MARION COUNTY — The race in Marion County for the Republican nomination for Marion County State’s Attorney remained in a dead heat until after 11 o’clock Tuesday night, when the final two precincts put Bill Milner over the top to win the nomination with just 42 votes over his opponent Tim Hudspeth.

Bill Milner (Source: Bill Milner)
Bill Milner
(Source: Bill Milner)

“I want to thank everyone in Marion County who got and and voted Tuesday, it was great to see people exercising their right,” commented Milner.

Marion County reported a whopping 40 percent voter turnout for Tuesday’s primary election.

“I want to congratulate Tim for running a competitive race, he’s a good man and we ran clean campaigns, which is what I wanted,” Milner said, noting he had received a text message from current Marion County State’s Attorney Matt Wilzbach congratulating him and saying he looks forward to the transition.

Milner thanked everyone who worked on his campaign and vowed to work as hard as he can as state’s attorney if and when he is elected to the office in the November general election.

The Marion County Democratic Party did not run a candidate for the office in the primary.

In 2008, Democrat Jeff Bradley won the race for Jefferson County State’s Attorney by a 69 vote margin over his Republican challenger Nicole Villani in the general election, but Villani contested the results and after two years of court challenges Villani was sworn in as state’s attorney.

Villani served in that seat for approximately one year before being named to the bench for a year and then losing the seat in the next election.

In the Democratic nomination for Marion County Coroner, Nick Parker of Salem defeated John Hinkel of Patoka, 71 percent to 29 percent for the opportunity to run in November against incumbent Republican Troy Cannon who was unopposed in the primary.

Voters in Iuka approved a working cash bond issue by just over 50 votes.

Computer difficulties Tuesday night prevented vote results from a number of counties in our listening area from being tabulated and released until late in the evening.

In Jefferson County, voters rejected a school facility sales tax by a large margin, 75 to 25 percent.

Roger D. Hayse won the Republican nomination for Jefferson County Coroner, 57 percent to Bradley Duke’s 43 percent.

And in Washington County Daniel M. Bronke defeated incumbent Heath Hooks for the Washington County State’s Attorney Republican nomination.

Incumbent Republican John Shimkus beat Republican challenger State Sen. Kyle McCarter to continue representing the 15th Congressional District in Washington, D.C.

State-wide Shimkus received 61 percent of the vote to McCarter’s 37 percent.

Tammy Duckworth defeated her opponents to win the Democratic nomination and the chance to unseat Republican incumbent Mark Kirk for U.S. Senate. Kirk also beat his opponent to secure the Republican nomination.