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| TOM BERRY/Ledger & Times
First District Sen. Ken Winters, R-Murray, is joined in a victory shout by supporters at Calloway County Republican headquarters Tuesday night following the announcement that he had won a second four-year term in office. |
Calloway, Trigg, Lyon propel Winters to win
By TOM BERRY
Staff Writer
Sen. Ken Winters celebrated a hard-fought victory Tuesday night after voters in three of seven First District counties - particularly voters in Calloway County - provided strong support to send him back to Frankfort for a second term.
Winters' opponent, former U.S. Rep. Carroll Hubbard of Mayfield, gathered more votes in Graves, Carlisle, Hickman and Fulton counties; however a strong showing for Winters in Lyon, Trigg and Calloway put him over the top by nearly 3,800 votes.
The unofficial tally, according to Secretary of State Trey Grayson's Web site this morning, reports the seven-county total at 26,430 for Winters and 22,650 for Hubbard.
Hubbard posted wins in Graves and the river counties. He won Graves County by a 8,286 to 7,816 margin; Fulton County, 1,563-1,232; Hickman County, 1,141-1,076; and Carlisle, 1,348-1,294.
Winters was able to take the lead as results came in from Lyon County where he won 2,079-1,717 and Trigg County, 3,728 to 2,720. Winters' tally in Calloway County particularly put him on top. According to the county clerk's office unofficial count, Winters defeated Hubbard 9,205 to 5,875
After the announcement of initial totals indicating his victory, Winters thanked supporters gathered at Calloway County Republican Headquarters downtown and pledged to continue his work promoting better educational and economic opportunities for residents of the First District and all of Kentucky.
“I say thank you all of you from the bottom of my heart,” he said, pointing out special support from his family.
“It would be terribly difficult to make something like this happen without my wife, Shirley, my daughter, Lisa, and all of you in this room that have worked so hard, including the university students,” he added. “It's so exciting to go to a ball game and have a dozen or so university students working the crowd for me ... God bless Kentucky and God bless our country.”
Calloway Republican Party Chairman David Kennedy said Winters' victory in Calloway is particularly significant considering the public support he received from prominent county Democrats.
“This election was a referendum on the powers that be in this county,” Kennedy said.
Meanwhile, Hubbard awaited results of the election in Mayfield where he acknowledged Winters' victory in an interview with the Murray Ledger & Times. Hubbard said he was surprised he did not do as well in Calloway as he had expected.
Hubbard, who was attempting to win back the post that launched his political career in the 1960s, credited his loss to heavily-financed negative campaigning by Winters and the Kentucky Republican Party.
“I must admit I'm physically tired. I did everything I knew to do. I ran a positive campaign, but I was a victim of one of the most negative campaigns in Kentucky history and it worked,” he said. “I'm grateful to the many, many thousands of people that voted for me in the seven counties...but the TV, radio and direct mail attacks on me, which were vicious and repetitive - they worked.”
The candidate said he has no plans to run for office in the future.
“The only thing I am thinking of in the future is going to see my two daughters, two sons-in-law and three grandchildren,” he said.
Story created Nov 05, 2008 - 11:21:30 EST.
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