Nearly 4,000 Pulaski voters will cast ballots in Feb. 2 special election

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December 30, 2009

By BILL MARDIS, Editor Emeritus The Commonwealth Journal Wed Dec 30, 2009, 09:36 PM EST

Nearly 4,000 voters in five northern Pulaski County precincts are eligible to participate in a special election February 2 to fill the unexpired term of former state Rep. Jimmy Higdon who resigned earlier this month after being elected to the state Senate.

Higdon, a Lebanon grocer, represented the 24th House district for the past seven years. The 24th District is made up of Marion and Casey counties and five precincts –– Eubank, Buncombe, Mt. Zion, Ansel and Fall Branch –– in Pulaski County.

Eubank has 1,167 registered voters; Ansel has 461; Buncombe has 965; Mt. Zion has 714; and Fall Branch has 651. Only registered voters in the five Pulaski County precincts in the 24th House District are eligible, along with voters in Marion and Casey counties, to mark ballots in the special election. Pulaski countians who live outside the 24th District can’t vote in the special election.

Republican and Democratic executive committees in the counties involved will meet in coming days to choose a nominee for each party. According to the Associated Press, car dealer Bill Pickerill and state employee Leo Johnson are being considered for the GOP nomination. Dairy farmer Joe Paul Mattingly and Social Security Administration retiree Terry Mills are being considered for the Democratic nomination. Mills has filed in the regular election process to fill the 24th District seat.

The term of the winner of the special election will 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.

Rick Barker, member of the Pulaski County Board of Elections, said the special election in five precincts will be a “good opportunity” to test the county’s new voting equipment –– paper ballots and optical scanners –– that will be used in 2010 local elections.

The special election will be conducted in the same manner as a regular election. Walk-in absentee voting will begin in the county clerk’s office January 13 and requests for mail-in absentee ballots are being accepted. Both types of absentee voting are for voters in the five precincts who will be out of town on Election Day.

Barker predicts a “ ... slow turnout on a cold February day” because none of the mentioned possible nominees lives in Pulaski County.

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Pulaski carries Girdler to win

In the weeks leading up to Tuesday’s primary election, it was impossible to miss the colorful signs dotting nearly every Pulaski roadway. The names in the race for the 15th State Senatorial District seat popped out: A.C. Donahue. Chris Girdler. Mark Polston.

Once citizens hit the ballots, however, the results mirrored the dimensions of the signs themselves: Chris Girdler stood the tallest.

Girdler, deputy district director for Congressman Harold “Hal” Rogers, ran away with the votes inside Pulaski County’s borders, earning 3,926 votes for 62.05 percent of the total number cast.

That number more than doubled the next highest vote-getter, businessman Mark Polston, who raked in 1,624 votes for 25.67 percent.

However, Polston — who owns Classic Carpet, a home-flooring business located just off the southern 914 bypass — can claim a moral victory ... three of them, in fact. In all three counties in the district other than Pulaski — those being Adair, Casey, and Russell Counties — Polston actually edged out Girdler.

In Adair, Polston beat Girdler 629 to 394. In Casey County, it was 538 to 417, and in Russell, it was 1,862 to 1,038.

Polston said he just “couldn’t pull it out with the numbers” and that “the machine worked for” Girdler in Pulaski County.

“I think that was their strategy — I think they had a Pulaski County strategy all along,” said Polston. “They played the political game well.”

Polston said the difference between his and Girdler’s campaigns was that “mine was a very, very grass roots campaign,” he said. “I did not have a political machine behind me. I understand how this process works, and in this instance, he prevailed.”

As for why Girdler didn’t take three of four counties, the winning candidate — since there are no Democrats in the race, winning the Republican primary was effectively a final victory for Girdler — said he didn’t have an answer for that.

However, “I believe things happen for a reason and I hope the long and strenuous campaign will only heighten my desire to move beyond the bitterness and partisanship of the recent past,” said Girdler.

“Regionalism is a goal of mine, and I look forward to helping all four counties,” he added, noting that he campaigned heavily in each of them.

Sen. Vernie McGaha, the long-time state senator whose seat the candidates were vying for, actually supported Polston after Liberty’s Todd Hoskins dropped out of the race earlier this month.

Donahue, a local attorney, got 556 votes in Pulaski County, 8.79 percent of the vote. He only received 145 votes in Russell County, 74 in Adair County, and 75 in Casey County, where hometown candidate Hoskins almost matched him with 71 votes despite no longer being officially in the race.

Polston said he’s “still digesting” what happened, and though “the process has been a very good experience for me,” he wouldn’t commit to running again in the future. “I wouldn’t shut the door to anything, but I’m not opening any doors either.”

Still, “I think I got a lot of people involved in the process that had not been involved before and would not have been otherwise,” he said. “A lot of people got out and worked really hard, got motivated to talk to friends and neighbors. I think a lot of people became involved through this campaign that are going to be involved for a long time.”

Girdler stressed his “positive message” and said that Rogers is a “mentor and good friend” that he would turn to for advice in dealing with a frequently combative legislative body in Frankfort, one for which Girdler hopes to help change the culture.

Girdler said that he was “confident and optimistic” during the day Tuesday because he’d “worked extremely hard.” Nevertheless, the realization that he’d won gave him “chill bumps,” he said.

“I’m absolutely honored,” said Girdler. “The position of state senator is more than an honor, more than an office. It’s a charge to keep, and I will give it my all.

“I pledge to be the people’s state senator,” he added. “I look forward to working with everyone to move this region forward.”

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