GOP dominates

Not even close.

Across the board, not a single contested race was close in Jay County for county, state or federal office.

The GOP dominated from top to bottom, electing new representatives to replace outgoing Republicans for state representative and county commissioner as well as retaining the county recorder office. Local voters also heavily favored Republicans running for federal offices, helping push Mike Braun past incumbent Joe Donnelly in a key U.S. Senate race and Jim Banks to a second term as U.S. Representative.

Jay County Republican chair Jenae Horn attributed the positive results for her party to hard work and the man in the White House.

“It’ll be interesting to see what the straight-ticket (ballots) really did,” she said. Nearly a quarter of Jay County voters — 1,563 — turned in straight-ticket Republican ballots. “Two years ago, I think we really saw the Trump effect, from Trump down. I think this year we might be seeing the same thing.

“But I also know that Betty and Chad worked extremely hard.”

There was no suspense as the results rolled in Tuesday night. From the first precinct announced — Wayne 7 — all of the results were by wide margins. They were as follows:

•Chad Aker 163 votes over his cousin Brian Aker for county commissioner.

•Betty St. Myers 271 votes over Dominic Martyne for county recorder.

•J.D. Prescott 141 votes over Shon Byrum with Libertarian Dale Arnett a distant third for state representative in District 33.

•Jim Banks 178 votes over Courtney Tritch for U.S. representative in District 3.

•Mike Braun 139 votes over Joe Donnelly with Libertarian Lucy M. Benton a distant third for U.S. Senator.

Each of the Republicans carried at least 60 percent of the vote in that opening precinct, led by the 78.9 percent for St. Myers, and the story didn’t change for the rest of the evening.

Chad Aker, who knocked off incumbent Barry Hudson in the Republican primary, kept up his 67-percent pace the entire night as he won 4,210-2,051.

“I’m just thrilled,” he said. “When I entered the race, I entered to win. I didn’t want to finish in second.

“A lot of respect to Brian. He did an honest campaign, just as I did. We agreed to that before we started, and he’s a man of his word.”

Brian Aker, whose business was heavily damaged by fire last month, said that kept him from getting out and campaigning as much as he would have liked. To his cousin, he offered some advice.

“Do what the people ask,” he said. “Help them. Support them. Get both sides before you make a decision.”

For Prescott, a 26-year-old Randolph County farmer and first-time candidate for office, the results just got better in Jay County as the night went along. After taking 62-percent of the vote in the opening precinct, he won the county with 66.9 percent to Byrum’s 30.3 percent and just 2.8 percent for Arnett.

Final vote totals were not in for the district as of 9:45 p.m. Tuesday, but Byrum had called to congratulate Prescott just before 8 p.m.

“I offered anything I can do to assist him in preparing for his new role,” said Byrum, the mayor of Winchester, who echoed Blasdel’s thoughts about Trump enthusiasm playing a role locally. “Anything, I can do, I’d be happy to do that.”

It marked Byrum’s second loss in a state representative race after falling to Greg Beumer in 2014. He said he does not plan to run again.

“I’m going to wake up to morrow and I’m still going to be the mayor of Winchester,” he said. “That’s an important job to me.”

Prescott thanked Byrum for running a positive campaign and Beumer, who chose not to seek a third full term in office, for his support.

“I’m just very humbled by just the outpouring of support I received this whole race,” he said. “I couldn’t have done it without the support from the voters throughout the district and the Republican party as a whole … I will work hard to serve the district as best I can.”

St. Myers earned her fourth term as county recorder by the widest local margin of the evening, 78.4 percent to 21.6 percent. She served from 2003 to 2011, took four years off because of term limits and then was reclaimed office in the 2014 general election.

Braun’s 63 percent of the vote in Jay County helped him knock off Donnelly in a race that polls had shown to be a virtual dead heat. ABC News called the race for Braun at 8:43 p.m., and by 9:20 p.m. he had a lead more than 160,000 votes over Donnelly with 59 percent of precincts reporting.

The U.S. Representative race had been called for Banks with 51 percent of districts reporting. Tritch had hoped to close the gap in the district that Repubicans have dominated over the last several elections, but found herself trailing by a two-to-one margin.

Jay County was heavily in favor of an amendment that would require a balanced state budget. It was also in favor of retaining Indiana Supreme Court Justice Geoffrey Slaughter (69.7 percent) and Indiana Court of Appeals Judge Robert Astice (71 percent). All three of those issues passed statewide.

The other story of the evening was voter turnout, which in Jay County came in at 53.3 percent. There was some talk during the evening of that number being a record for mid-term elections, but that turns out not to be the case.

The mark is the highest for a mid-term in more than two decades, but falls well short of turnout numbers from the early 1990s. According to data available on the Indiana Election Division website, voter turnout was at 74 percent in Jay County in 1990 and 62 percent in 1994.

Winning uncontested races Tuesday were: Republican Brian Hutchison for Jay Circuit Court Judge; Democrat Wes Schmenaur for Jay County Prosecutor; Republican Anna Culy for auditor; Republican Dwane Ford for sheriff; Republican Robin Alberson for assessor; Democrat Ted Champ and Republicans Faron Parr, Amy Runyon Barrett and Mike Rockwell for Jay County Council; and Republican Alicia Corwin and Democrat Millie A. Ellis for Pennville Town Board.

For Knox Township Trustee, Republican Joe Gutshall defeated Democrat Dane Mumbower with 66 percent of the vote. Uncontested township trustee winners were: Democrat Crystal Laux (Bearcreek); Democrat Nancy Cline (Greene); Republican Rex Pinkerton (Jackson); Republican Angela Moeller (Jefferson); Republican Scott Hilfiker (Madison); Republican Virginia Cline (Noble); Democrat Bob Lyons (Pike); Democrat David Champ (Richalnd); Republican Ronald Rosenbeck (Wabash); and Republican James Brewster (Wayne).

All township board candidates were guaranteed election Tuesday as no race had more than three candidates. Elected were the following:

Bearcreek: Democracts Jo Ann Gierhart, Jim Haffner and Kari Tressler

Greene: Democrats Robert Bailey, A. Rodney Cassel and Don Whitenack

Jackson: Republicans Matt Caster, Richard Houser and Terry L. Rigby

Jefferson: Democrat Richard Nixon

Knox: Democrat Dennis Rogers and Republicans Joella Rinker and Jennifer Cline Wagner

Madison: Republicans Greg Shreeve and Patty Starr

Noble: Republicans Eldon L. Campbell, Emily Daugherty and Jeff Overholser

Penn: Democrat Douglas A. Geesaman

Pike: Democrat Billy M. Sipe and Republicans Phillip H. Cowan and Arthur C. Harris

Richland: Democrats Bob Ford, Gary R. Glogas and Joe Lloyd

Wabash: Republicans Sarah M. Davidson, Jane M. Martin and Beverly Westgerdes