Bittick wins easily, school board race in runoff

Longtime Monroe County Sheriff John Cary Bittick easily fended off a challenger in Tuesday’s primary election.

Bittick defeated former Monroe County firefighter Shane Cook 3,276 to 441, with only 16 votes left to be counted.

“I feel real good,” Bittick said. “I feel like we ran a good campaign. I think they ran a good campaign.”

Bittick has served as sheriff of Monroe County since 1983, when he was elected at age 28. Bittick led big from the moment the first results came in, and he kept the lead throughout the night. With just one precinct left and the race mathematically over, he arrived at the courthouse and accepted congratulations from those who had been there hearing the results as they came in.

“The people of Monroe County are very supportive of law enforcement, and we are very appreciative of the community,” Bittick said.

Another Monroe County race, the District 6 school board contest, is headed for a runoff after none of the three candidates running secured a majority of the votes. Stuart Pippin was the leading vote-getter with 471 votes, with Wesley Cone receiving 376 votes. Virginia Wilcox drew 163 votes to force the runoff. Michael Turner qualified and was on the ballot, but he withdrew his candidacy.

Cone is a managing associate for the Piedmont Group and an ordained minister. Pippin has been a banker for 17 years.

Both said turnout will be key in the runoff to be held July 26.

“I was anticipating a runoff with three people in the race,” Pippin said. “I’m feeling pretty confident going into the runoff.”

Cone said he was excited to be in the runoff.

“I’m just going to have to get out and hit the streets hard to get supporters back to the polls,” he said.

The 16 votes left out were due to a computer glitch. None of those votes impacted the school board race, the candidates said.

This story was originally published May 24, 2016 at 11:07 PM with the headline "Bittick wins easily, school board race in runoff."