Not sure how these elections are going to turn out

During my nearly 30 years of covering news in Whitley County, I have to say this has been one of the more unusual elections that I have covered in the sense that nobody seems to have any kind of clue about how this year’s elections will turn out.

Mark White is Editor of The News Journal.

The most common refrain I hear from people that follow elections pretty closely is that usually they have a pretty good sense about how most races will turn out, but this year they don’t have a clue on many of them. I am right there with them.

We have a rare situation where we have no incumbent running for sheriff, jailer and 82^nd District Representative, which may never happen again.

Whitley County’s favorite Survivor winner Nick Wilson is unopposed in his bid to replace Regina Huff as state representative, but the other two races are wide open.

Whitley County Sheriff Todd Shelley resigned at the end of November 2021 and interim Sheriff Danny Moses isn’t seeking the job full-time. This sets up a six-way race in the primary election with retired Kentucky State Police Lt. Bill Elliotte, retired KSP Trooper Scott Bunch, current Third-District Constable Jim Thornton, former jailer and Fish and Wildlife Capt. Ken Mobley, current Chief Deputy Tim Baker and B.J. Leach all vieing for the position.

In regards to the jailer’s race, first incumbent Jailer Brian Lawson filed to seek re-election, then he abruptly withdrew from the race. This led to four current detention center employees (Andrew Fuson, Sandra Hoke, Matt Leach and Jeff Hurst) filing to run for the position along with Whitley County E-911 Director Jason Wilson and Williamsburg Police Lt. Brandon White.

The winner of the Republican Primary for jailer will face off against independent Troy Thomas in the November General Election.

For the first time in nearly three decades, we also have a contested race for PVA with longtime incumbent Ronnie Moses facing challenger Herb Petrey.

This week we are running our candidate questionnaire/election survey answers from the jailer candidates and the PVA candidates. Next week we will be running the answers from the sheriff’s candidates.

Please read about their positions on the issues, educate yourselves and go vote for the best person for the job.

Now to switch gears and talk about one other issue before I conclude this column.

• After talking about staff departures the previous two weeks, I am happy to write this week about a staff addition.

Timothy Wyatt, who interned for us in the summer of 2014 while he was still studying at the University of the Cumberlands, has officially joined our staff as a general assignment reporter. I am thrilled to welcome him onboard.

After he graduated from UC with a major in journalism and public relations and a minor in communication arts, Timothy went to work for one of our competitors for four years.

I had the privilege to see him grow into a pretty darn good journalist over that time span, who got to the point where he could give me a good run for my money. This isn’t something that I would say about most competitors that I ever had.

Timothy got out of journalism for a couple of years to pursue some other endeavors, but this week rejoined our staff. He knows the area and the people and should be able to hit the ground running.

We are glad to have him.