Greenholtz, Haynes Prevail in Election

A man marks his ballot inside Precinct 3 at the community center during Tuesday’s election.

More than 75,000 Hamilton County voters, including those in East Ridge, went to the polls in large numbers Tuesday despite periodic bad weather.

Voters returned Tom Greenholtz to his position on the bench as Criminal Court Judge Div. II. Greenholtz tallied 19,944 votes to challenger Mike Little’s 12,985 in the Republican Primary. There was no Democratic candidate.

In the Assessor of Property race, Marty Haynes edged Sterling Jetton in the Republicn Primary. Haynes got 17,177 votes to long-time property assessor’s office staffer Jetton’s 15,792. Randy Johnston came in third with 10,953 votes.

Haynes will now face Mark Siedlecki, the only Democrat on the ballot in the primary, in the general election.

Donald Trump was the choice of Hamilton County voters in the Republican Presidential Primary. Trump tallied 16,985 votes to runner-up Marco Rubio’s 14,391. Ted Cruz finished a distant third with 9,625 votes.

On the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton outpolled Bernie Sanders by almost 2-to-1. In Hamilton County Clinton got 15,598 votes to Sanders’ 8,411.

Click here for complete election results from the Hamilton County Election Commission.

About Dick Cook

Dick Cook has lived in East Ridge since the Kennedy Administration when his parents bought a house on Marietta Street. Dick graduated from ERHS in 1976 before going on to the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga where he studied Political Science. Dick worked for the Chattanooga Free-Press and the Chattanooga Times Free Press for 22 years. Free-Press Sports Editor Roy Exum plucked him out of production in 1989 and gave him a job as a sports reporter. Dick covered everything from prep sports to the whitewater events on the Ocoee River for the 1996 Olympics. When Chattanooga's two paper's merged, he became the Crime Reporter covering both the Chattanooga Police and Fire Departments. He was among reporters who were honored by the Associated Press for the TFP's coverage of the 2002 fog-shrouded crash on I-75 in Catoosa County, Dick and his wife, Cathy, live on Marlboro Avenue where they are seen frequently chasing around their three grandsons.