Wednesday, Aug. 06, 2008

Sharp wins Deomocratic bid for sheriff

Will face Griffin in General Election

Miranda Wycoff/The Lee's Summit Journal

Mike Sharp will be facing Ernie Griffin in the race for Jackson County Sheriff in November.

Sharp defeated opponents John Bullard Jr., Mike Mauer and Tom Krahenbuhl in the Democratic Primary race for sheriff on Tuesday.

As of press time on Tuesday night, results were unofficial and appeared to show Bullard winning by less then a percentage. But once results from Kansas City came in, Sharp had the race won with 20,551 votes. Bullard trailed Sharp with 14,999 votes. Mauer received 4,660 votes while Krahenbuhl received 3,146.

Griffin ran unopposed in the Republican Primary for Jackson County Sheriff.

The incumbent in the Democratic Primary for county prosecutor’s seat, Jim Kanatzar, beat opponent Rachel Townsend on Tuesday.

Kanatzar, with approximately 65 percent of the vote, led Townsend by about 13,417 votes — 28,176 to 14,759. No Republicans were on the ballot for prosecutor, which means this race was the deciding factor.

In addition, voters in Lake Lotawana said “no” to one ballot question, and “yes” to the other.

Question No.1, which asked voters if the city should increase the tax levy to $0.80 per $100,000 of assessed value, was defeated by 117 votes — 379 “no” votes to 262 “yes” votes.

On question No.2, Lake Lotawana voters approved the ballot question that asked if the city should diminish the city limits by excluding territory that is part of the “Milton Thompson Tract” that was annexed in 2001. Votes were almost in reverse order of question No. 1 with 374 “yes” votes and 262 “no” votes.