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Rep. Andre Carson easily crushed three opponents to win the Democratic primary for 7th Congressional District. The ace was marked by a bitter campaign waged by the Rev. Muoja Ajabu. In caustic radio ads, Ajabu accused Carson of not living up to the legacy of the late Rep. Julia Carson, Andre’s grandmother. Ajabu attacked Carson for being out of touch with 7th District residents. And in an unusual move Muoja Ajabu’s ads featured the voice of Ajabu’s son Kofi, who is serving a sentence of life without parole for his involvement in a 1990’s triple murder. Kofi Ajabu charged Carson with failing to help him and stand up against human rights abuses. Despite the Ajabu’s negative campaign was overwhelming rejected by 7th District voters as Carson ran away with the race receiving 19,442 or 89.1% according to unofficial returns from the Marion County Election Board. Ajabu surprisingly came in third with 782 votes; 3.6%. Second place went to Curtis Godfrey who received 1,209 votes; 5.5%. Last was Pierre Pullins with 390 votes; 1.8%. Carson will now face Republican Catherine “Cat” Ping who bested four male candidates to win the Republican Primary in the 7th District. Ping, an Army veteran, received 4,882 votes; 35.1%. In second place was Wayne “Gunny” Harmon with 3,258 votes; 23.4%. The rest of the candidates were J.D. Miniear 2,840 votes; 20.4%; Gordon Smith 1,871 votes; 13.5% and Erin Ken Magee, a Florida resident who was running for Congress in Indiana and two other states. He received 1,056 votes; 7.6%.

For the second time in four years, Sheriff John Layton defeated challenger Mark Brown in the Democratic primary for Marion County Sheriff. Layton garnered 17,183 votes; 64.1% to Mark Brown’s 9.627 votes; 35.9%. Sheriff Layton will face Republican Emmitt Carney in November. Carney, a former Sheriff and FBI agent is the first African-American Republican to run for Marion County Sheriff.

Despite all the controversy between endorsed or slated candidates, and despite the potential record low turnout of 8.0%, the endorsed candidates of both the Marion County Republican and Democratic Party all won tonight. No unendorsed candidates won, or “broke the slate”. This included the Democratic Primary battle for Superior Court Judge. The eight endorsed Democratic candidates won. In order the winners were: Angela Davis, Judge Barbara Cook Crawford, Judge Annie Christ-Garcia, Marcel Pratt, Jr., Shatrice Flowers, Christina Kleinman, David Dreyer and James Osborn. The unslated candidates in order were: David Hennessy, Greg Bowes and Christopher Starkey

Attorney Brenda Roper soundly defeated incumbent Michelle Smith Scott in the Center Township Small Claims Court race. Scott had served three terms but ran up against party opposition because of her stand to keep her court in the City-County Building against the wishes of Center Township Trustee Eugene Akers. Roper won handily with 3,415 votes; 63.5% against Judge Scott’s 1,960 votes; 36.5%.

In Wayne Township, C. Renee Pack defeated the effort by former Trustee David Baird to regain his office. In the Democratic primary, Pack got 1,601 votes; 61%. Baird received 657 votes; 25% and a third candidate Douglas White got 367 votes; 14%. In Lawrence Township, City-County Councilman Steve Talley easily defeated Paula Redden in the Democratic Primary for Lawrence Township trustee to succeed the retiring Russell Brown. Talley got 2,924 votes; 76.5%, while Redden got 897 votes; 23.5%.

