PERRY COUNTY SCHOOL BOND ISSUE FAILS

PERRYVILLE -- The police chief of Perryville was successful Tuesday in his bid for the Republican nomination for sheriff of Perry County in a heated race that dominated the primary election.

Gary J. Schaaf received 1,659 votes to win over four other candidates. He will face republican incumbent Franklin "Dutch" Schmidt in November.

Keith Lane received the next highest number of votes with 1,481. J.M. Lakenan, with 306 votes, Jim Newcomer, with 218 votes, and Harley Geile, with 131 votes, also challenged Schaaf.

On the Democratic side, Schmidt was victorious over challenger Theodore W. Christisen. Schmidt got 760 votes to Christisen's 267.

County Clerk Randy Taylor said turnout in the election was 59 percent, a relatively high number for a primary in Perry County.

"We've been running pretty low in recent elections," Taylor said. "We did have nearly 50 percent in April, which was real high for us. But this is an excellent turnout."

In other election results, Mike Yamnitz won the Republican nomination for Western District commissioner with 961 votes. Carl Leukel with 567 votes and Elbert W. Bohnert with 468 trailed Yamnitz. Yamnitz will face Nancy Smith, the winner on the Democratic side, with 412 votes. Smith won over Keith Cragg, who got 187 votes.

In the Eastern District Republican race, Melvin A. Moldenhauer won with 794 votes. He was challenged by Garry A. Lauck, who received 720 votes, and Leroy Weinhold, who received 210 votes. There were no Democratic candidates.

In the race for public administrator, incumbent John T. Bert won with 1,855 votes over challengers Randy Leible, who got 1,381 votes, and Charles J. Scheman, who received 354 votes.

A school bond issue was turned back by voters for the second time. Voters were asked to allow the school district to borrow $4.9 million for building renovations.

The measure needed a four-sevenths majority to pass, but received just 51 percent of the vote.

Perry County voters also chose Democrat Betty Hearnes in the 27th District state Senate race.

Hearnes received 663 votes in the county. Challengers Bill Burch got 275 votes and Hugh White got 109.