MICHELLE WILLARD, Post Staff Writer and MIKE WEST, Managing Editor
Posted: Thursday, August 7, 2008 9:59 pm

Bill D. Boner, who captured the property assessor's job, kisses his grandson, Joshua Burton, 7. Watching are his wife, Joyce, daughter, Laura Burton, and granddaughter Abby Burton, 5.

Rutherford County has a new property assessor.

Bill D. Boner upset incumbent John Barbee in the property assessor race by carrying 51.82 percent of the vote.

Boner garnered 5,684 votes to Barbee’s 5,278.

"I ran on being fair and honest and to treat everybody equal and that's how I will serve as Property Assessor," Boner said.

Boner, who had sought the office once before, said he wasn't surprised by his victory.

"No, I have had so many, many people helping me. I want to thank everyone who was out there working for me and who voted for me," he said.

The City Cafe straw poll forecast that Barbee would beat Boner for Property Assessor. Barbee received 46 of 57 votes or 80 percent of straw ballots cast.

Boner was strong throughout both city and county and carried most precincts. Barbee did carry some boxes, including La Vergne City Hall, Bellwood School and Eagleville.

The last three precincts to complete their election returns were Rock Springs, Cedar Grove and Rockvale Community Center. Boner carried each of them.

Final election results were held up because the tally cards from Rock Springs, Cedar Grove and Rockvale Community Center didn’t read correctly the first time.

Elections Administrator Hooper Penuel attributed the misread to operator error. He said when the tally card is taken out too soon, it misreads.

Elections officials had to retrieve ballot boxes from the precincts to get a correct tally.

Election results are unofficial until confirmed by the Rutherford County Election Commission.

Incumbent Road Superintendent Mike Williams again beat perennial challenger Allen “Buddy” Gambill Jr in a close race. This time in a narrow race.

Williams received 5,481 or 51.28 percent and Gambill received 5,202 or 48.67 percent of the votes cast.

Williams beat Gambill 29-13 or 69 to 31 percent in the City Cafe poll.

Voter turnout was extraordinarily low this election with only 11,558 (8.7 percent) registered voters casting ballots.

“The candidates did everything they could do but there wasn’t very much interest,” Penuel said, adding the November election with be completely different.

“I told workers that we’ll see a 180-degree turn around,” he said.

In other races:
David Bragg, who was unchallenged, won the 16th District Circuit Court judgeship.

In the road board contest incumbent Paul Johnson beat Jared Barrett for the road board’s zone 6 seat.

School Board member Grant Kelley defeated challenger Rob Vaughter.

In the closely contested Republican Primary for the 48th House seat, Joe Carr outdistanced Lou Ann Zelenik. Candidate Jon Jaques finished a distant third.

In the contested Democratic Primary for the 48th District, Tim Tipps won the nomination, defeating Rick Parks. The seat was held by retiring Democrat John Hood.

Rishi K. Saxena won the Democratic nomination in the 34th District and will vie against Republican incumbent Donna Rowland.

Rick Womick won the Republic nomination in the 49th House District and will face Democratic incumbent Kent Coleman.

Jean Ann Rogers won the Democratic nomination for the 16th Senate District seat currently held by Shelbyville Republican Jim Tracy.

Tracy, Coleman and Rowland were unchallenged in their primaries.

John Goad, Bubba Jones and Michael Anderson faced no opposition in their Road Board races and were re-elected.

Donald Jernigan, Mark Byrnes and Terry Hodge were re-elected to the Rutherford County Board of Education.

Finally, all the state judges who ran retain their seats.

Michelle Willard can be contacted at 615-869-0816 or mwillard@murfreesboropost.com

State Rep. Donna Rowland, below, exchanges congratulations with Dr. Rishi Saxena her Democratic opponent.