Doug Smith

Patrick Hayes

Ed Ciampi

“I think that’s a pretty darn good lead,” said Republican challenger Patrick Hayes, who was beating Democrat Martha Bennett in the race for the District 3 seat representing the Hobe Sound area, according to the unofficial results posted by Supervisor of Elections Vicki Davis.

Hayes, who received much of his financial backing from business groups such as firms based at Witham Field airport and development companies, said he thought his experience on the Martin Soil and Water Conservation Commission was the difference for voters.

Republican District 1 Commissioner Doug Smith, the lone incumbent, beat Democrat Tom Fullman and Joan Wilcox, who has no party affiliation, according to the unofficial results that included all the precincts plus early and absentee votes.

Smith, who has represented the Jensen Beach area since 2000, ran on a platform of diversifying the county’s economy, building the Indian Street Bridge from Palm City to Stuart and cleaning up the county’s polluted waterways.

“It’s much better than it was in the primary,” Smith said.

Smith trailed in the early going of the Republican primary in August but came back to beat challenger Henry Copeland, a friend of Fullman and a member of Fullman’s activist organization, the Jensen Beach Group.

Fullman said Smith had a massive advantage in funding, raising and spending about 10 times as much money on his re-election bid as the Democratic challenger. Fullman, who has criticized Smith as being pro-growth for years, said he would remain active in county politics and would try to organize a petition drive to put home rule on a ballot for county voters next year.

District 5 Republican challenger Ed Ciampi beat Democrat Linda Green and John Patteson, who has no party affiliation. Ciampi, an ice cream shop owner, said his platform of diversifying the county’s economy made the difference with voters.

“People understood that the economy was first and foremost,” Ciampi said. “I want to revitalize it and resuscitate it.”

The results appear to continue the Republican Party’s dominance of Martin County commission races. The last Democratic commissioner in Martin County was Maggy Hurchalla, who served from 1974 to 1994.

It was also a historic election for the county in general, Davis said. About two-thirds of all the ballots cast in Martin County were cast before Election Day through early and absentee voting. She said it was the first time more people voted before the election than on Election Day.

Tags: Doug Smith, Ed Ciampi, Patrick Hayes, Republicans

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 5th, 2008 at 2:47 pm and is filed under Martin County, Stuart. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.