Published: November 05, 2008 03:27 am      

Tennant prevails in race for commission

Gets nearly 60 percent of vote against Parks

FAIRMONT — With all of Marion County’s 76 precincts tallied, Burley “Butch” Tennant Jr. held a 4,275-vote lead over incumbent Alan Parks in the race for Marion County commissioner.

Tennant, the Democratic nominee, garnered 59.40 percent of the vote (13,425 votes). Parks, a Republican and president of the county commission, received 40.49 percent of the vote (9,150 votes).

Tennant said that he was looking forward to taking his seat on the county commission at the start of the new year. He added that he will immediately begin evaluating issues facing the county as soon as he takes office and then will quickly move to make decisions on how to deal with those issues.

“I’m really excited about taking office,” Tennant said. “And I’m looking forward to moving forward with the county’s business.”

Tennant added that he believes Parks was a good opponent in the race.

Parks could not be reached for comment Tuesday night and was not present at the county’s election headquarters as votes were being tallied.

Tennant collected more votes in every category of voting, according to the unofficial results. He received 10,144 votes on Election Day to Parks’ 7,315. Tennant also received 2,792 of the votes cast early and had 343 absentee ballots cast in his favor.

Parks received a total of 1,560 early votes. He also received 225 absentee by-mail votes, according to the unofficial results.

The race between Tennant and Parks was a contentious one. Five weeks before the election, Parks filed a petition with the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals seeking to have Tennant’s name removed from the ballot for not having proper residency at the time of the primary election. Justices unanimously refused to hear Parks’ petition.

“I felt that when the Supreme Court ruled in my favor that the voters of Marion County would follow suit,” Tennant said.

He added that although he always believed that he would win the contest, he was surprised by the final margin of victory.

“I would like to thank everyone who supported me and helped me,” he said.

E-mail Paul Fallon at pfallon@timeswv.com.