elected as magistrate

The mayor of Adairville race came down to just nine votes on Tuesday.

Incumbent Jim Wilkerson fended off Donna Blake by an extremely narrow margin to win a second term as mayor of the south Logan County city.

Wilkerson received 188 votes to Blake's 179. The two tied at one of Adairville's two polling locations. They both had 101 votes at the Adairville Fire Station. Wilkerson got four more votes than Blake at the Adairville school, however. Wilkerson also received 10 absentee votes to Blake's five.

Blake currently sits on the Adairville city council, but gave up her seat to make a bid for mayor.

Two newcomers will be on the Adairville council - Tony Nichols and Patty Costello. They will be joining current council members Judy Tanner, Marla Sircy, Danny Finch and Tracy Gunderson - all of whom were reelected.

Finch led all the candidates with 290 votes. Gunderson was second with 248. Tanner got 246 and was followed by Sircy (238), Costello (231) and Nichols (228).

The two candidates not elected were Mike Fowler and current council member Nannette King.

Auburn

Dewey Roche had no trouble winning a third term as mayor of Auburn. He defeated challenger Maxine Rittenberry 368-95.

The new Auburn city council will consist of Mike Hughes, Ron McGee, Steve Montgomery, Wayne Thomas, Craig Offutt and Gayle Gregory.

Current councilman Rex Evans and Jimmy Cornelius finished seventh and eighth in the race.

Hughes was the top vote-getter with 381. He was followed by McGee (374), Montgomery (305), Thomas (301), Gregory (299) and Offutt (291).

District 1 Magistrate

Democrat Clem “Dickie” Carter defeated Republican Kerry Kenady in the race to finish out the District 1 magistrate term of the late Starling Murphy.

Carter won a decisive victory, garnering 1,103 votes to Kenady's 6,86.

Kenady had been appointed to the position by then-governor Ernie Fletcher when Murphy passed away late last year. He will get to finish out the year as magistrate and Carter will take over in January.

Carter will hold the position for two years before facing reelection. Carter has previously served as District 1 magistrate, but narrowly lost in the 2006 primary to Murphy.

Lewisburg

Only six people ran for the six-seat Lewisburg city council.

They were Sharon Bender, Donnie Smith, Melanie Palmgren, Tina Callahan-Dye, Craig Green and Jeff Laster.

Laster received the most votes with 208. Smith and Callahan-Dye both got 191 votes. They were followed by Bender (188), Palmgren (186) and Green (182).