Published: 11/7/2018 11:27:09 AM
Modified: 11/7/2018 1:48:45 PM
West Lebanon — A police chief in Vermont has defeated the longtime Republican sheriff of Grafton County.
North Haverhill resident Jeff Stiegler, the police chief in Bradford, Vt., was challenging Grafton County Republican Sheriff Doug Dutile, of Haverhill.
Dutile in an email this afternoon said, “I lost by about 3,500 votes.”
Final county results are still coming in to the Secretary of State’s Office.
Stiegler racked up big margins in the heavily Democratic communities of Lebanon and Hanover, winning the latter town 4,578-1,117.
In other races, former Grafton County Commissioner Mike Cryans holds a 4 percentage point lead in his bid to unseat Republican Executive Councilor Joe Kenney in the District One seat representing the North Country and the Upper Valley.
Cryans has 51 percent of the vote, with 47 percent to Kenney and 2 percent to Newport Libertarian Tobin Menard with 97 percent of the towns reporting.
“My great prayer is there are no big towns” left to report results, Cryans, a Hanover Democrat, said this morning.
He and Kenney have faced off four times since longtime Executive Councilor Ray Burton, R-Bath, died 5 years ago.
If Cryans’ lead holds, Democrats will take at least three, and possibly four, of the five seats on the Executive Council in Concord.
Meanwhile, state Sen. Bob Giuda, R-Warren, is holding onto a lead over Plymouth Democrat Bill Bolton. Giuda had 51.6 percent, to 48.3 percent for Bolton with 93 percent of towns reporting in the Haverhill-area seat.
And state Sen. Ruth Ward, R-Stoddard, defeated Sutton Democrat Jenn Alford-Teaster by 3 percentage points in the Senate District 8 race in the Newport area.
Despite the leads by the two Republican senators from the Upper Valley, Democrats said they have picked up at least four seats in Concord, which would give them a 14-10 majority in the New Hampshire Senate.
Democrats also retook the New Hampshire House, setting up split government in Concord with the re-election of Republican Gov. Chris Sununu.
Posted Wednesday at 11:30 a.m. Updated at 1:45 p.m.