Kentucky Political News Headlines

Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Primary Election Results



Primary Election Results

Kentucky voters went to the polls today to determine their party's nominee in a variety of races from State Senator to President of the United States. Voter turnout was around 13%, which is quite low but not necessarily out of the norm for a primary election. A full list of results from tonight's state legislative primary races are below, but we wanted to highlight a few main themes for the evening:

- Incumbents Did Well - Twenty two state legislative incumbents had primary opponents, 4 in the Senate and 18 in the House. Only one was defeated, Rep. Wade Hurt (D-Louisville). However his situation was somewhat unique, because he won the seat two years ago as a Republican after his Democrat opponent Jeff Donahue was disqualified. After winning Hurt switched parties to Democrat, but Donahue ran again this year and defeated Rep. Hurt tonight.

So aside from this one instance, it appears that voters generally were not ready to oust incumbents regardless of party. It will be interesting to see if this trend holds heading into November where there will be 45 state legislative incumbents that face a challenger.

- Tea Party Success Mixed - The Tea Party will tout the victory of Thomas Massie in the Republican Primary for the 4th Congressional District to replace Congressman Davis from today's primary election. His victory over several establishment candidates will have national appeal as a possible re-energizing of the Tea Party movement.

However at the state level there were several races that featured traditional establishment Republican candidates, many of whom were incumbents, that faced challengers from Tea Party endorsed candidates. In all of those the incumbents prevailed and the Tea Party generally came up flat. Two of those races were in the 4th Congressional District: Sen. John Schickel won with 77% of the vote over his Tea Party opponent and Rep. Addia Wuchner won with 53% of the vote over Cathy Flaig a strong Tea Party candidate in Northern KY.

So even in the same geographic area where the Tea Party was having success on a national stage there were no "coat tails" to down the ballot state legislative contests. This mixed result may play an important role heading into November state legislative elections where Republicans are trying to pick up 12 seats and gain the majority in the state House.

- President/Nationalizing Races – President Obama's popularity has never been perceived to be real high in Kentucky, however that was confirmed on Primary Election night when 42% of KY Democrat Primary voters opted to vote for Uncommitted rather than the President to be their nominee. Again this wasn't necessarily a surprise, but it may make some Democrat candidates in state legislative races this year a bit uneasy with President Obama on the ballot in November. That being said, Republicans have not yet shown a widespread ability to nationalize state legislative races successfully. Certainly it will be interesting to see if President Obama drags down Democrat candidates down the ballot in November.


Full List of State Legislative Primary Results
(10:01 pm with 99.17% precincts reporting)
Winners are marked in YELLOW & Incumbents are marked in RED
    
Name
Race
Total   Votes
Percentage
David P. GIVENS (REP)
State Senator, 9th  District - REP
4202
76
Don M. BUTLER II. (REP)
State Senator, 9th  District - REP
1327
24




John SCHICKEL (REP)
State Senator, 11th  District - REP
7022
76.9
Joshua L. TURNER (REP)
State Senator, 11th  District - REP
2109
23.1




Joe E. LASWELL (REP)
State Senator, 15th  District - REP
33
0.28
Todd HOSKINS (REP)
State Senator, 15th  District - REP
244
2.09
Dennis MITCHELL (REP)
State Senator, 15th  District - REP
96
0.82
Chris GIRDLER (REP)
State Senator, 15th  District - REP
5775
49.57
A. C. DONAHUE (REP)
State Senator, 15th  District - REP
850
7.3
Mark F. POLSTON (REP)
State Senator, 15th  District - REP
4653
39.94




Damon THAYER (REP)
State Senator, 17th  District - REP
3687
63.2
Rick HOSTETLER (REP)
State Senator, 17th  District - REP
2147
36.8




Sarah CUNNINGHAM
State Senator, 19th  District - DEM
4261
34.49
Amy E. SHOEMAKER
State Senator, 19th  District - DEM
1812
14.66
Gary DEMLING
State Senator, 19th  District - DEM
1253
10.14
Morgan McGARVEY
State Senator, 19th  District - DEM
5030
40.71




Will TERWORT (REP)
State Senator, 23rd  District - REP
2442
37.74
Chris McDANIEL (REP)
State Senator, 23rd  District - REP
4028
62.26




Denise HARPER ANGEL
State Senator, 35th  District - DEM
5389
82.84
Curtis MORRISON
State Senator, 35th  District - DEM
1116
17.16




Doug HAWKINS
State Senator, 37th  District - REP
1180
36.23
John YUEN
State Senator, 37th  District - REP
145
4.45
Chris THIENEMAN
State Senator, 37th  District - REP
1932
59.32




Richard HEATH (REP)
State Representative, 2nd  - REP
752
78.66
Patrick FISHER (REP)
State Representative, 2nd  - REP
204
21.34




Arthur BYRN (DEM)
State Representative, 2nd  - DEM
1213
30.18
Kelly WHITAKER (DEM)
State Representative, 2nd  - DEM
2806
69.82




John A. ARNOLD JR. (DEM)
State Representative, 7th  - DEM
2528
57.1
Jim MURPHY (DEM)
State Representative, 7th  - DEM
1899
42.9




