Local candidate filings for Primary and General elections

The political battle lines have been drawn for elections in 2016 with an eight-way race for four seats on the Corbin City Commission and a seven-way race for the Williamsburg City Council in November, and a two-person race for state representative in the May Republican Primary with the winner taking on a Democratic challenger in November.

There will be at least one new Corbin City Commissioner next year and possibly as many four new Corbin City Commissioners. Incumbent Suzie Barton Razmus recently announced that she wouldn’t be running for re-election.

Incumbent Corbin City Commissioners Freddie Bruce Hodge, Ed Tye and Joe Shelton all filed for re-election and will face challengers Bruce Rains, David Grigsby Hart, Alex Onkst, Trent Knuckles and Andrew Pennington for the four open seats on the commission.

Rains is currently the assistant police chief in Corbin but he plans to retire from the police department by year’s end. Onkst is a former Corbin firefighter. Knuckles is publisher of the News Journal and is current president of the Southern Kentucky Chamber of Commerce and a member of the Corbin Code Enforcement Board.

All six incumbents for the Williamsburg City Council, Loren Connell, Mary Ann Renfro Stanfill, Richard Foley, Laurel Jeffries West, Patty Faulkner and Erica Broom Harris filed for re-election and will face challenger Adam S. Sulfridge, who filed late Tuesday afternoon. This is Sulfridge’s first run for public office.

The city commission and city council races won’t take place until the November General Election.

The most prominent local race in the May 17 Primary Election will be for 82nd District State Representative when incumbent Regina Bunch will square off against challenger Alex Patrick for the Republican nomination. This is Patrick’s first run for public office.

The winner will face Williamsburg teacher Bill Conn, who filed papers Tuesday to run as a Democrat in the race.

This is Conn’s second run for public office. He previously ran unsuccessfully for the state senate during a special election in December 2012 to fill the remainder of David Williams term in office.

He lost to Republican Sara Beth Gregory, who garnered 6,244 votes in the six-county race to Conn’s 1,440 votes. In just Whitley County, Gregory garnered 1,444 votes to Conn’s 768 votes.

Republicans Jeb Bush, Donald Trump, Ben Carson, Chris Christie, Ted Cruz, Carly Fiorina, Marco Rubio, Mike Huckabee and Kentucky Senator Rand Paul are all running for president and their names will appear on the ballot for the Republican Presidential Caucus that will take place on March 5.

Democrats Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, Martin O’Malley and Roque Rocky De La Fuente are running in their party’s primary election that will take place May 17.

In addition to the Republican Presidential Caucus, there will also be a Republican Primary election for other offices in Kentucky.

In the primary for U.S. Senate, incumbent Rand Paul is facing opposition from challengers James R. Gould and Stephen Howard Slaughter for the Republican nomination while Lexington Mayor Jim Gray, Rory Houlihan, Ron Leach, Jeff Kender, Grant T. Short and Tom Recktenwald will battle it out for the Democratic nomination.

In the Fifth Congressional District, incumbent Harold “Hal” Rogers will be facing opposition in the Republican primary from John Burk Jr. There are no Democratic candidates in the race.

Incumbent 25th Kentucky Senate District Senator Robert Stivers is unopposed in his bid for re-election in either the primary or general election.