As mentioned before, endorsed candidates of both parties won their races in Marion County Tuesday. They include candidates who were unopposed in their primary races. For Democrats they include State Representatives Ed DeLaney, Karlee Macer, Christina Hale, Cherrish Pryor, John Bartlett, Greg Porter, Vanessa Summers, Justin Moed, Robin Shackleford and Dan Forestal. Plus Democratic state senate candidate J.D. Ford and state rep candidates Patrick Lockhart, Ryan Guillory. Also winners Circuit Judge candidates Sheryl Lynch, Prosecutor Terry Curry, Clerk candidate Myla Eldridge, Auditor candidate Julia Voorhies and Recorder candidate Mary Sweeny Bell, Assessor Joseph O’Connor. On the GOP side, winners include all 8 of their Superior Court Judge candidates, State Sen. Mike Delph, State Representatives Brian Bosma, Cindy Kirchhofer, Mike Speedy, Dave Frizzell and newcomer Mike Friedman, Bradford Moulton, Margaret Peggy Jones. Also winners the GOP’s candidate for Circuit Court Judge Therese Hannah, prosecutor candidate Duane Merchant, auditor candidate Tracy McCarty, Recorder candidate Terry Dove, Sheriff candidate Emmitt Carney

 

FOR FULL MARION COUNTY 2014 PRIMARY ELECTION RETURNS – CLICK LINK BELOW

CLICK HERE FOR MARION COUNTY 2014 PRIMARY RESULTS

AMOS’ PRIMARY ELECTION LIVEBLOG!

8:40pm – ENDORSED CANDIDATES IN MARION COUNTY BIG WINNERS – Despite all the controversy between endorsed or slated candidates, they all won in today’s low turnout Primary Election.  Democratic endorsed candidates all won tonight.  No unendorsed candidates won, or “broke the slate”. And while I wasn’t as familiar with all the Republican Primary battles in the county, I believe the same occurred on the Republican side.  The 7th District Congress race was one where the party endorsed no candidate.  The biggest surprise was the abysmal showing of Rev. Muoja Ajabu in the 7th District Congress race. He was expected to run second.  Some expected he could have surprised Rep. Andre Carson had attained as much as 8% to 10% of the primary vote.  Instead it looks like he’ll finish third behind unknown candidate Curtis Godfrey garnering 3.7% of the vote to Godfrey’s 5.6%. While Carson amassed 89% of the vote.

8:28pm – CATHERINE “CAT” PING TO FACE REP. ANDRE CARSON IN 7TH DISTRICT RACE IN NOV – Catherine “Cat” Ping an Army veteran has defeated four other challengers to win the Republican Primary for 7th District Congress.  With % of the vote counted Ping has a 1,300-plus lead over her next closest opponent Wayne “Gunny” Harmon.  In order the other candidates in the race were J.D. Minier, Gordon Smith and Erin Kent Magee.

8:10pm – SHERIFF JOHN LAYTON WINS DEMOCRATIC SHERIFF PRIMARY – For the second time in four years, Sheriff John layton has defeated challenger Mark Brown in the Democratic primary for Marion County Sheriff. With 61% of the vote counted, Layton is leading two to one, some 5,000 votes over Brown.

8:03pm – THE EIGHT ENDORSED DEMOCRATS HAVE WON THE SUPERIOR COURT JUDGE PRIMARY I had to wait to see if the vote margins had changed between the candidate in 8th place and in 9th and they have changed in an hour. So I’m declaring that the eight endorsed Democratic candidates for Marion County Superior Court Judge have won their primary.  With 60% of the vote counted the order right now is Angela Davis, Judge Barbara Cook Crawford, Judge Annie Christ-Garcia, Marcel Pratt, Jr., Shatrice Flowers, Christina Kleinman, David Dreyer and James Osborn.  Bringing up the rear David Hennessy, Greg Bowes and Christopher Starkey

7:51pm – BRENDA ROPER WINS CENTER TOWNSHIP SMALL CLAIMS JUDGE RACE – Brenda Roper has soundly defeated incumbent Michelle Smith Scott in the Center Township Small Claims Court race.  Scott had served three terms but ran up against party opposition because of her stand to keep her court in the City-County Building against the wishes of Center Township Trustee Eugeen Akers.  That dispute caused the party to endorse Roper and she wins handily by a 1,000 vote margin (63% to 36%) with 72% of the vote counted.

