Special election will be held to fill Higdon's seat

Local News

December 10, 2009

Bu BILL MARDIS, Editor Emeritus The Commonwealth Journal Thu Dec 10, 2009, 07:59 PM EST

Somerset — A special election will be held in the 24th House District to fill a vacancy created by the impending resignation of Jimmy Higdon, a Republican from Lebanon who has represented the district for the past seven years.

Higdon won a special election Tuesday to fill a vacancy in the 14th Senate District created by Gov. Steve Beshear’s appointment of Dan Kelly to a circuit judgeship.

Five precincts in northern Pulaski County -- Eubank, Ansel, Fall Branch, Buncombe and Mt. Zion –– are part of the 24th House District that includes Marion and Casey counties.

Higdon said tentative plans are for the State Board of Elections to validate his election Monday followed by an unofficial ceremony with family and friends Tuesday before taking the oath of office as state senator from the 14th District on Wednesday.

When Higdon takes the oath of office as a senator a vacancy will be created in the 24 House District for the final year of his current term.

Les Fugate, deputy assistant secretary of state, said if the Legislature is in session, House Speaker Greg Stumbo will call a special election in the 24th House District. If the Legislature is not in session, Governor Beshear will set the special election, Fugate said.

After separate party caucuses in each of the three counties in the 24th House District, Republicans and Democrats in the five northern Pulaski County precincts will caucus with members of their respective parties in Marion and Casey counties to select a candidate for the special election.

Here is how it works, using the Pulaski County segment of the 24th House District as an example. Unofficially, there are about 2,000 Republicans and 800 Democrats in the five Pulaski County precincts that are part of the 24th House District.

If, for example, 10 delegates show up at the Republican caucus in Pulaski County, each delegate will have 200 votes, determined by dividing the number of delegates into the number of registered voters in that section of the district.

The same thing will happen in Marion and Casey counties; the number of delegates at each county’s caucus will be divided into the number of registered members of the party they represent.

Then, at the GOP’s main caucus in the 24th House District, each delegate, armed with the number of votes assigned, will vote to select the party’s nominee for the special election.

The Democratic Party will do the same thing. For example, if 10 delegates show up at the party’s caucus in Pulaski County, each delegate would be assigned 80 votes based on the some 800 registered Democrats in that segment of the district. After caucuses in Marion and Casey counties, the Democratic party’s main caucus would select a candidate for the special election.

Terry Mills, a Democrat from Lebanon, has filed for the 24th House District seat. Mills has filed in the regular primary, general election process but would be eligible for consideration at the Democratic caucus as a candidate in the special election.

The term of the winner of the special election would end at the first Monday in January 2011. To be a candidate for a full term the winner of the special election would have to file as a candidate during the 2010 election cycle.

The special election must be held within 35 days of Higdon’s resignation and likely would be in early February.

Text Only

Local News

Eubank woman keeps the faith as she battles cervical cancer
February 11, 2012 1 Photo
Congressional districts set
February 10, 2012
Kentucky exempt from NCLB regulations
February 10, 2012
Survey may attract commercial passenger service
February 9, 2012 1 Photo
Hal Rogers defends Somerset’s Streetscape project
February 9, 2012 1 Photo
Somerset on verge of becoming natural gas hub
It sounds like a Buck Rogers fiction series, but it’s true. The city of Somerset is about to become the energy hub of Kentucky, maybe even regionally or nationally.
Somerset Mayor Eddie Girdler, gas company manager Dan Henderson and city engineer Reggie Chaney discussed the grandiose energy network this week with a reporter for the Commonwealth Journal. It’s more than a vision. City officials say it’s about to become reality.

February 9, 2012 1 Photo
Old districts are back ... for now
The more things change, the more they stay the same. Such is the legislative redistricting debacle in Frankfort.
Judge Phillip Shepherd in Franklin Circuit Court on Tuesday tossed out the General Assembly’s controversial redistricting plans and reverted everything back to where it was before.

February 9, 2012
Fast-moving blaze guts mobile home off Slate Branch Road
February 2, 2012 1 Photo
Big Bang Theory
Pulaski County is not at war. The booming you may hear at dusk is mock cannon fire to scare away birds.
Stuart Spillman, environmental director for the Lake Cumberland Health Department, said at least three cannons are on loan from the department to residents who want to scare away swarms of starlings and blackbirds settling in to roost.
He said a cannon is being used by a resident on Laura Lane off Ky. 39; another is in the Oak Hill Road area and a third is on Ashurst Street in the eastern part of Somerset.
Spillman said a timer on each cannon allows it to “fire” at whatever frequency is desired. The cannons must be used as the birds circle before going to roost. “After they settle in, nothing will chase them out,” Spillman said.
The Health Department doesn’t operate the cannons unless there is a specific complaint in an area where there are lots of birds, Spillman noted. He said so far this year the birds are not as bad as in the past.

February 2, 2012
Boil water advisory is lifted countywide
The water controversy that Pulaski County has been boiling over — so to speak — for the last week is finally over.
At 10 minutes after noon Wednesday, the “boil water” advisory for the Western Pulaski Water District was lifted — almost a full week after the problems began around 1 p.m. last Thursday.
Prior to that, the Somerset Water Service — along with the other water providers in its system, including Science Hill Water, Southeastern Water, and Eubank Water — lifted their advisories, with Somerset on Saturday afternoon and the last, Southeastern, by Monday morning. Western Pulaski was the last in the system to complete sample testing for potential contaminants, due to not being able to access its Pikeville-based testing lab until Monday.
Somerset Mayor Eddie Girdler thanked the public for its patience and understanding during the duration of the boil water advisory — put in place to keep citizens from drinking water that could have been contaminated after an accident last Thursday at the water plant site — and also thanked all the city employees for their hard work during this time.
“The boil water advisory went about as well as would be expected,” said Girdler.

February 2, 2012
More Local News Headlines

Local News

Search Results

Special election will be held to fill Higdon's seat

Site Map