Lake County votes for Sheriff's levy

By JENNIFER McBRIDE/for the Eagle

Ballot counters were working later into the night Tuesday counting the absentee and regular votes from Lake County. With 100 percent of Lake County and the majority of all state votes counted, the Lake County Elections Office released unofficial election results shortly after 1 a.m.

The Democratic primary ended with Barack Obama clinching the Montana vote and the Democratic negotiation. With a total of 215,150 votes in, Obama led the state 81,559 to Hillary Clinton's 58,763 — a double-digit percentage lead. In Lake County, Obama's margin of victory was also commanding with 2,914 to Clinton's 2,251 — despite Clinton's visit to Pablo last week. A handful of voters, 77, expressed no preference.

More Democratic primary ballots were filled out than Republican ballots, but John McCain racked up 61,161 statewide. Ron Paul, the only other Republican on the ballot, won 16,973 votes while 1,583 Republicans expressed no preference. Locally, the race was closer. McCain picked up 2,148 to Paul's 1,101. No preference was selected by 52 of Lake County's Republican voters.

In the U.S. Senate race, Democratic incumbent Max Baucus, running uncontested, won more votes than Clinton or Obama with 132,538 statewide. In Lake County, Baucus picked up 4,779. Bob Kelleher climbed on top of the six-person Republican race with 20,807. Michael Lange finished second with 13,225 followed by Kirk Bushman with 12,236, Patty. L Lovaas with 5,819, Anton Pearson with 3,226 and Shay Joshua Garnett with 2,001. In Lake County, Kelleher nearly doubled his nearest competitor, Lange, by 1027 votes to 534 votes. Lovaas had 239, Garnett had 124 and Pearson had 117.

For the U.S. representative race, Republican incumbent Denny Rehberg picked up 74,624 votes statewide and 2,353 locally. In the three-person Democratic primary, the race was close, with Jim Driscoll leading the nomination with 58,613 votes. Jim Hunt had 50,424 votes followed by Robert Candee, who had 10,195 votes. In Lake County, Driscoll won with 1,916 votes to Hunt's 1,871 and Candee's 336.

For Governor, both Governor Brian Schweitzer and Roy Brown picked up their nominations handily with 134,402 and 54,860 votes respectively. William A. Fisher and Steve White were the secondary Democrats with 8,166, followed by Donald Pogreba and Jason Neiffer with 4,450. Larry H. Steel and Harold Luce came in second in the Republican primary with 13,060. Schweitzer picked up 4,569 in Lake County while Fisher picked up 335 and Pogreba picked up 115. Brown won locally with 2,047 while Steele had 649.

Steve Bullock won the Democratic primary for attorney general with 53,977 total votes followed by Mike Wheat at 46,632 and John W. Parker at 26,870. Locally, Wheat lead by 1,674, Bullock was second by 1,691 and Parker was third with 799. For the Republicans, Tim Fox beat Lee Bruner 36,975 to 37,462 votes. Lake County voters also chose Fox 1,458 to Bruner's 1,149.

For Superintendent of Public Education, the lone Republican, Elaine Sollie Herman won statewide with 61,562 votes and locally with 2,442 votes. Denise Juneau beat her opponents handily with 45,402 votes compared with Holly Raser's 29,710 votes, Sam Kitzenberg's 25,059 votes and Claudette Morton's 20,046 votes. Lake County voters agreed, giving Juneau the victory with 2,088. Raser received 918, Kitzenberg 600 and Morton 567.

In the Montana Supreme Court, Mike McGrath outdistanced his opponent, Ron Waterman, with 43,234 votes to 162,853 votes. Locally, McGrath won 5,395 to 1,493.

Locally, the public safety levy supporting the sheriff's department won 4,016 votes to 3,458 votes.

In House District 12, Democrat John Fleming was uncontested. Ronald Fred Marquardt won on the Republican side with 579. Carol Cummings squeaked into second with 212 votes to Josh D. King's 202 votes.

In House District 15, a district which stretches across portions of five counties, the only competitors were Democrats. James Steele Jr. was leading with 528 votes over Mark E. Nelson's 501 votes and Frosty Calf Boss Ribs' 399 votes. Lake County supported Steel, giving him 481 of his votes and Nelson 419 of his. Calf Boss Ribs picked up 129 votes from Lake County.

For district court judge, incumbent C.B. McNeil picked up 5,269 votes over challenger Joey Jayne, who had 3,418 votes. Lake County gave McNeil 4,383 and Jayne 3,418.

In the County Commissioners' race, Jeanne Windham picked up 2,985 to Vince Rubino's 1,615 in the Democratic primary. On the Republican side, Mike Larson won with 906 votes while Ron Boyce came to a close second with 835 votes and Bill Barron came in third with 330.

In total, 9,559 voters came out, slightly over 58 percent turnout. Of those voters, 7,412 showed up at the precincts and 2,147 turned in absentee ballots.