Cummings Elected As County Judge

RISON - Republican Jimmy Cummings was elected as Cleveland County Judge during Tuesday’s general election, garnering 72 percent of the vote in his race with Democratic candidate Jimmy Dale Adair. The final vote margin was 2,035 to 795 margin. Unofficial Vote Totals The Herald has compiled the final but unofficial vote totals for all races by precinct in a chart on page 10 of this week's print or e-Edition. Cummings, who currently serves as the county clerk/circuit clerk, will assume his new office on Jan. 1. He will succeed County Judge Melody Spears, who was appointed to the position last year and, by state law, could not run for the office. He is the first Republican to be elected as county judge. Melody Spears ran as a Republican in this election for District 2 justice of the peace, but she was ap‐pointed as county judge. Both candidates were at the courthouse as the results came in Tuesday night. Once the final re‐sults were in, Adair congratu‐lated Cummings on his victory. “My first objective is going to be to evaluate what we have (current finances and projec‐tions, employees, equipment) and start working toward a plan,” Cummings said about his new job within the courthouse. Once that assessment is com‐plete, Cummings said he wants to actively recruit businesses to move to Cleveland County. “I’ve got to start making headway on trying to bring something in here,” he said. “I made some big statements, bold statements about pursuing businesses to come here,” Cummings said is campaign. “That’s priority one, really, as soon as I get past the evaluation of where we stand financially.” Cummings issued a statement to Herald Wednesday morning thanking voters for his election. “I want to say thanks to the people of Cleveland County. I am very thankful for every vote cast for me, and I appreciate everyone that exercised their righ...