SHALIMAR, Fla — Voters in Okaloosa County elected Marcus Chambers superintendent of schools in yesterday’s primary election, as well as two county commissioners and a school board member.
SHALIMAR, Fla — Voters in Okaloosa County elected Marcus Chambers superintendent of schools in yesterday’s primary election, as well as two county commissioners and a school board member.
Chambers bested former State Representative Ray Sansom by a nearly two to one margin in a landslide win. Both Chambers and Sansom are Republican.
Paul Mixon won the County Commissioner District 1 race over former County Commissioner Wayne Harris and businessman James Walker. Each is a Republican.
Incumbent County Commissioner Nathan Boyles, a Republican, easily bested Republican challenger Brad Roehrig to keep his District 3 seat.
In the race for County Commissioner District 5, Mel Ponder holds a slim lead over Parker Destin and a recount may be necessary. With about 80 provisional ballots left to be counted, Ponder holds a 149-vote lead with 13,630 votes, Destin has 13,481 votes, and Niceville businessman Rich Johnson has 3,542 votes. Each is a Republican.
Currently, the difference between Ponder and Destin is .49 percent. Florida law automatically triggers a recount when the margin of victory is equal to or less than 0.5 percent of the total votes cast. If needed, the recount likely will take place on Saturday.
The winner of the race will face businessman Wes Fell in November. Fell is running as an independent.
Marti Gardner won the race for School Board member District 2 defeating Sherri Cox. The race was nonpartisan.
Patt Maney won the Republican Primary for State Representative District 4. He will face Democrat John Plante in November.
