May 5th marked Primary Election Day and county results are in from Pulaski County.
Several Republican county positions were uncontested, including Prosecuting Attorney, County Sheriff, County Coroner, and multiple legislative races.
In the Republican race for Circuit Court Clerk, Jolyn Behny defeated Rhonda L. Helms in the county’s closest major race. Behny received 1,018 votes, or 51.65%, while Helms received 953 votes, or 48.35%; a margin of 65 votes.
In the Republican County Commissioner District 3 race, Edward “Ed” Shank received 1,147 votes, or 54.72 percent, defeating Ron “Rudy” DeSabatine, who received 414 votes, and Deke Denham, who received 535 votes.
Republican voters also selected candidates in several contested County Council races. In District 1, Bradley J. Bonnell won with 53.54% of the vote, defeating Patrick J. Goodman and Alex Haschel. In District 2, Josh Stanger defeated Kaila Stufkoski with 65.5% of the vote. In District 3, Gail Lambert defeated Kenneth R. Boswell with 73.49% of the vote. In District 4, Levi Messer defeated Michael Troy “Big Mike” Tiede with 62.98% of the vote.
Several township races were also contested on the Republican ballot.
In Monroe Township, Chris Russell Brucker narrowly defeated Kimberly Burke in the trustee race with 51.73% of the vote. In Harrison Township, Tonya K. Bennett and Betty L. Steinmetz split the trustee vote evenly, each receiving 57 votes for 50% of the total vote.
In Van Buren Township’s board race, Scott Hinkle led the field with 34.7% of the vote, followed by David Bailey and Leander J. Hoover. In White Post Township, Anita Messer, Pat Tiede, and Robert Schultz won seats on the township board.
On the Democratic side, many county-level races had either uncontested candidates or no candidates filed.
Jamee Decio won the Democratic primary for U.S. Representative District 2 with 64.95% of the vote over Shaun Michael Maeyens. Ashley Hammac ran uncontested in the Democratic State Representative District 16 race, while Mary E. Gibson was unopposed in the District 17 race.
Aaron Hoover received 58 votes in the uncontested Democratic County Council District 2 race, and Jenny Weaver-Keller received 270 votes in the uncontested Democratic County Surveyor race.
Multiple Democratic township and local offices had no candidates filed, including several township trustee and board positions, as well as the Francesville Town Clerk-Treasurer race and Winamac Town Council At-Large race.
Countywide turnout reached 28.92 percent, with 2,480 ballots cast out of 8,574 registered voters. Of those votes, 1,642 were cast on Election Day, 775 through walk-in absentee voting, and 63 by mail absentee ballot.
Full County results can be found on WKVI’s Election Central page.
