Judge/Executive Steve Pendery cruised to victory in Tuesday night’s Republican primary, a rematch against his 2018 foe Anna Zinkhon whom he beat that year by about 500 votes.
This year’s race was not as close as four years ago with Pendery claiming 5,206 votes to Zinkhon’s 3,463.
Pendery faces no Democratic competition in the fall and is poised to begin his seventh four-year term in 2023.
Pendery was at the Campbell County Fiscal Court Chambers watching the live coverage of Tuesday night’s election. He thanked everyone who supported and helped him secure the win.
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“It’s very gratifying to have the help that I do. Without it, it would be very difficult to do the work that we do. We are all excited about the next four years. I think that’s a feeling across Northern Kentucky. We have great people that share the success we’ve all had, from staff, education, businesses, our non-profits. And it’s fun.”
Campbell County Commissioner Brian Painter, who has represented District 1 since first being elected in 2010, fought off a close challenge in Tuesday’s primary from Dave Fischer.
Painter topped Fischer by just 106 votes, 4,180 to 4,074.
Painter will advance to the November general election where he will face Democratic challenger Mellissa Whalen.
District 1 covers most of Fort Thomas, Highland Heights, Cold Spring and Alexandria. Commissioners must live within their boundaries, but the entire county votes for each commissioner.
Painter was at the Campbell County Fiscal Court Chambers on Tuesday night. He said he was very pleased with the results.
“I’m really happy, along with everyone else who worked on this win,” Painter said. “A lot of people in the south county showed up and we won by a large margin there.”
The primary for Campbell County jailer on the other hand was not a close race.
Incumbent Jim Daley won renomination and will advance to the November general election with no Democratic challenger.
Daley won with 4,970 votes. His challengers Billy Fuller and Noah Schoultheis had 2,233 and 931 votes, respectively.
Daley has been Campbell County Jailer since 2013 when Judge/Executive Steve Pendery appointed him to fill the unexpired term of Greg Buckler. He officially ran for the position in 2015 and was elected to office.
Campbell County’s Family Court judgeship is also on the ballot this year. In a three-way primary in which the top two vote-getters advance, Abigail Voelker scored 6,930 votes while Brenda Bonecutter won 3,438, and Andrea Janovic received 2,143.
Voelker and Bonecutter will face each other in November.
A large field of candidates for Newport city commission was shrunken slightly on Tuesday night.
Two of the ten candidates were eliminated: Rich Livingood (195 votes) and John Santini (166 votes).
Advancing to the general election in November where four will be elected are: incumbent Ken Rechtin (679 votes), Mike Radwanski (639 votes), incumbent Beth Fennell (638 votes), Julie Smith-Morrow (587 votes), Ed Davis (499 votes), Gordon Henry (428 votes), Steve Megerle (304 votes), and David Capella (275 votes).
Two incumbents, Jerry Peluso and Frank Peluso, are not seeking reelection this year.
