On A Local Note...

Breaking down the races of note in Shenandoah and Rockingham Counties.

Shenandoah Board of Supervisors, District 2 (Mount Jackson/Conicville) Supervisor Jim Patrick was unseated by challenger Steven Baker in yesterday's election. The margin was a razor-thin 16 votes. I have to say that I was sufficiently surprised that Patrick lost, as he was a pretty good supervisor and always favored reason and research over "knee-jerk reaction" politics.

I can only assume this vote was a reaction to the proposal of a new jail in Shenandoah County, which Patrick supported (and provided really good, well-researched reasons for it). I don't quite see any other reasons as to why Patrick lost. Hopefully, Steven Baker can do just as good a job.

Shenandoah Board of Supervisors, District 3 (Edinburg/Columbia Furnance/St. Luke) was not quite as surprising, as David Ferguson defeated Miriam Reno by a near 54%-46% vote. It was expected to be a fairly close race, but Ferguson won by a margin that most people expected.

Shenandoah Clerk of Court Denise Barb, and 25 year incumbent, held off a relatively fierce challenge from Tammy Heishman. Barb won with about 57% of the vote. I'm not surprised it was this close, and I thought it might've been 1 or 2 points closer, actually.

Rockingham Clerk of Court was a race between 11 candidates that really came down to two candidates. Chaz Evans-Haywood and Dianne Fulk. Haywood won with almost 26% of the vote compared to Fulk's 22%. Barry Koogler, Brenda Huffman, and Mike Harvey all garnered over 10% of the vote, as well. The Republitarian himself, Myron Rhodes, managed to net 2.5% of the vote...but definitely spent less on campaigning than the rest of the candidates.

Benny "The Playgirl Politician" Neal, penis and all, finished dead last.