Superior

Court Judge Johnnie Caldwell mustered enough

votes in Tuesday's election to defeat challenger

John Mrosek by over 2,600 votes among those

casting ballots in the Griffin Judicial Circuit.

Only

22 percent of Fayette voters turned out, but they

favored Mrosek by just over 1,000 votes. In

Fayette, Mrosek got 5,433 votes from his home

county while Caldwell received 4,386 votes.

Fayette

voters also decided on a new magistrate judge.

Bob Ruppenthal edged out incumbent Grady L.

Huddleston by a margin of 221 votes.

In

the other magistrate race, incumbent Joseph A.

Tinsley Sr. kept his seat, fending off challenger

Leo Kelly with 65.5 percent of the vote.

For

county commission post 1, voters chose incumbent

Harold Bost over challenger Christopher J. Ramig,

with Bost getting 55 percent of the vote. Bost's

margin of victory was 802 votes.

The

other county commission race, for post 1, will

end up in a runoff along with the two posts that

were up for grabs on the Fayette County Board of

Education. The four-way race for the District 28

state senator's seat is also headed to a runoff.

The

runoff is slated for Tuesday, Aug. 8 (see related

story on Page 2A).

In

other contested district and statewide races

affecting Fayette County:

Gail Notti defeated

J.P. Agrawal for the Democratic nomination for

the U.S. House of Representatives 107th district

spot. Notti received almost three-fourths of the

vote in Fayette County also.

Mac Collins

defeated challenger Herbie Galloway by taking

7,504 votes for the Republican nomination for the

U.S. House of Representatives 107th seat. Collins

also won Fayette County by almost a 9-1 margin.

David Burgess

defeated Mac Barber district-wide for the

Democratic nomination for a seat on the Public

Service Commission. Barber was favored in Fayette

County by 55 percent of voters.

Jim Boyd defeated

Michael A. Dipietro district-wide for the other

Democratic nomination for a seat on the Public

Service Commission. Boyd received 72 percent of

the votes cast in the race for Fayette County.

total of 10,371 people voted in Fayette County.

The overwhelming majority of those voters cast

Republican ballots. The Republican voters

outnumbered the Democrat voters 8,788 to 1,526,

according to information from the Fayette County

Board of Elections.

Another

57 persons chose to vote nonpartisan ballots

only.