Published: May 07, 2008 10:44 am         

Wicks takes nomination

Elkhart Republican Charles C. Wicks bested four other candidates Tuesday to secure the GOP nomination for judge of Elkhart County Superior Court 5.

When all votes were in, Wicks came away with 4,170 votes for a total of 26.23 percent, giving him the lead by just a few percentage points over opponent Bruce A. Wells, who took in 3,765 votes for a total of 23.68 percent.

“I’m feeling great right now,” Wicks said after learning of his win Tuesday night. “It’s been a nerve-wracking evening listening to those totals come in. It was a lot of stress, but it’s a relief that it’s over.”

Candidate Thomas A. Murto, Goshen, secured the third highest amount of votes in the race at 3,111 for a total of 19.57 percent, followed by Peter D. Todd, Elkhart, with 2,550 votes for a total of 16.04 percent, and Martin A. McCloskey, Elkhart, with 2,303 votes for a total of 14.49 percent.

Now that the primary election is over, Wicks said he has had some time to reflect on the campaign, and is overall quite happy with how it has proceeded.

“As far as how the campaign went, I thought it was very clean and all of the candidates were very respectful, which I think is important in this kind of race,” Wicks said.

Having sought a judgeship position unsuccessfully in both the 1998 and 2000 primary elections, Wicks said he decided to pull out all the stops this time around in order to give himself the greatest possible chance at securing the nomination.

“I decided having run twice before that I was going to make the financial commitment to make sure we got through it,” Wicks said. “I’m very appreciative. My family really went all out, as did my committee. We had a campaign plan that we followed to the letter, and it really worked out for us.”

Even with no Democratic opponent slated for this fall’s general election, Wicks said he does not plan on reducing the momentum of his campaign, but will most likely wait a few months before getting back into heavy campaigning.

“I’ll start preparing for the fall right away, but probably the heavy campaigning won’t start until after Labor Day,” Wicks said, noting that he will probably not know until the first of July if he is going to have an opponent in the fall election. “I’m really looking forward to the fall campaign, and getting past that final hurdle.”