Orr, Beumer beat Randolph incumbents (05/05/06)

Ridgeville resident Alan Orr and Kathy Beumer, the wife of a Jay County native, have beaten incumbents and nominated to run in the general election for a seat in Randolph County government.

Orr, director of MJS Mortuaries Ridgeville Chapel, unseated Shirley Wright-Small for the Republican nomination to the Randolph County Council, while Beumer defeated Randolph County Commissioner Drew Wright, a chief proponent of demolishing the Randolph County courthouse.

Beumer, the wife of Jay County native and former Randolph County Commissioner Greg Beumer, won by an almost 2 to 1 ratio in Tuesday’s GOP primary.

More than 40 hours after polls closed Tuesday, Randolph County finally had its votes officially totalled for the spring primary and school board election.

Results were delayed by problems with the county’s new electronic voting system, which weren’t ironed out until about noon Wednesday.

Final tallies showed five incumbent county officials, all Republicans, were defeated by challengers. Noel “Bud” Carpenter, assessor for the past 20 years, lost to Beverly Fields.

In the county’s other contested race, Edwin Thornburg came out ahead of two other candidates as Republican candidate for county surveyor for the fall election.

In the contested Monroe Central School Board race, Robert Chalfant won reelection over three challengers for the at-large seat, Terry Addington won a four-way race for the East-West Farmland seat, and Kim Oliphant defeated incumbent Bruce Buchanan for the East-West Parker seat.

Randolph Central School Board members Scott Hawkins and Fred Pries won each of their seats, while incumbent Dana Cox was unopposed.

The contested at-large seat on the Union School Board was won by Joshua Bales.[[In-content Ad]]