Davis and Bennett win primary races

    The Republican and Democratic parties held their respective primary elections Tuesday night. Ron Bennett won the Republican primary over Jim Rosien in the Washington County Supervisor District 5 race. Steve Davis won the District 3 supervisor race in the Republican party, defeating John Hahn and Bill Walker. The results released by the Washington County Auditor?s office are unofficial because not all of the absentee and provisional ballots have been counted.

    Bennett defeated Rosien with roughly 55 percent of the vote, garnering 385 votes to Rosien?s 310. Davis won his race with about 60 percent of the vote, capturing 285 of the 444 votes cast. Walker finished with 111 votes, or 25 percent, and Hahn raked in 65, or 15 percent.  

    After learning of the results, Bennett said he thinks he won because he did a lot of door-to-door campaigning to get his message out. Bennett does not yet have a Democratic challenger for the general election, but he said he isn?t going to rest on his laurels.

    ?I have been attending the supervisors? meetings and visiting the county departments to learn more about them, and I will continue to do that,? said Bennett.

    Rosien said Wednesday morning that he was disappointed in the turnout, which was approximately 18 percent for the county. Rosien also remarked that he was disappointed in the turnout at the supervisors? debates last month.

    ?I think a lot of my supporters did not vote,? said Rosien. ?I wish Ron the best. He worked hard in his campaign.? 

    Rosien said he isn?t going to let Tuesday?s election affect the way he behaves as a supervisor.

    ?I have enjoyed my 18 months as a supervisor,? said Rosien. ?I will continue to work the next six months as if I had been re-elected.?

    Davis said he looks forward to the general election campaign against Democrat Rodney Stogdill, who he has known for 40 years. Davis received nice words from his two challengers who have already spoken to him since the election.

    Walker remarked, ?I talked with Steve and told him I would help him in any way possible. Steve is a super-nice guy.?

    Hahn commented, ?Steve and I had a good conversation and I congratulated him.?

    He also said the campaign went well, even though the outcome was not what he wanted.

    ?It was a clean campaign,? said Hahn. ?We don?t get many clean campaigns anymore, so I?m pleased we got one here.?

For more, see our June 9 print edition.