Colling, Grant, Clausen, Boner, Barlow get GOP nod

Converse County’s Republican voters primarily favored incumbents in Tuesday’s election, nominating Rick Grant and Mike Colling for the county commission, Brian Boner for state Senate District 2 and Dan Kirkbride for House District 4.

In what was expected to be a tighter race than it turned out to be, Douglas area rancher Aaron Clausen decisively won the Republican nod for state House District 6 with 50 percent of the vote. His challengers, Douglas businessman Ed Werner and Arby’s shift manager Chris Sorge, picked up 23.6 and 23.1 percent of the GOP vote, respectively.

Clausen won 1,156 votes to Werner’s 546 and Sorge’s 534.

That is the one House district which does not cross into other counties. Incumbent Richard Cannady of Glenrock chose not to run for re-election. With the win in the GOP primary, Clausen will face Shalyn Anderson of Rolling Hills in the general election; Anderson was the lone Democrat candidate on the ballot.

Because nearly all other local races only featured Republican candidates or only one Democratic candidate for an office in this GOP stronghold, often the winners of the Republican primaries skate into office at the general election in November. There are no guarantees, of course.

One surprise for an incumbent came in House District 3. Rep. Eric Barlow of Gillette narrowly lost the Converse County vote to challenger Frank Eathorne 345-331.  Barlow easily held onto his seat once the Campbell County precincts were counted, picking up 876 votes to Eathorne’s 452 for a 1,207-797 victory.

In state Senate District 2, incumbent Brian Boner of Douglas held a commanding lead in this county, picking up 2,148 votes to D. Farmer’s 389.

Boner handily won in Platte County, too, picking up 1,417 votes to Farmer’s 401. Farmer is from Wheatland.

The sole Democratic candidate for SD2, William Cullen III, will compete with Boner for the seat in November.

In House District 4, Kirkbride of Chugwater beat out Tyler Shockley of Wheatland in both Converse and Platte county results. In this county, Kirkbride had a commanding 201-74 vote lead, and Platte County GOP voters keep the lead going by 1,085 to 804, giving the incumbent a comfortable 1,286 to 878 margin.

County Commission

Colling and Grant, both of Glenrock, easily retained their party’s nomination over challengers Darek Joppru and Colt Rodeman, both of Douglas.

Glenrock and Rolling Hills precincts kept both Colling and Grant on the ticket with fairly decent margins, though the bigger precincts within the City of Douglas also tended to sway in their favor but by less decisive margins. Rural Douglas precincts tended to be much closer, with Joppru often coming in second in those precincts.

In the end, though, it wasn’t enough to overcome the strong showing in Colling’s and Grant’s hometowns.  

No Democrat filed for the commission seats, although a write-in could still the vacant spot in the general election. That won’t be known until Wednesday or possibly until the county canvassing board meets later this week to certify the election results.

Colling polled 1,571 votes, which was slightly behind Grant’s 1,799. Rodeman won the nod from 1,172 voters to finish third, while Joppru received 1,056 votes.

City Council

In the nonpartisan municipal government races, all four candidates on the primary ballot for Douglas City Council will move on to the general election. The primary results, however, may offer a preview of how the candidates will fare come November.

In Glenrock’s town council race, all four candidates advance. The top vote-getter was incumbent Bruce Roumell with 410 votes, following by Terry Gray with 252 and Chad Beer with 215. Roy Kincaid received 197 votes.

For the town’s two-year council position Russ Dalgarn and Christopher Lamb appear to be moving forward with Dalgarn having a commanding lead of 283 votes. Lamb garnered 156 votes and Dayton Lewis was close behind with 138.

Martha Durand was the only candidate who filed for one of the two open, four-year  slots on the Rolling Hills Town Council. She won 73 votes, but 28 ballots were cast with write-ins. Kenneth Montgomery was the sole name on the ballot for the two-year seat.