A relative newcomer to Bulloch County, David Bennett, is set to chair the Bulloch County Board of Commissioners beginning in January, and a defense attorney who has never prosecuted anybody, Robert Busbee, stands to replace the incumbent Ogeechee Circuit district attorney.

Among those with challengers, only Sheriff Noel Brown emerged unscathed as a wave of anti-incumbent sentiment rolled over Bulloch in the primary elections that concluded Tuesday. Voter turnout, meanwhile, was a slight 20.9% of Bulloch’s active, registered voters.

Bennett captured 5,105 votes, or 66.9%, to incumbent Roy Thompson’s 2,530 votes, in the Republican primary race for Board of Commissioners chairman. Thompson, a lifetime Bulloch County resident, business owner and recipient of awards for community service, is completing his eighth year as chairman after 12 years as a district commissioner. Bennett, originally from Jesup, first came to Bulloch County as a Georgia Southern student, but after a career in the Army Nurse Corps, made his home here after retiring as a lieutenant colonel in 2020, and now works as a civilian Air Evac flight nurse.

“I’m just thrilled and I can’t wait to serve the people of Bulloch County. ..,” Bennett said when called about the vote count Tuesday night. “You know it’s been a long, almost year now, just getting out and working and beating the pavement and sharing a vision for a better Bulloch County with people here, and I’m glad that they are excited and willing to put their trust in me to follow through with that.”

Thompson expressed a combination of disappointment and relief. He and his wife, Deborah, had been at the Elections and Registration Office earlier but had left before the call.

“I’m fine with it,” he said. “We had prayer before we went in, and have been praying that God’s will be done, and honestly, it’s sort of a relief. I’m not bitter with anyone. I don’t know how they’re going to do what they say they can do, but there again, it is what it is, I’ve had my crack at it, and I wish him well. … I still love Bulloch County and will continue to do whatever I can to make it a better place to live.”

D.A. upheaval

Meanwhile in the district attorney race, Robert Busbee, until now a defense attorney whose solo law practice is based in Statesboro, captured 10,163 votes across the four-county Ogeechee Judicial Circuit, or 63% of the total, to 5,968 votes, or 37%, for incumbent D.A. Daphne Jarriel Totten.

In Bulloch, Busbee received 4,867 votes, or 64.2%, to Totten’s 2,725 votes. In Effingham County, Busbee received 3,249 votes, or 55%, to Totten’s 2,651 votes. The other tallies were, in  Jenkins County, 296 votes, or 79%, for Busbee to 78 votes for Totten, and in Screven County, 1,751 votes, or 77.3%, for Busbee, to 514 votes for Totten.

Busbee still sounded surprised by the size of his victory when phoned for comment midday Wednesday.

“I’d like to say ‘Thank you,’” he said. “I mean, I’m overwhelmed. This is beyond what I could’ve hoped for, and I’m humbled and I’m grateful, and I just don’t want to let these folks down. They’ve put their trust in me. I’m going to do everything I can to earn that trust.”

That “thank you,” Busbee said, was for voters, and “the supporters and the people that got out there and got the word out, talked to their friends and neighbors.” He and his campaign volunteers certainly couldn’t call on every voter in four counties with a combined population of about 175,000 in three months.

Sheriff’s 3rd term

But Bulloch Sheriff Noel Brown, already well known from two terms in office, had his face appear on billboards and signs as “A Sheriff for All People.” Now he is set to begin a third four-year term in January, after receiving 5,618 votes, or 73%, to challenger Keith Howard’s 2,072. This was Howard’s fourth time running for sheriff.

“I’m humbled and very honored to continue to serve as the sheriff of this county, and along with the men and women of the Bulloch County Sheriff’s Office to continue to serve the citizens. …,” Brown said Wednesday. “We’ll continue to grow, we’ll continue to update our technology, to stay up to date with the current technology and equipment needs to be used inside this office and in the operation to better serve this county.

“I’ll never waiver from training and safety when it comes to budgetary matters,” he emphasized.

In a call-back voicemail, Brown also offered a Bible verse, 2 Chronicles 7:14, as indicating, “the problem with the whole country, the county and everything, that we need to turn back to the good Lord and humble ourselves and pray.”

County commissioners

Bennett won’t be the only new Bulloch County commissioner arriving on the board in January. Challenger Ray M. Davis captured commission Seat 2-A by receiving 4,224 votes, or 62.6 %, to incumbent Commissioner Curt Deal’s 2,522 votes in Commission District 2, which elects multiple commissioners and encompasses about two-thirds of the county’s population.

All of the races mentioned above, to this point in the story, have one thing in common: All of the candidates were Republicans, so these contests were decided exclusively by voters who chose the Republican ballot.

The race for Bulloch County Board of Commissioners Seat 2-C was a little different, since three candidates had qualified as Republicans and one as a Democrat. This race is also the only one now destined, in-part, for a June 18 primary runoff.

Republican challengers Nick Newkirk with 3,163 votes, or 47%, and Brian Pfund with 866 votes, or 13%, and Republican incumbent Jappy Stringer, with 2,704 votes, or 40%, all  came up short of the  50%  plus one vote majority needed to win outright. So Stringer and Newkirk, as the two top vote-getters, will now face off on the June 18 Republican primary runoff ballot.

But the winner on June 18 still will not have captured the seat for the 2025-2028 term, since Democratic challenger Len Fatica appeared unopposed on the Democratic Party ballot Tuesday.  So either Stringer or  Newkirk, after winning the Republican  runoff, will  face Fatica in the Nov. 5 general  election.

Another race for a Board of Commissioners seat, Seat 1-A, has  barely begun, since long-time incumbent Democrat Ray Mosley appeared uncontested on this  party’s  ballot  Tuesday, while challenger R. Ryan Brannen appeared alone  on the Republican District 1 ballot and is automatically the GOP nominee. Voters in Commission District 1, encompassing about one-third of the county, will decide this race in the Nov. 5 election.

The race for Bulloch County coroner isn’t over, either. In the Democratic primary, Craig R. Tremble had 1,028 votes, or 62.8%, to Matthew Lovett’s 609 votes. So Tremble is now the Democratic nominee but will vie with the lone Republican candidate, Chuck Francis, in the Nov. 5 election for coroner.

Board of Education

Bulloch County Board of Education seats are nonpartisan, so Tuesday was their general election. In BOE District 3, Jennifer Campbell Mock received 278 votes to Suzanne Hallman’s 139 votes, so Mock will succeed Dr. Stuart Tedders, who did not seek re-election, on the board in January.

BOE District 7 had the closest election of the night, with challenger Lisha Nevil getting 630 votes, or 50.3%, to incumbent board member Heather Mims’ 622 votes. That’s only an eight-vote difference. Asked whether she will request a recount, Mims said she was considering it and would decide Thursday.

In early voting, absentee voting and Election Day, 9,639 Bulloch County voters cast ballots counted Tuesday night, out of the county’s 46,092 recently active voters and 51,481 total registered.

About 15 provisional ballots, such as those by voters who did not have acceptable ID in hand or were voting at the wrong precinct late in the day, were also received, but cannot be counted until 5 p.m. Friday, said Election Supervisor Shontay Jones.

Brooklet council

The city of Brooklet, in a special election Tuesday conducted “separate and apart” from the county and state primary and using only paper ballots, elected a new Brooklet City Council member to replace former Post 5 member Johnathan Graham, who resigned March 1.

Sheila Wentz won the council seat, with 193 votes to 94 for Joe Grooms III, the former mayor. A third candidate withdrew before the election.