Published: May 07, 2008 10:56 am         

Incumbents secure nominations

Tuesday’s primary election proved a good day for incumbent candidates. All four incumbents seeking re-election in the County Commissioner and County Council races were successful in securing their nominations.

Three County Council at-large nominations were being sought by six candidates Tuesday, two of which went to Republican incumbents Dennis Sharkey and John Letherman.

Sharkey, who received 8,650 votes for a total of 24.61 percent, indicated Tuesday evening that he was pleased with the election results, but will be looking forward to a good break in his campaign schedule.

“I’m very pleased with the election,” Sharkey said. “Experience did matter, and the people chose experience in the end. I think people are pleased with the way Elkhart County has been run over the last few years, and that was shown in their choice today.”

In the end, Sharkey and Letherman came within a fraction of each other in votes won, as Letherman came away the top vote winner with 8,656 votes, or 24.63 percent.

Securing the third seat, soon to be vacated by retiring Councilman Jim Hartman, was David Ashe, R-Elkhart, who took away 5,953 votes, or 16.94 percent.

Unsuccessful in their bids for a council seat were David B. Pixey, R-Elkhart, who took 4,848 votes for a total of 13.8 percent, Trevor Wendzonka, R-Goshen, who took 3,590 votes for a total of 10.22 percent, and Greg Howard, R-Bristol, who took 3,445 votes for a total of 9.80 percent.

Barry Fox, D-Elkhart, was unopposed.

As for the commissioner races, incumbent Mike Yoder, R-Middlebury, came away with 72.6 percent of the vote to secure the nomination for County Commissioner — District 2 over newcomer Dwaine Swartzentruber, R-Goshen.

Yoder received a total of 11,082 votes to Swartzentruber’s 4,182.

“The campaign went OK. I’m pleased with how the election turned out, and am excited to be headed toward another four years of serving the county,” Yoder said Tuesday after learning he had secured the nomination.

As for whether or not he will take a break before preparing for the general election this fall, Yoder said with no opponent slated, preparation is not really an issue.

“At this point I have no opponent in the fall, so as far as a break from campaigning, at this point there is no campaigning,” Yoder said. “Now I’m just going to keep working 100 percent in my role as a commissioner.”

Yoder went on to note his pleasure at hearing that Terry Rodino, incumbent for County Commissioner — District 3, had also secured his nomination over opponent Robert Pedzinski.

Rodino, R-Elkhart, received 9,728 votes Tuesday for a total of 67.16 percent over Pedzinski’s 4,762 votes, or 32.84 percent.

“I’m very pleased,” Rodino said today of the current course of his campaign. “For the most part, we didn’t see any real surprises that we weren’t anticipating, so overall we’re pretty pleased.”

Both Yoder and Rodino also noted their approval in learning that both Letherman and Sharkey had also been successful in securing their nominations Tuesday.

“I’m really pleased to know I’ll be working with all those people again,” Yoder said. “We worked really well together over the last four years. We have a really good group, we work well together, and have a combination of talent and skills that I think are about as good as you can get. So yes I’m very pleased.”

Rodino agreed.

“Both won with wide margins, so I think it was just Elkhart County saying we’re happy with what’s going on with the county,” he said.