Bullitt County has been claimed by the red wave.

In Bullitt County, the majority of people voted for Republican candidates running for office during the 2018 mid-term elections.

The Bullitt County mid-term elections have resulted in numerous new mayors and council members to serve cities across the county. Many candidates were unopposed in their races for county-wide positions, guaranteeing them the position. For these county races, Republicans proved to be the more popular choice against Democratic candidates as shown by their higher number of secured positions.

Curtis Hockenbury secured the four-year position of mayor of Shepherdsville after running against former two-term mayor Sherman Tinnell, businessman Tom Chamberlain, current councilmember Gloria Taft, former councilman Bernie Brown and current councilman Mike Hibbard. While in office, Hockenbury plans to restore Shepherdsville from the hardships it has endured over the past two years. He plans to do this by maintaining effective communication with the councilmembers and the other elected officials in the county, enforcing a plan for the city park and getting the olive branch extended to the city officials. These two-year city council members include current council member Stacey Dawson Cline (1,383), former mayor and city councilman Larry Hatfield (1,274), current council member Bonnie Enlow (1,137), Kenny Newton (988), current council member Lisa Carter (978) and Deborah Huffman (871). The eleven other candidates who ran for a spot on the council were former council member Dana James (841), current council member Donna Burke (808), Leslie Sleigh (712), Nina Bain (705), Kevin Robinson (663), Dennis Shaffner (690), Larry Clark (588), Matthew Ashby (550), James Southern (464), Eldon Todd Jr. (379) and Johnny Richey III (354). “I’m thrilled to bring some stability to the seat,” said Hockenbury to the Pioneer News.

Having served four terms as the mayor of Hillview, Jim Eadens had a good chance of beating his former police chief and current officer with Pioneer Village Raymon Wilburn for the mayor’s seat. The votes amounted to 1,195 for Eadens and 734 for Wilburn, granting Eadens the four-year position. The members of the Hillview city council will not change either, with Kim Whitlock (1,180), JoAnn Wick (1,169), Lisa Boggs (1,078), Karen Johnson (1,037), Alice Keister (942) and Randall Hill (917) prepared to serve the next two years on the council. David Conn (897) and Joe First (783) ran with promising campaigns but did not secure a position on the city council.

Running once again for mayor of Mount Washington, incumbent Barry Armstrong easily secured the position with 3,568 votes as the only candidate to run. The Mount Washington city council will feature one new member: Daniel Dooley (1,810). He will be accompanied by familiar members Sandra Hockenbury (2,565), A. Gayle Troutman (2,497), Greg Gentry (2,356), Troy Barr (2,209) and Mike Holt (1,936). George Maddox (1,716) was appointed to fill a vacancy. Other candidates included: Kent Roby (1,449), Jeremy Cantwell (1,116) and Hayden Sweat (924). If Sweat had been elected, his recent hiring to serve as law clerk for Bullitt Circuit Judge Rodney Burress would have prevented him from being able to fill that position.

Larry Dangerfield was guaranteed to be elected for the four-year term of mayor of Lebanon Junction. He was the only candidate on the ballot, having collected 454 votes. The outcome of Lebanon Junction’s new city council members featured a very close number of votes between Carroll Samuels (269) and James Waters (268), who was one vote away from securing a spot on the council. The members working with Samuels will be Connie Doan Jackson (356), Tim Sanders (334), Mary Allie Phillips (313), Teresa Smither-Preston (303) and Virginia Maness (271). Ozzie Maraman did not win a seat on the council having only received 104 write-in votes.

Pioneer Village also featured a close number of votes between its mayor candidates Gary Hatcher and former council member Darlene Riedling Herps, in which Hatcher won the four-year position with 453 votes against Herps, who collected 447 votes. However, uncertain that these results are accurate, Herps requested a recanvass of the voting machines that took place at 9 a.m. on Thursday, Nov. 15. The two-year position for the city council of Pioneer Village will be occupied by six incumbents who were also the only candidates to run for the position. These members will include Peggy Druin (621), Mike Exton (606), Gary Wilson (603), Dorleen Garrett (598), Phillip Radford (597) and Denver Matthews (585).

The only candidate to run for mayor in Fox Chase was Owen Taylor. He was able to return to the four-year position with ease, obtaining 205 votes in the election. The positions for the six council members of Fox Chase also had no competition amongst themselves, as the only candidates to run were Sandra Higgins (184), Wayne Muscar (181), Ed Berger (178), Jamie Wolz (175), Sandra Osborne (173) and Lois Whitis (164), securing them the two-year positions.

