In Kentucky, the County Fiscal Court is the governing body of county government. The Judge Executive is the head of the County Fiscal Court and magistrates represent the districts as legislators.
On January 1, an almost totally brand new Henderson County government could be sworn in. Every seat on the County Fiscal Court is up for election.
There’s only one seat without a Democratic challenger to the incumbent — District 2. So big changes are possible.
Vince Tweddell of the Hendersonian Newspaper has been busy following these races closely.
Tweddell said of a potentially new Fiscal Court, “to put it lightly, it could be very interesting to watch, especially when they're first starting out and learning how to do the job. Let's just hope whoever gets in, keeps some of the institutional knowledge that is in county government because they're going to need it.”
The race for Judge Executive is between Democrat Les Jenkins-Mackey age 26, and Republican Timmy Dunn, age 40. Incumbent Brad Schneider lost the Republican Primary.
Tweddell says the race has been contentious.
“And that's to be honest, it's not been pretty,” Tweddell said. “I think there's been a whole lot of chatter, negativity, finger pointing.”
Moreso from their supporters, not the candidates themselves, he said. There are five magistrate seats up for election and again all are contested except District 2, where only a write-in candidate has the chance to upset the incumbent.
Henderson’s City Commission could also be shaken up, but Tweddell thinks this is less likely.
There are two incumbents up for re-election — Kelsey Hargis and Robert Pruitt.
“It would be a big upset if any, if either of them were to lose, and then you've got four others, and they're all newcomers,” he said. “For what I see, the last two seats — I just don't see Kelsey Hargis and Robert Pruitt getting beat.”
Commissioner Nick Whitt’s family moved out of the city so he had to resign.
Tweddell’s also been covering two General Assembly races — District 4 in the Senate and District 11 in the House.
Incumbent Senator Republican Robbie Mills has a write-in challenger with Jana Russelberg.
“She came into the into the race late in August. She signed up to be a write-in. She's looking to make changes, and she's more of a progressive candidate and wants to ‘help the lesser of these,’” Tweddell said. “What we're talking about the State Representative District 11 with JT Payne as the incumbent, and the State Senate with Robbie Mills as the incumbent, and the main theme from that for both of those incumbents is, ‘look what we've done for you, Henderson County,’ or in Robbie Mills' case, ‘look what we've done for you, Northwest Kentucky.’”
Both incumbents of the General Assembly have touted securing funding for large community projects like the new Audubon Conference Center.
Representative JT Payne’s Democtratic Challenger is Janelle Rowena Glass.
At the national level, there's a fight to fill Republican Mitch McConnel’s seat with major party candidates like Democrat Charles Booker or Republican Andy Barr. Tweddell is more closely watching the US House First District held by Republican James Comer.
Tweddell said Democrat Drew Williams has been canvassing the district with his own Nissan Maxima.
“I think he said 140,000 miles he's put on his Nissan Maxima. So it's interesting to me because Drew Williams has really worked hard with a shoestring budget, and from what he's said to me, he's connecting to voters,” Tweddell said. “And he's going against James Comer, who's got the name recognition, recognition and longevity. He's on the House Oversight Committee. He's on cable news networks. You see his face a lot …”
Tweddell said if Williams gets 40-percent of the vote in this deep red district — that would be something.
There are more races than discussed here. For details on the candidates go to the Hendersonian. A sample ballot is available online with all the races.