Riley holds off challenge from McKay

Mark Riley held off a close challenge from Cary McKay to retain his seat as County Judge in Parker County in March 2 Republican primary voting. (Due to lack of Democrats as candidates for any county office, Riley is de facto winner of the election to be held in November barring unforeseen circumstances).

In a race that was close all evening, Riley ended up tallying 7,158 votes to McKay’s 6,953, a difference of 205 votes out of more than 14,000 cast.

Dusty Renfro managed to win a three-way primary race to become the de facto Precinct 4 Commissioner Elect. In a highly-visible contest, Renfro ended up with about 56 percent of the vote to escape a runoff election. Mason Wallis and Jorden Wood virtually split the remaining votes.

Incumbent Pct. 4 Justice of the Peace Melvin Simons and challenger Lynn Johnson will face a runoff, however. The candidates were separated by less than a percentage point - Simons winning the plurality with 1,805 votes to Johnson’s 1,762. Ron Miller pulled in about 29 percent of the vote to force the runoff.

Precinct 2 will see two runoffs, one for County Commissioner and the other for Justice of the Peace. In the four-way commissioner race, Craig Peacock got the lion’s share of ballots with about 46 percent of the vote, and will face Steve Harris, who received about 30 percent of the votes.

In the JP race, Faye Lippincott and Kelly Green led a four-way race, and will see each other in a runoff.

For more on the election, see the March 5 issue of The Community News.