Vote ’08: Boner Edges Barbee for Property Assessor

August 7, 2008

New Rutherford County Assessor of Property Bill Boner gets a big hug from his grandson who just heard about the victory.

The race for Rutherford County Property Assessor went down to the wire, with Republican challenger Bill Boner edging John Barbee by 406 votes. Boner was a 19-year state contractor and spent 24-years as an apartment manager. He says not to expect a big shake-up in the office…

The road superintendent race was again close, with incumbent Mike Williams beating five-time challenger Buddy Gambill by 279 votes. Williams has been in office for the past 16-years as the road superintendent and Gambill has faced him in each of those races.

In other contested races, for Road Board Zone 6, incumbent Paul Johnson retains his seat, beating Jared Barett 57% to 42%. In the School Board, Zone 2 race, incumbent Grant Kelley will continue to represent that part of the county after beating Rob Vaughter 68% to 31%.

Voter turnout was a dismal 8.7% or 11,558 of the county’s registered voters. County Election Administrator Hooper Penuel tells WGNS News they’ve done everything they can think of to making voting as easy as possible…

Penuel expects turnout to be somewhere around 85-to-90-percent in the November State General and Presidential election.

(PHOTO ID: Newly elected Property Assessor Bill Boner is given a hug from one of his grandsons after the finals results were announced on WGNS)