UPDATED: Unofficial totals show Smith won by 401

Republican Rep. Brandon Smith won the 30th state Senate District by 401 votes in a special election race that turned out 28 percent of voters in Bell, Leslie, Harlan and Perry counties.

Becky Bevins, Bell County clerk, called in with totals from Bell County:
Republican Brandon Smith 2,765 votes
Democrat Scott Alexander 1,912 votes

UPDATE: Leslie County is up on the Board of Elections Web site:
Republican Brandon Smith 1,823
Democrat Scott Alexander 1,034

That puts Smith up by 1,642 votes with Harlan and Perry County still to go.

UPDATE: Harlan County reported:

Smith 2,732
Alexander 2,804

UPDATE: Perry County reported at 9:30 p.m.:
Smith 3,089
Alexander 4,258

That gives Smith a 401 vote victory with 10,409 to Alexander's 10,008.

 

UPDATE: Smith has called an 8:15 p.m. press conference in Frankfort to declare victory.

Harlan and Perry counties still have one precinct each left to report totals, which is holding up the complete numbers.

- Ryan Alessi

Comments

[Steve Wills]

Looks like the Beashear cheat team never made it to Bell County.

[Steve Wills]

Looks like the Beshear cheat team never made it to Bell County.

[S Wills]

Looks like the Beshear cheat team never made it to Leslie County.

[Martha]

The Governor must learn to stay out of local politics. What a defeat for a new Governor in office less than 2 months. This defeat and his bad judgement in appointing a judge for Laurel and Knox that donated to Alexander then got appointed judge shows the Beshear team needs to rethink their way of operating as well as starting to get along with Republicans.

[MOE]

Where's Kelsey?

[Me]

Glad to see the new corrupt governor get punished for this.

[adam]

This is a huge win for the GOP. It virtually assures another decade of the GOP controlling the state senate. GREAT NEWS!

[weshouldhavehadachoice]

Where are all those folks who said that Roger Noe wasn't a viable candidate because he dared to say that Mountaintop Removal Mining is a problem that needs to be solved? Where are they, and how wise does their advice seem now?

I have a friend who says that he would like to be a campaign advisor for the Democrats. He swears he could lose races for half the cost of the current bunch of yahoos.

Governor Beshear: You pushed Scott Alexander as a candidate, and people rejected him. If you push Bruce Lunsford, people will reject him. If you push someone real, someone with the courage of his or her convictions, people will support those convictions.

[Frog]

Congrats Brandon and President Wiiliams. Well done! Once again, you proved that the Senate Republicans rule!

[Bob Hope]

Face it folks, it is becoming more and more evident every day that last November was not an endorsement of Steve Beshear. It was strictly a vote against Ernie Fletcher. If Republicans are smart, they are already making note of all of Steve's screwups and lies and getting ready for 2011.

[Bob Hope]

By the way, how much skulduggery is going on in that last precinct? I bet they are finding votes all over the place right now.

[Frog]

I agree BH, take note, Ryan. A federal personnel law was broken in the Guv's office today and everyone in Frankfort knows about it. You have been following this story as well. A soldier abandoned by the new Guv? Say it isn't so! This may be the biggest one yet. God bless our soldiers! Too bad some don't give a damn! Hooah!

[welcome to Fletch part 2]

Okay frog spill all of the scum from the pond. Dont keep us under the lilly pond without giving us more of the scoop!

[Noe way]

Anyone who thought Noe had a chance in the district-wide race must have had their vote bought with a couple of cases of that beer they were handing out down there today.

Noe would have lost by a bigger margin than Alexander did. You don't criticize Christian people in a region full of Christians. And you don't criticize coal in a territory where coal pays most of the bills.

If Noe wants to get elected he needs to move to Louisville or Lexington. He'd fit right in with Wayne, Burch, Marzian or Stein.

[Bob Hope]

From a Courier-Journal reporter blog:

"Today is the election for the 30th District Senate seat, which became vacant when Dan Mongiardo was sworn in as lieutenant governor.

It has gotten a lot of attention, including from Gov. Steve Beshear, who has gone there to campaign, and Senate President David Williams, who has publicly criticized the Governor for getting involved.

The hallways here are on fire this afternoon with this story: that a Democratic magistrate was arrested today for buying votes with beer.

This information is too premature to appear on Page One, but folks on both sides of the political fence say they think it's true -- folks in both the Speaker's and the Senate president's office. Nothing like Kentucky politics (except maybe Chicago politics). Stay tuned."

[Kelsey]

The Gaiming Bill will still pass the Senate.
There should be a recount and Jack Conway should be on the ground with a complete investigation of vote buying by Republiacns.
Kelsey.

[Edgar]

I heard the same thing on NPR this evening. They weren't able to say who was involved but they did say there were some allegations of "buying votes with beer."

Sounds like something right out of the Simpsons. Also I guess we can just say that at least no one was shot today. Gotta love east KY politics.

Roger Noe may have won or he may not have won but at least voters would have been able to choose between two different candidates.

Smith and Alexander had nearly the same stance on every important issue.

Also, note to Gov. Beshear and Lt. Gov. Mongiardo, stick to the high road. People don't like a bad option shoved down their throats. Classic democratic blunder.

Maybe now Scotty Alexander can finally go to the house and stay there. He's a pathetic candidate.

[kelsey needs to be drug tested before receiving his food stamps]

k-man, I admire your never-say-die approach to life.

But something tells me you should be wearing a helmet at all times..

[Kelsey]

If you love B Smith so much why dont you move to Hazard with the rest of the hillbillys.
Kelsey

[brad]

dems are in big big trouble. The cash for votes and beer for votes came from dem operatives. expect indictments. how are beshear and mongiardo going to be able to distance themselves from this stuff? Congrats Brandon!! The only question now...why didn't AG Conway have KBI on the ground to prevent this type of ridiculous activity? Jack...this Bud's for you...but only if you vote for Scott Alexander...

[Kelsey]

Brad, you are an idot. Just because a loser named Smith beat a young upstart is no big trouble. We won the prize when we beat Old Whats his name 2to1 in the governors race. There was no vote buying by anyone. Now on to the states business, Casino Gaming.
kelsey

[Edgar]

Kelsey, do you every get tired of constantly having hoof-in-mouth disease?

[MOE]

Kelsey, as someone "on the ground", most of the vote buying accusations appear to have occurred on the Democrats side. You might want to be careful what you ask for.

[cookie]

Kelsey, you are nothing more than a spiteful small minded bigot with your constant use of the term "hillbilly" to slime anyone you disagree with. People like yourself are the reason I am no longer a democrat. You must be a very small person if the only way you can feel good about yourself is to use slurs against people who don't agree with you. You fit in well with today's democratic party.

[JW]

Kelsey, read the attached H-L article. Apparently, in contrast to your ramblings, not everyone is interested in having casinos.

http://www.kentucky.com/181/story/310092.html