Why You Should Always Vote: Few Votes Bring Huge Change in Kentucky

Two days ago, Pike County's state House Representative, Judge-Executive and Sheriff were the quintessential been-there-forever-don't-even-try-running-against-them office holders.

Today, they're out.

Jack Brammer at the Herald:

A political earthquake hit Pike County Tuesday, when voters turned out a controversial state lawmaker, the county-judge executive and the longest-serving sheriff in the state.

"All this is one of the biggest political changes in one day we've seen in a long time in Pike County," said Pikeville attorney and columnist Larry Webster.

In the 93rd House District, which includes eastern Pike County and Martin County, incumbent Keith Hall of Phelps was defeated by Pike County Magistrate Chris Harris in a 209-vote squeaker of a Democratic primary. No Republican filed for the office.

In the race for judge-executive, former judge-executive Bill Deskins topped Wayne T. Rutherford by 629 votes. Rutherford had served as county judge from 1970 to 1982 and 1992 to 1994. He was re-elected in 2006. Deskins was county judge from 2003 to 2007. 

And in the Pike County sheriff's race, Charles "Fuzzy" Keesee got beat by a margin of more than 2-to-1 by Pike County Jailer Rodney Scott. The vote tally was 8,503 for Scott and 4,223 for Keesee, who has served for more than 40 years since first taking office in 1962.