Two incumbents and several new faces will serve as judge-executive starting next year. The results are as follows:
Ballard County
Incumbent Vickie Viniard was reelected judge-executive with 64 percent of the vote. She has served in the position since 2007. Her opponents Cathy Sullivan and Joe Culver took 26 and 13 percent, respectively.
Fulton County
Real estate broker Jim Martin will be Fulton County’s next judge-executive, defeating David Weatherlyand JL Atwill. Martin says he want to focus on economic development and job creation while in office.
Graves County
Republican Jason Jones and Democrat Jesse Perry will square off in November’s election to succeed retiring Judge-Executive Tony Smith, who held the post for nearly three decades. Perry defeated Mark Waggoner 56-44 percent in the Democratic primary, while Jason Jones beat Dale Usher 53 percent to 48 percent in the Republican primary.
Hickman County
The newly elected Hickman County judge-executive says he’s leaving any decision about the county jail to current Judge-Executive Greg Pruitt and focusing on building up the community. Former Hickman County Schools Superintendent Kenny Wilson took 56 percent of the vote, with Chad Frizell taking 34 percent and Joey McGee with 10 percent. Wilson says he wants to focus on cooperation within the county and has no opinions yet about the possible closing of the jail.
“I’m not in there and the magistrates are still looking at that and that would be premature for me to say anything about that at this time because Judge Pruitt and the current magistrates are taking care of that, and they’re being very diligent about it and looking at every avenue to try to keep the jail open,” he said.
Pruitt, who did not run for the position after serving more than 25 years, has looked into closing the jail and the emergency call center housed there. The issue has been brought before the Fiscal Court, and while it’s made no decision on the jail, the dispatch center will stay in the county.
Livingston County
Livingston County will retain its Judge-Executive Chris Lasher. Lasher won out against challenger Ashley Hardin winning 67 percent of the vote against Hardin’s 33%. This is Lasher’s fourth term in the position.
All results are unofficial, pending the Secretary of State's Office certification of the ballots.
