Nathan Smith won the Benton County prosecutor’s race in Tuesday night’s primary election, rounding out a night that included several outright winners and some candidates who will square off in runoff elections.
Smith, the deputy Benton County prosecutor, defeated area lawyer Kim Weber for the Benton County prosecutor position that opened up after Van Stone left the job to work at Walmart. Smith collected 10,026 votes (52 percent) to Weber’s 9,301 votes (48 percent).
Smith said he appreciated everyone who came out and cast their ballot for him.
"I can’t say thank you enough... it is just an unbelievable blessing, and it's an honor to me personally,” Smith said.
Weber said even though this was her first time running, she felt like she had a good experience in politics.
"“I believe we had a very fair race, and it wasn’t contentious like some of our neighboring places have been, and I appreciate my opponent for that,” Weber said.
In the race for Benton County judge, incumbent Judge Bob Clinard defeated challengers Ronnie Smith and Dale King by collected 10,318 votes (61 percent) to Smith’s 4,802 votes (28 percent). King collected 1,776 votes (11 percent).
The Benton County District 1 Justice of the Peace race will go to a runoff election between Ron Easley and Mike McKenzie. Easley received 522 votes (36 percent) while McKenzie collected 430 votes (29 percent). Another candidate in the race, Elizabeth Bowen, missed out on the runoff by collected 335 votes (23 percent) while the last candidate, Mary Gardner, received 175 votes (12 percent).
Justice of the Peace Tom Allen won his District 4 race by defeating challenger Clell Alden 923 votes (79 percent) to 252 (21 percent).
In other local state House races, Robin Lundstrum defeated Lucas Roebuck 1,588 votes (43 percent) to 1,176 votes (57 percent). Jana Della Rosa received 1,194 votes (52 percent) to Paul Caldwell’s 816 (35 percent), while other challenger Mike Whitmore collected 274 votes (12 percent).
Jim Dotson defeated Bill Burckart 1,333 votes (64 percent) to 735 (36 percent). Rebecca Petty collected 877 votes (55 percent) while Marge Wolf received 707 votes (45 percent). Sue Scott defeated Dane Zimmerman 1,407 votes (55 percent) to 1,170 (45 percent).
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