Russellville businessman Greg Standridge defeated former state Rep. Stan Berry of Dover on Tuesday for the Republican nomination in the Senate District 16 race.
With all five counties reporting, the unofficial results were:
Standridge 2,673
Berry 2,313
Standridge, 47, is co-owner of Coffman Standridge Inc., a Russellville insurance agency. He also owns Access Mini Storage in Russellville.
District 16 includes Newton and Pope counties and parts of Boone, Carroll and Van Buren counties.
Standridge carried three counties: Boone, Carroll and Pope, where both candidates live.
Pope County accounted for 4,013 of the 4,986 votes cast in the election. Standridge won Pope County by a 2,246-1,767 vote.
"We feel very blessed by how it all turned out," said Standridge. "But we'd been out working."
The District 16 vacancy was created by state Sen. Michael Lamoureux's resignation to become Gov. Asa Hutchinson's transition director and chief of staff on Nov. 10.
Standridge said he's looking forward to getting to Little Rock to begin working with the Legislature.
"I'm sure this week I'll be down there some," he said. "We'll find out more [today]."
When exactly Standridge will begin serving in the Senate has been an issue, he said.
Standridge will be unopposed in the April 14 special general election. Standridge said he's hoping the rules can be suspended so he can begin serving in the Senate immediately.
State Sen. Missy Irvin, R-Mountain View, introduced a bill Tuesday aimed at allowing the governor to cancel special general elections, like the one in Senate District 16, under certain circumstances.
Senate Bill 317 would require the governor to cancel a special general election and declare the candidate elected to fill a vacant seat if, after a special primary election or special runoff election, there is only one candidate and no write-in candidate has filed notice.
Under the bill, the governor would be required to act within 30 days of the later of the special primary election or special runoff election, and the candidate could be sworn in immediately after the execution and filing of the governor's proclamation with the secretary of state.
"It just seems to be a shame if there is not an opponent for the general election that whole district misses out on a whole legislative session," Irvin said, referring to Senate District 16.
Irvin said she doesn't know if the bill will affect the District 16 election scheduled for April.
"I should have filed it earlier," she said.
In the Jan. 13 Republican primary, Standridge finished first, receiving 2,124 votes but failing to attain a majority.
Berry received 1,826 votes, resulting in the runoff. Russellville businessman Thomas Akin finished third with 490 votes, according to state election officials.
Berry, 60, served in the state House of Representatives from 2003-2009.
In December, he resigned as outreach coordinator for Secretary of State Mark Martin and entered the race. He had retired earlier from CenturyTel after 32 years with the telephone company. Berry also worked for five years as a community relations manager for Southwestern Energy Co.
"We all wanted to be victorious, but we weren't," Berry said late Tuesday night. "We all ran a good, clean race. I'm proud of all the people that supported me. I want to thank them very very much. I was very proud of the way our people conducted themselves."
Metro on 02/11/2015