Having also been the only candidate to run for the four-year position of mayor in Hebron Estates, Jerry Clark will return to the position regardless of the 326 votes he obtained. The four incumbent commissioners who will also return are Kathy Merrifield (274), James Tucker (255), Russell Forshee (244) and Bob Denner (241).

Although his duties as Bullitt County Judge/Executive don’t officially start until Monday, Jan. 7, Jerry Summers has already started, claiming that the county is so far behind. He secured this spot by beating Tony Thompson, with the margin of victory exceeding the 5,200 advantage he had due to straight ticket voting. Leading up to the election, his door-to-door visits of the citizens of Bullitt County, totaling 8,500, aided his victory. Summers is planning trips to Frankfort and meeting U.S. Rep. Brett Guthrie as well as prioritizing opening up the lines of communication within county government, with the municipalities and with the public. “The county will be pleased. I’m hitting the ground running,” said Summers to the Pioneer News.

After defeating Democrat Myra Minton, a Shepherdsville Police detective (9,677), Walter A. Sholar (17,249) is ready to transition from serving as county attorney to leading the Bullitt County Sheriff’s Office for the next four years. Despite the fact that his duties don’t start until Jan. 7, he has already prepared for his upcoming role by talking with current sheriff Donnie Tinnell about the office to familiarize himself with it, working on the command staff and taking resumes for the chief deputy’s position. “I want to be able to hit the ground running,” said Sholar to the Pioneer News.

Paul Watkins (14,315) finally has the opportunity to prove himself worthy as Bullitt County Jailer since he defeated Democrat Martha Knox (12,599) in the mid-term elections. After being defeated by Knox in two prior elections, this was Watkins’s breakthrough, and he ensures the people of Bullitt County that he will do a good job in his position. When he takes the office on Jan. 7, he plans to rely on experienced individuals to provide him advice. “I just wanted the people to give me a chance. I can do them a good job,” said Watkins to the Pioneer News.

Dennis Mitchell will serve as magistrate in the First District of Bullitt County, as he collected 4,508 votes compared to the 102 write-in votes collected by Democratic write-in Brandi J. Warren. Republican Shaun Logsdon was unopposed as magistrate in the Second District with 6,132 votes. Republican Joe Laswell beat Democrat Mike Higgins for magistrate in the Third District by a count of 3,918 to 2,531. By collecting 3,290 votes, Joe Rayhill defeated Independent David Strange (1,897) and Democrat Donna Richardson (1,328) for his second term as magistrate in the Fourth District.

Occupying the four-year position of Bullitt County Property Value Administrator (PVA) will be Depp Rasner II. He collected 15,725 votes compared to the 10,813 votes collected by longtime Democratic PVA Bruce Johnson.

Former Bullitt County Attorney Monica Meredith (11,887) will become the new family court judge in Bullitt County as opposed to John Schmidt, who only collected 7,769 votes in the non-partisan race.

Jennifer Porter was alone in her running for the district judge, as she will be the lone district judge starting in January due to the other position currently occupied by Rebecca Ward being abolished by the General Assembly. Porter obtained 16,518 votes in the unopposed race.

Bailey Taylor, having been unopposed and collecting 21,377 votes, will become the commonwealth attorney.

Paulita Keith secured another term as Bullitt Circuit Clerk as he ran alone and obtained 21,715 votes.

Republican Kevin Mooney will serve another term as county clerk. Having been unopposed, he collected 21,946 votes.

He too running alone, Republican incumbent David Billings will occupy the county coroner’s position. He received 21,095 votes.

Having received 21,364 votes, John Wooldridge was unopposed in his bid for county attorney.

For the position of constable in the First District, Robert Watkins won this spot by defeating William E. McAllister by a 3,901-1,826 vote count. For the Second District, John Cauley ran unopposed for his second term, receiving 6,018 votes. The Third District will feature newcomer Larry Watkins, brother of Robert Watkins, who received 3,662 votes. Incumbent Mark Williams (4,087) will be constable in the Fourth District as he defeated Democratic nominee Dewey McMillen (2,181).

The Bullitt County school board will replace incumbent Dolores Ashby with retired school system employee

Steve Hornback in the Fourth District, with Hornback receiving 1,878 votes and Ashby receiving 1,598 votes. For the Third District school board position, current chairperson Debby Atherton obtained 3,800 votes in her unchallenged race.

Having been a long-time surveyor, Democratic incumbent John St. Clair won the position of Bullitt County surveyor by 15,688 votes and no opposition.