Jim GOOCH JR. (DEM)
State Representative, 12th  - DEM
1569
66.04
James Jim" NANCE (DEM)"
State Representative, 12th  - DEM
807
33.96




Jeremy WARFIELD (DEM)
State Representative, 13th  - DEM
538
21.05
Jim GLENN (DEM)
State Representative, 13th  - DEM
2018
78.95




Chris HIGHTOWER (REP)
State Representative, 16th  - REP
412
53.44
Kent WILSON (REP)
State Representative, 16th  - REP
359
46.56




Dottie J. SIMS (DEM)
State Representative, 19th  - DEM
1017
62.78
Phinis Vernon HUNDLEY (DEM)
State Representative, 19th  - DEM
603
37.22




Kendrick BRYAN (DEM)
State Representative, 25th  - DEM
377
18.62
Jimmie LEE (DEM)
State Representative, 25th  - DEM
1572
77.63
Glenn FONDA (DEM)
State Representative, 25th  - DEM
76
3.75




Jonathan SHELL (REP)
State Representative, 36th  - REP
2102
58.16
Nathan MICK (REP)
State Representative, 36th  - REP
1512
41.84




Jeffery M. DONOHUE
State Representative, 37th  - DEM
1132
63.38
Wade HURT
State Representative, 37th  - DEM
654
36.62




Reginald K. MEEKS
State Representative, 42nd  - DEM
2896
79.65
Wendy CASWELL
State Representative, 42nd  - DEM
740
20.35




Stan LEE (REP)
State Representative, 45th  - REP
2413
76.75
Chris TYLER (REP)
State Representative, 45th  - REP
731
23.25




T. K. BROECKER (REP)
State Representative, 47th  - REP
1018
58.84
Charity EDMONSTON (REP)
State Representative, 47th  - REP
712
41.16




Scott W. REED
State Representative, 48th  - REP
1026
32.48
Bob M. DeWEESE
State Representative, 48th  - REP
2133
67.52




David FLOYD (REP)
State Representative, 50th  - REP
894
72.62
Donna A. PEGAGO (REP)
State Representative, 50th  - REP
337
27.38




Sara Beth GREGORY (REP)
State Representative, 52nd  - REP
2580
69.32
David B. GOVER (REP)
State Representative, 52nd  - REP
1142
30.68




Freddy HARBISON
State Representative, 53rd  - REP
1204
24.91
Richard TREITZ
State Representative, 53rd  - REP
699
14.46
Bart ROWLAND
State Representative, 53rd  - REP
2930
60.62




Carl P. ROLLINS II. (DEM)
State Representative, 56th  - DEM
2985
70.27
Jerry L. ATWOOD (DEM)
State Representative, 56th  - DEM
1263
29.73




Brian E. LINDER (REP)
State Representative, 61st  - REP
806
52.58
Scott BRUCE (REP)
State Representative, 61st  - REP
727
47.42




Camilla Kay" PATTON (DEM)"
State Representative, 61st  - DEM
1107
38.68
Wanda Crupper HAMMONS (DEM)
State Representative, 61st  - DEM
1755
61.32




Walter A. STAROSCIAK (REP)
State Representative, 63rd  - REP
1020
23.26
Diane ST. ONGE (REP)
State Representative, 63rd  - REP
3366
76.74




William E. WOODS (REP)
State Representative, 66th  - REP
196
5.2
Addia Kathryn WUCHNER (REP)
State Representative, 66th  - REP
1995
52.9
Cathy H. FLAIG (REP)
State Representative, 66th  - REP
1580
41.9




Richard MARRS (REP)
State Representative, 76th  - REP
1049
62.7
Lavinia Theodoli SPIRITO (REP)
State Representative, 76th  - REP
624
37.3




Bradley T. COPES (DEM)
State Representative, 78th  - DEM
822
26.18
Thomas M. McKEE (DEM)
State Representative, 78th  - DEM
2318
73.82




Chris LOGAN (REP)
State Representative, 79th  - REP
972
72.75
Kenneth L. KEARNS II. (REP)
State Representative, 79th  - REP
364
27.25




Roger COLDIRON
State Representative, 80th  - REP
353
8.8
David MEADE
State Representative, 80th  - REP
1843
45.93
Jerry Lee SHELTON
State Representative, 80th  - REP
175
4.36
Mark EATON
State Representative, 80th  - REP
1642
40.92




James Larry GOINS
State Representative, 82nd  - REP
1078
22.73
Regina Petrey BUNCH
State Representative, 82nd  - REP
3664
77.27




Marie L. RADER
State Representative, 89th  - REP
2627
64.75
Carlos CAMERON
State Representative, 89th  - REP
1430
35.25




Bobby HAMILTON
State Representative, 92nd  - DEM
1246
24.05
John W. SHORT
State Representative, 92nd  - DEM
3934
75.95




Tanya PULLIN (DEM)
State Representative, 98th  - DEM
2444
74.02
Tyler MURPHY (DEM)
State Representative, 98th  - DEM
858
25.98