By BILL MARDIS, Editor Emeritus
Commonwealth Journal
August 08, 2008 07:07 am
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A veteran Burnside city councilor has decided not to seek another term and has withdrawn his name as a candidate for re-election.
David Brummett notified Pulaski County Clerk Ralph Troxtell on Tuesday that he will not seek re-election and formerly filed a Notice of Candidate Withdrawal. His decision came a week before the 4 p.m. August 12 filing deadline for small city and school board candidates.
Brummett was not available for comment but his wife, Shawn, said David has so much on his plate that he feels he doesn’t have time to devote as much time as needed to city business.
“There’s nothing wrong,” Shawn said. “He talked to the mayor (Chuck Fourman) about it. He loves the political side of it. He might get back into it sometime in the future.”
Owner of Grand Central Car Wash in Somerset, Brummett also has real estate interests, his wife said. He spends seven days a week at the car wash; he wants to work it out where he has more time with his family, she noted.
Brummett has been a member of Burnside City Council since 1995. Shawn said they plan to continue living in their historic home in Burnside.
Also at Burnside, a former mayor and city councilor has filed for another term on the council.
“I just wanted to get back in the mix,” laughed Dean E. Lovins. He previously served three terms as a member of the Burnside council and also served the final two years of Jim Rasnick’s term as mayor after Rasnick resigned. Rasnick later was elected to the city council. Lovins is not a member of the Burnside council during the current term.
Four of the six incumbents on Burnside City Council –– Jimmy Gibson, Richard Gaskin, Brian Watson and Rasnick –– have filed for re-election. Incumbent Becky Huff has not filed and the Commonwealth Journal has been unable to reach her by telephone.
As of Thursday afternoon, a total of six candidates –- Lovins, Eddie Phillips, Gibson, Gaskin, Watson and Rasnick –- have filed for Burnside City Council. Councilors in a 5th Class city are elected at-large and six seats will be filled. Mayor Fourman has two years remaining in his current term.
In Eubank, all four incumbent city commissioners –– Curtis G. Todd, Leonard Lee Coffee, Kenneth Nothstein and Edward Ray Hicks –– have filed for re-election. Also filing are Alton Fulcher Jr., a former Crane Plumbing employee, and Connie Belcher, co-owner of Belcher’s Grocery in Eubank.
Hicks lives in the northern part of Eubank that extends into Lincoln County. He filed his Petition of Election in Lincoln County and lives in Waynesburg No. 2 precinct.
Eubank is a 6th Class city and four commissioners will be elected or re-elected at-large. Mayor Frey Todd has two years remaining in his current term.
At Science Hill, all four incumbent members of the city commission –– David F. Phelps, Junior Dick, Mike Hall and Terry Wesley –– have filed for re-election.
Also filing for a seat on the Science Hill City Commission are Jeffrey Wesley, a history teacher at Lincoln County High School and nephew of Commissioner Terry Wesley, and Kurtis Bell. The newspaper unsuccessfully tried to contact Bell when this article was written.
Science Hill Mayor Bill Dick has two years remaining in his current term.
Two of the six incumbents -- Linda Hughes and Anthony W. “Tony” Deprato –– have filed for re-election to the Ferguson City Council. Incumbents who have not filed are Joni King, Wanda Hunt, Sue Poynter and Janie Ping. Nobody else had filed as of early Thursday afternoon.
Ferguson is a 5th class city and its council is elected at-large. The top six vote-getters will be seated for a two year term. Mayor Allen Dobbs has two years remaining in his current term.
All 12 seats on Somerset City Council will be filled at the November election. Candidates for Somerset council had a January 29 filing deadline. Four wards had three candidates and primaries on May 20 reduced the number in each ward to two.
• Incumbent Jim Rutherford will square off against former councilor David Burdine in Ward 1.
• Incumbent Linda Stringer will face former councilor Earl Owens in Ward 2.
• Incumbent Jimmy Eastham will be challenged by former councilor Jerry Wheeldon in Ward 3.
• Incumbent Stephen B. Kelley Jr. goes against Scott Simpson in Ward 4.
• Incumbent Jerry Girdler will face off against Bill Meece in Ward 5.
• Incumbent David Childers will run against Mike New, a former Pulaski County magistrate and son of the late council member Charlie New, in Ward 6.
• Incumbent Donna Hunley will be challenged by Lonnie Hurst in Ward 7.
• Incumbent John Ricky Minton is opposed by David Blevins in Ward 8.
• Incumbent Jim Mitchell has former councilor Michael McWilliams as an opponent in Ward 9.
• Incumbent Pat Bourne will be challenged by Jeff Sims in Ward 10.
• Incumbent Jerry Burnett will run against David Turner in Ward 11.
• Incumbent Tim Rutherford will face Tom Eastham in Ward 12.
Somerset city council races are nonpartisan and citywide. Eligible voters in the city may vote for a candidate in each of the 12 wards. Somerset Mayor Eddie Girdler is in the middle of his first four-year term and has two years remaining.
Phillip Wilson has filed for re-election to the Division 5 seat on the Pulaski County School District Board of Education. In addition to Wilson in Division 5, seats currently held by Allen Larkin, Division 1, and Betty Richards, Division 2, are up for election or re-election. Vice-chairman Bill White, Division 4, and member Cindy Price, Division 3, have time remaining in their current terms.
Jeff Leigh has filed for re-election as a member of the Science Hill Independent School District Board of Education. Sherrie Walters has filed to fill the unexpired term of Ginger Fitzgerald, who resigned. Science Hill School Board members with time remaining in their terms are chairman Mike Elliott, vice-chairman Bruce Phelps and David Sayers Jr.
Shannon Thompson, Scott Patrick Gulock and Michael R. West all have filed to fill the unexpired term of Hobert Withers Jr. on the Somerset Independent School District Board of Education. Withers resigned because of an alleged conflict of interest with his job at SomerSplash, the city-owned water park.
The city school district will fill three seats during the fall election. Terms of T. Jeffrey Adams and Gretchen W. Cole expire and Withers’ seat was made vacant by his resignation. As of early Thursday afternoon, neither of the incumbents had filed. Elaine Wilson and Sharon Brown have time remaining in their current terms.
Somerset attorney and former circuit judge Daniel J. Venters and Leonard H. Brashear, Hyden, have filed for the 3rd District Supreme Court Seat vacated by the retirement of Chief Justice Joseph E. Lambert. Family Court Judge Walter F. Maguire has indicated he will seek the office, but Maguire had not filed as of midmorning Thursday, according to the Kentucky State Board of Elections web site.
Highlight of the November General Election will be the presidential race between Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain. Keith Russell Judd is a write-in candidate for president and there may be several other former candidates on the presidential ballot because they have not officially withdrawn their names from the Kentucky election ballot. Presidential contests normally attract a heavy turnout at the polls.
Also, veteran U.S. Senator Mitch McConnell, a Republican, faces a challenge from Democrat Bruce Lunsford, and 5th District Congressman Hal Rogers, R-Somerset, will be opposed by independent candidate Jim Holbert, an Emergency Medical Service pilot from London.
State Sen. Vernie McGaha, representing the 15th Senatorial District, and state representatives Jimmy Higdon, 24th Legislative District; Ken Upchurch, 52nd Legislative District; Danny R. Ford, 80th Legislative District; Jeffrey H. Hoover, 83rd Legislative District; and Tommy Turner, 85th Legislative District, all are unopposed and their names will be on the November general election ballot for complimentary votes.
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