Local & State Headlines

District 13 Senate goes to runoff

• Two candidates are within striking distance of the second Senate District 13 runoff slot late Tuesday.

Susan McCord

LEESBURG — A runoff between former superior court judge John Dickey Crosby and Lee County Commissioner Wally Roberts appeared likely in Georgia Senate District 13 after the two garnered the most votes in a five-candidates field in a special Republican primary Ton uesday.

Late Tuesday night with 91 percent of the precincts reporting, Crosby and Roberts were the top two finishers with 1,779 votes (33.6 percent) and 1,193 votes (22.5 percent), respectively.

While Crosby appeared to have a safe margin to ensure a runoff spot, another former superior court judge from Tift County, Rusty Simpson, was a close third with 1,115 votes (21 percent) — close enough to possibly edge Roberts out for the second runoff position. Simpson carried Crisp and Worth counties, which still had precincts that had not reported.

“I’ve got a lot of friends,” said Crosby, who won 65 percent (1,444) of votes in his home county of Tift over Simpson, who received about 25 percent (563) in Tift.

“I’m going to have to work hard,” Crosby said. “We’re going to have to get the Tift County voters out, and number two, I’m going to have to make some inroads and continue to work hard in Lee.

“What I was hoping to do is at least make the runoff, then we’ll go from there.”

An Aug. 26 runoff for the special primary will be held in the District’s 8 counties — Ben Hill, Crisp, Irwin, Lee, Tift, Turner, Wilcox and Worth.

The special primary was called by Georgia Secretary of State Karen Handel after Sen. Joseph Carter, R-Tifton, the lone candidate, withdrew before the July 15 primary.

Roberts won 1,026 votes in Lee County, over fellow Lee Countian Bob Usry, who came in fifth in the primary with 515 votes, 447 of them in Lee County.

“I’m just proud of the folks in Lee County that turned out to vote for me,” Roberts said. “You can’t expect as much in a runoff.”

Roberts had campaign workers outside all of Lee County’s voting precincts, at several in Crisp and Worth counties and a few in Tift, but he was banking on Lee County support.

“We had to blanket Lee County, of course,” his son, Steve Roberts said.

Outside Lee’s Century voting precinct Tuesday afternoon, voter Danny Grebel remembered to show his support for the “local” candidate, Roberts, and reminded his wife to vote as well in the special primary.

“When (Roberts) was on the County Commission, he didn’t take any pay; it’s kind of like that. As a state senator, I like a man that’s got time to take care of the district, and not just this county.

“If I had a problem, I believe I could take it to Wally.”

Fourth-place finisher Horace Hudgins won 13.1 percent or 695 votes in the special primary, according to uncertified results from the Secretary of State’s office.

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