Finch loses primary, Cates, Hawkins face runoff

CHIPLEY - Polls closed as of 7 p.m. for voters at the Chipley Annex Tuesday, with an upset as incumbent Democratic District 5 Commissioner Ronnie Finch was defeated by challenger John Harmon. Harmon had 2,366 votes to Finch’s 1,381.

Bill Howell won the Republican nomination with 1,003 votes to James Guy’s 645.

For School Board District 3, Pam Cates received the majority of votes at 2,402, followed by incumbent John Hawkins’ 1,962 and Ferrell Brock’s 1,189.

“I have a new appreciation for any who decides to run for a political position,” said Cates. “I’ve been working hard non-stop since the beginning and I don’t plan to stop any time soon.” Cates and Hawkins will face a runoff in November.

In the Republican primary for sheriff, Greg Hutching defeated Michael Walker 884-677.
Incumbent Bobby Haddock easily won the Democratic primary with 2,119 votes, followed by Chris Welch with 861 votes, Virginia Ruschmeier with 432 votes and Gene Halley with 383.

For Superintendent of Schools Sandra Cook tallied 1,069 votes to Jamie Fielding’s 580 to win the Republican nomination. Cook will face Democrat Mike Park in November.

For State Representative District 5, Brad Drake over half the votes at 1,144 and Sherry Campbell had 517.

Carol Finch Griffin, Supervisor of Elections, read off the voter’s results after each cluster of votes came in from precincts, with final results coming in at 9:20 p.m.

“Everything went very smoothly,” she said. “We had a lighter attendance than I would’ve liked, but the process went quite well in my opinion.” Total number of ballots cast was 5,678.