KEVIN HALPERN, Courier Co-Editor
Tuesday, August 10, 2010 7:01 am

Just because Cannon County voters have elected their local representatives for the next four years doesn't mean that voting is over for the 2010 election season.

There's still a governor, Tennessee 6th District U.S. Congressman, 17th District State Senator and 46th District State House Representative to elect this year.

Voters will have the chance to make their choices for those seats on Tuesday, Nov. 2.

Their major party candidates for governor are Republican Bill Haslam and Democrat Mike McWherter.

In the August 5 state primary, Cannon County voters picked Haslam as the GOP nominee with 41.55 percent of the vote while Ron Ramsey (33.22%) and Zach Wamp (22.54%) finished second and third, respectively.

The 6th District Congressional race features Democrat Brett Carter and Republican Diane Black, plus a host of independent candidates.

In Cannon County primary voting, Lou Ann Zelenik (37.71% of the vote) and Jim Tracy (33.50%) beat out Black, who had 16.22%. However, Black had the strongest showing throughout the 15-county district to claim the GOP nomination.

On the Democratic side, Ben Leming (31.94%) edged Henry Clay Barry (29.67%) in Cannon County voting, while Carter came in third with 24.69%.

Democrat George McDonald will try to unseat Republican Mae Beavers for the 17th District State Senate seat in November. Both also won the Cannon County primary, with Beavers collecting 53.29% of the GOP vote and McDonald 46.94% of the Democrat voter.

Incumbent Stratton Bone, a Democrat, and Republican Mark Pody are pitted in the race for the District 46 State House of Representative seat. Each ran unopposed in the primary.

• In recapping the local 2010 State Primary and County General Election, 4300 or 53.60% of Cannon County's eligible voters participated.

Of those, 2502 votes were cast on Election Day Aug. 5, while 1798 were made during early voting or via absentee ballots.

The race which received the largest number of votes was sheriff (4180), followed by trustee (4173), county clerk (4135) and county executive (4110).

Mike Gannon, was was re-elected as county executive for a third time, received the most total votes (2782) following by Circuit Court Clerk-elect Lynne Foster (2499), Register of Deeds-elect Debbie Morris (2376) and Sheriff-elect Darrell Young (2123).

The trustee's race was the closest contest, with Wayne Prater capturing 22.86% of the vote, Norma Knox 21.88%, Brenda Mullinax 15.41% and Nolan Travis 15.17%.

Four new members were elected to the Cannon County Commission: James Russell Reed in the First District, JImmy Mingle in the Second District, JIm Bush in the Third and Clint Higgins in the Fourth. They join Mark Barker (First District), Todd Hollandsworth (Second), Kevin George (Third), Joe Wimberly (Fourth) and Kevin Mooneyham and Bob Stoetzel (Fifth), who were all re-elected.

The Cannon County Board of Eduction will have one new member as of Sept. 1, Michael Mayfield, representing the Fifth District. Chris Blackburn was returned to the Second District seat.

EDITOR'S NOTE: The story in this week's print edition of the Cannon Courier about the local election states that Sheriff-elect Young won all but one precinct. That is incorrect. Young carried all 10 precincts, which includes early voting. The Courier regrets the error and is happy to set the record straight.