Weston Wamp overtook County Commission Chairman Sabrena Smedley with about half the returns counted in the Republican primary county mayor race. Ms. Smedley, the District 7 representative, had led from the early voting returns. Mr. Wamp stayed narrowly ahead and won by 321 votes.
With all 90 voting locations reporting, it was:
Weston Wamp: 14,425
Sabrena Smedley: 14,104
Matt Hullander: 12,170
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Democrat Matt Adams had 5,875.
Mr. Hullander, who earlier sold his family's highly successful Hullco remodeling firm, gave a 10 p.m. concession speech.
He said he is ready for the next chapter in his life.
On the campaign trail he said he "met so many friends. It's been a blessing really, though it's not the outcome we desired."
Standing with his wife and daughter, he said, "I'm not a loser with these two by my side."
Mr. Hullander said he was "glad I took the high road" in the election. He and Ms. Smedley had claimed that mailers attacking them late in the election came from the Weston Wamp camp. Mr. Wamp said they were not from his campaign.
He also issued this statement, “The voters spoke tonight and I am grateful for the opportunity the past few months have provided. We stayed true to our promise of staying positive. We weren’t deterred by the attack ads, lies or skewed polling in the final days of this campaign. I’m grateful for the many volunteers who shared this campaign with me. I’ll never forget all you’ve done. One thing I’ve learned is that truth and integrity go hand in hand. Both of those are intact for me and I’ll sleep well tonight knowing the future is in far bigger hands than mine.”
The county mayor race opened up after Jim Coppinger made the surprise announcement that he was not running again.
Mr. Hullander had been the leading fundraiser in the campaign, though Ms. Smedley was buoyed by her leading final period total.
There were only 48,848 votes cast out of 232,752 eligible voters. Over half of the votes were from those who voted by mail and cast ballots at early voting sites.