Two of the three races for Brazos County constable ended Tuesday with the Republican primary.
Incumbent Donald Lampo reclaimed his seat as constable in Precinct 2, and Rick Starnes was elected to the position in Precinct 3.
The Precinct 1 race will be decided in November, when Democrat Terry Smith faces Brian Bachmann.
Constables serve the courts by providing bailiff services, serving criminal and civil papers and serving eviction orders. Constables are licensed peace officers and are authorized to patrol and make traffic stops.
More than 19,000 people cast ballots in the election. Here's a breakdown of the results by precinct.
Precinct 1
Bachmann came away with a victory in his first run for public office, beating incumbent Archie Clark, who held the position since 2004.
Bachmann got 1,919 votes, or 53.57 percent to Clark's 1,035 votes, or 28.89 percent. Shawn Sayers, one of Clark's former deputies, finished the race with 628 votes, or 17.53 percent.
"I was very surprised," Bachmann said of the large margin of victory. "I was happy, but very surprised."
Sayers resigned from the precinct after a practical joke in which he and a reserve officer wrapped a Washington, D.C., police officer's car in toilet paper while he was working security for President Barack Obama's inauguration in January 2009.
Bachmann said his campaign workers would get a few days off to enjoy the victory before planning on how best to face Smith.
"I'm always concerned when there's an opponent, and I'm going to take it seriously," he said. "If I make it past November, my goal number one is getting more patrol vehicles into our neighborhoods."
Precinct 2
Lampo will be returning to the seat he's held since 2003 after securing 64.68 percent of votes with 3,201 ballots cast in his favor. Lampo represented Precinct 3 for two years starting in 2001 before being redistricted into Precinct 2.
"I'm glad it's over and happy with the results," he said Tuesday night.
James "Scott" Fraley got 1,748 votes, or 35.23 percent. He said he isn't discouraged by the results and is leaving his options open for another run for office.
There are five deputy constables in Precinct 2 under Lampo's command.
"We're going to keep the agenda of the office as is," he said. "It's functioning well, and we'll make a few little changes, but we're always tweaking things to continue to improve."
Setting up a regional Class C warrant database is one thing Lampo would like to see accomplished soon. It would increase law enforcement agencies' access to the information and therefore increase the number of warrants served, he said.
He also said he'd like to expand upon the OMNI (Offender Management Network Information) system in place to both justice of the peace courts in his precinct. The system is a nationwide warrant database that flags individuals with outstanding warrants when they attempt to renew their driver's licenses and prevents them from doing so until the warrant is cleared.
Precinct 3
In the only constable race without an incumbent, Starnes came away the winner with 2,164 votes, or 53.71 percent.
"I'm so thankful to God and all the people who helped me and my children who went door-to-door with me," he said. "We probably logged over 50 miles. I'm just thankful people trusted me to be their constable."
Phil Sikes, who ran half of his campaign from Afghanistan where he was conducting counter-intelligence interviews, finished second with 1,054 votes, or 26.16 percent.
He said he plans to run again for the position when the term is up in four years.
Starnes said the campaign was a tough one and thanked his competitors for what he called a clean, close race.
He'll be giving up his private investigation business to take the office.
"It was great experience having that business," he said. "It really added new skills to my 20 years as a [Department of Public Safety] trooper, so I have just that much more to offer to the community and I'm really looking forward to it."
Starnes said he'd like to focus on monitoring registered sex offenders to protect children. He also said a top priority would be serving warrants to violent criminals.
Steve Emert finished the race with 811 votes, or 20.13 percent, and said it's likely that he'll also be in the race four years from now.
RSS
Mobile
Daily Emails
Twitter
Facebook
