Runoff for County Judge; Young Wins Sheriff

RISON - Jim Houston of the Rye community and Stephen McClellan of New Edinburg will face one another in a runoff March 31 for Cleveland County Judge while Brad Young of the Rowell community managed to capture 58 percent of the vote to win outright in a three-way race for sheriff.Meanwhile, challenger Samantha Johnson defeated Mayor Karen Wiscaver in the race for Kingsland mayor.All three races were decided in the Republican primary held Tuesday.According to the Cleveland County Clerk’s office, 1,958 of the 4,513 registered voters in the county participated in the primary election, equating to a a 43.3 percent voter turnout.With two local races have three or more candidates, one candidate had to capture more than 50 percent of the vote to avoid a runoff.Achieving that threshold was difficult in the county judge’s race with four candidates in contention. Jim Houston of the Rye community came out on top with 622 votes (34 percent) followed by Stephen McClellan of New Edinburg with 525 (29 percent), Rickey Spencer of Kingsland with 387 (21 percent) and Rosemary Sinclair of the Staves community with 295 (16 percent).Since none of the county judge candidates achieved more than 50 percent, the two candidates receiving the most votes in the primary - Houston and McClellan - will meet in the March 31 runoff.The winner of the runoff election for county judge will be unopposed in the general election since no other candidates filed for the seat.Young, meanwhile, avoided a runoff by capturing 58 percent of the vote. Young finished with 1,058 votes followed by Vance Lee Freeman of Rison with 465 (25 percent) and Keden Shrum of Rison with 314 (17 percent).Since there are no other candidates running for sheriff, Young will be unopposed in the November general election. He will succeed Sheriff Jack Rodgers, who is retiring at the end of his term Dec. 31 after nearly 50 years with the Cleveland Sheriff’s Departm...