri King Schoborg prevailed over two opponents.

In a nip-and-tuck race, Schoborg garnered 40.47 percent of the vote, compared to 36.67 percent for Dawn Gentry and 22.86 percent for Pete Roush.

The race was to fill an unexpired term for the seat Gov. Matt Bevin appointed Gentry to in December 2016. The seat was vacated when Lisa Bushelman was granted a request for leave based on medical reasons and decided not to return.

See the complete Kenton County results here.


Related Posts

One Comment

  1. Dean Knolls says:

    Voters in Boone County spoke loud and clear. No more corruption in Commonwealth Attorneys office ! She will not go quietly though. She was overheard last night at gathering saying “I can leak too” , referring to thumb drive material that came out last weekend. She thinks the Sherriffs department was behind the leak. Thumb drive does need to become public. Stay on this please NK Tribune.

Leave a Comment