By David Lazenby

davidl@cullmantimes.com

James Graves became the Republican candidate for Cullman County Commission Chairman Tuesday, the result of a run-off election that pitted him against incumbent Wiley Kitchens.

Graves bested Kitchens by only 56 votes, winning the nomination with 1,456 nods to Kitchens’ 1,400 votes. The run-off election became necessary by law when neither candidate was able to garner 50.5 percent of the votes cast in the June 3 primary election.

That primary election indicated an advantage for Kitchens who grabbed more than 43 percent of votes cast, leading Graves 2,059 to 1,605.

Graves, who will face Democrat Pete Tucker in the Nov. 4 general election, attributed Tuesday’s victory to daily visits to Cullman County homes where he asked citizens for their support.

“I started in the Northridge subdivision north of town and I went house to house,” said Graves, 65. “I didn’t get every house, but I got the vast majority of them.”

Graves also said campaign spending played a role in his nomination. He estimated he spent about $8,000 on his campaign.

As votes were being counted at the Cullman Civic Center, Kitchens appeared calm, never leaving his seat in front of a results board. Despite being behind throughout the night, Kitchens said, “You run a campaign, you do the best you can, then you put it back there and let the voters make their choice.”

Kitchens said historically in Cullman County few county commission chairmen have been elected to a second term. Kitchens said the last Cullman County Commission Chairman to win the seat twice in a row was Randall Shedd, who held the position for back-to-back terms in the 1970s.

Despite being a Republican runoff, local Democrat Party officials were on hand at the civic center Tuesday. Democratic Party Chairman Keith D. Bugler said his party benefited from the runoff-election.

“We’re saving money,” said Kugler, who said Tucker will be able to concentrate his efforts at a later time closer to election day.

Tucker was less optimistic. He said he has already started campaigning.

“For the last six weeks I’ve been working very hard to let people know there is someone else running. I think I have pretty well covered the county,” he said.

Cullman County Probate Judge Leah Patterson-Lust said Tuesday’s election did not attract many voters to the polling places.

“We have had a pretty low turnout throughout the county,” she said.

Tucker said the turnout disappointed him. “The sad part about it is the low, low turnout,” he said.

“One box, I heard, didn’t have 10 people vote,” said Kugler.

The total number of ballots cast in Cullman County was 2,874.

“Voter apathy is just terrible,” Kitchens said. “It’s getting where more and more people are not voting.”

On a positive note regarding the election results, Patterson-Lust said, “We haven’t had any unexpected complications.” During a Jan. 29 State House District 12 special election, technical malfunctions and forces of nature prevented officials from easily determining the results as they dealt with computer problems and a power shortage that left officials in the dark for 30 minutes.

In statewide Republican runoff elections, Beth Kellum got nearly 63 percent of the votes in Cullman County, beating Lucie McLemore 1,460 to 861 in the race for the court of criminal appeals judge, place No. 1. Statewide, Kellum had 55 percent of the vote while McLemore posted 45 percent of votes.

In the runoff race for president of the public service commission, Twinkle Andress Cavanaugh — who won statewide — got 1,413 of Cullman’s votes, more than 55 percent, while her opponent, Matt Chancey, got 1,131 votes cast in the county.