by George Gramlich
After vigorous campaigns by all contestants in our two local Republican contested races, Lloyd “Rich” Smith took the Sheriff’s Office win and Bradford Lewis Baltzly won the Coroner’s race.
Smith beat Brandon Schoch 1,176 (56.48%) to 906 (43.52%). In the Coroner’s contest, Baltzly took the flag by 1,092 (53.8%) to 935 (46.13%).

In the uncontested Custer County races, William R. (Bill) Canda got 1,325 in the Custer County Commissioner, District 1 slot. Kelley S. Camper landed 1,755 votes for the Custer County Clerk and Recorder position. J.D. Henrich received 1,659 votes for Assessor.
The controversial Republican Party Secretary of State primary race was won by Pam Anderson over Tina Peters. Heidi Ganahl beat Greg Lopez in the Governor’s race. Local favorite, conservative Ron Hanks lost to the “moderate” candidate, Joe O’Dea, in the U.S. Senate Republican primary by 310,430 to 258,685.

A big thank you goes out to County Clerk Kelley Camper and her election crew for executing a perfect primary count and process. We are lucky to have such a fine bunch of dedicated citizens. THANKS!

To see the county results go to https://results.enr.clarityelections.com/CO/Custer/113980/web.285569/#/summary?v=297570%2F