7:46pm – C. RENEE PACK WINS! WAYNE TOWNSHIP TRUSTEE PRIMARY – C. Renee Pack has defeated former Wayne Township Trustee David Baird in the Democratic primary.  With 61% of the vote counted, Pack has a 572 vote lead or 60.4% of the vote over Baird who has 24.8%. A third candidate Douglas White has 14.8%

7:26pm – So who will Andre Carson face in November? That question is still up in the air.  There is a five candidate battle in the Republican primary to see who faces off against Carson in November. Right now with 25% of the vote counted, Catherine “Cat” Ping has a lead with 35% of the vote. Next is Wayne “Gunny” Harmon with 25%, followed by J.D. Minier with 19%, Gordon Smith with 14% and the out of state candidate Erin Kent Magee with 7%. Unless Minier or Smith shows some big vote strength, this race will be a two way battle tonight between Ping and Harmon

7:25pm – ANDRE CARSON WINS! Rep. Andre Carson has won the 7th District Congress Democratic Primary with a smashing win over three opponents. Including a nasty, negative advertising campaign from Rev. Muoja Ajabu. With 25% of the vote counter, Carson has 88% of the vote comparted to 5.7% for newcomer Curtis Godfrey and 4.3% for Ajabu and 2% for Pierre Pullins

7:14pm – With more than a quarter of Wayne Township’s vote in, it looks like David Baird, the former Trustee’s bid for a comeback might not be successful. So far C. Renee Pack the candidate endorsed by the Democrats is leading comfortably with 61.5% of the vote.  Baird is running a poor second with 23.3% of the vote. A third candidate Douglas Whjite has 15.2%.

7:09pm – With 13.9% of the vote in in the 7th Congressional District Rep. Andre Carson is comfortably ahead so far with 88.5% of the vote. Newcomer Curtis Godfrey has 5.7% of the vote, Rev. Muoja Ajabu has 4% and Pierre Pullins 1.8%. I’m going to wait until at least 40% of the vote is in to see if Carson’s margin remains dominate before calling this race.

7:00pm – FINALLY! Some vote tallies. 1% of the vote in in Marion County. NO surprises so far.  Candidates expected to lead are leading. In the Democratic battle for Superior Court Judge, the leading vote getters are Anegla Davis, Barbara Cook Crawford, Annie Christ-Garcia, Shatrice Flowers and Marcel Pratt. The 8  slated Democrats are all winning. The three unslated candidates are behind so far.

6:42pm – Vote totals are going to be interesting given the info on low vote totals everywhere around the city/county. If each polling place average 100 voters today, that would be 60,000 voters. Slightly more than 10% of registered voters.  I suspect the total vote will be less than that.

6:25pm – Polls have closed. And we can declare the first winners of the evening. Candidates who were not opposed in their primary races.  For Democrats they include State Representatives Ed DeLaney, Karlee Macer, Christina Hale, Cherrish Pryor, John Bartlett, Greg Porter, Vanessa Summers, Justin Moed, Robin Shackleford and Dan Forestal.  Plus Democratic state senate candidate J.D. Ford and state rep candidates Patrick Lockhart, Ryan Guillory.  Also winners Circuit Judge candidates Sheryl Lynch, Prosecutor Terry Curry, Clerk candidate Myla Eldridge, Auditor candidate Julia Voorhies and Recorder candidate Mary Sweeny Bell, Assessor Joseph O’Connor.  On the GOP side, winners include all 8 of their Superior Court Judge candidates, State Sen Mike Delph, State Representatives Brian Bosma,Cindy Kirchhofer, Mike Speedy, Dave Frizzell and newcomer Mike Friedman, Bradford Moulton, Margaret Peggy Jones.  Also winners the GOP’s candidate for Circuit Court Judge Therese Hannah, prosecutor candidate Duane Merchant, auditor candidate Tracy McCarty, Recorder candidate Terry Dove, Sheriff candidate Emmitt Carney

5:30pm — Our Liveblog Page is now set-up.  We’ll add to it as returns come in and trends are shown.  Refresh often during the evening.