Beshear coasts to win

Kentucky will get a new governor come December.

Steve Beshear was on his way to a solid win over Gov. Ernie Fletcher Tuesday night. With just over half the votes counted at presstime Beshear led Fletcher about 60 percent to 40 percent.

Locally, Fletcher ran slightly better than he did statewide. With all local precincts reporting, Beshear beat Fletcher 57 percent to 43 percent. Beshear had 6,449 votes to Fletcher's 5,253. Fletcher ran best on the west side of the county and in the Finchville area. Beshear was strong in Shelbyville and on the east and south sides of the county.

In other races, Republicans held on to the Secretary of State's office as well as Commissioner of Agriculture.

Secretary of State Tray Grayson was headed to a second term besting S. Bruce Hendrickson by about 10 percent of the vote.

In Shelby County, Grayson won handily. He beat Hendrickson 7,350 to 4,067.

Richie Farmer topped the Republican ticket beating David Williams by nearly 2-to-1 statewide and locally. Farmer's margin here was 7,769 to Williams' 3,382.

Democrats retained the office of Attorney General. Louisville attorney Jack Conway beat state Rep. Stan Lee of Lexington by about 25 percentage points statewide.

Locally, Conway beat Lee 6,923 to 4,536.

Crit Luallen was also a big winner for Democrats. She was winning statewide at presstime over Linda Greenwell by about 25 percentage points. Locally, Luallen beat Greenwell 6,577 to 4,830.

Todd Hollenbach III kept the office of Treasurer in Democratic hands. He was beating Melinda Wheeler by just under 20 percentage points across the state. Locally Hollenbach won 6,378 to 4,971 .

Local Democrat party chair Nathan Riggs called Beshear's win "fantastic."

"I am very happy Shelby County supported Steve Beshear," Riggs said. "He's going to be a great governor for the state and he's going to do great for us here."

Republican party chair Charles Bates said Democrats "just outworked us."

"It's not that we didn't work, but the Democrats had more money and they just worked harder."

Bates said Fletcher had to run on his record and "that record was blemished by the mess with Stumbo."

Local Beshear supporter Amy Powers said that she voted for Beshear because she did not feel that she could trust Fletcher.

"I voted for Beshear because of all of the indictments against Fletcher," she said.

Fletcher supporter Tiffany Childs said she backed Fletcher because he was conservative.

"I'm not for the type of health care that the other party is supporting," she said.

County Clerk Sue Carole Perry said that two electronic voting machines experienced difficulties during the election but no one was kept from voting and no votes were lost.

Roughly 40 percent of Shelby County voters went to the polls Tuesday.

See the precinct-by-precinct results of the governor's race in Shelby County in Friday's Sentinel-News.

Staff writer Nathan L. McBroom contributed to this story.