Mineral, Sanders counties election results

Clark Fork Valley Press

As it was across the country, voters in Sanders and Mineral counties cast their ballots in record numbers.

For Public Service Commissioner in District 4, Republican Jennifer Fielder beat Democrat Monica Tranel with 52% of the vote. Fielder garnered 64,555 votes while Tranel had 59,454.

Fielder’s husband, Paul, claimed the seat for House District 13 while claiming 71% of the vote. Fielder, the Republican candidate, had 4,796 votes while Democrat Colleen Hinds had 1,452 and Libertarian candidate Cade Stiles had 497.

Incumbent Denley Loge was uncontested after beating Mark French in the primary and had 5,185 votes for the House District 14 seat.

For the Senate District 10 post, Republican Bob Brown easily beat Democrat Diane Magone with 75% of the vote. Brown collected 9,562 votes while Magone had 3,191.

In Sanders County, A. Ben “Tony” Cox claimed the District 3 Commissioner seat with 3,933 votes. Christopher Stough had 3,069.

District Court Judge James Manley was reelected with 5,031 yes votes.

In Mineral County, Duane Simons retained his West End County Commissioner seat with 52& of the vote over Independent Judy Stang. Simons had 105 more votes.

"I’m very honored and pleased to be reelected to my third term as a Mineral County Commissioner. I’m going to continue to work hard for everyone as there is a lot of work to be done, but with the other two commissioners we will continue to do what we can with the limited resources," Simons said. "With our new Sheriff we are going to be doing some new things as we have some new ideas. The bottom line is we are all going

to keep working hard. I appreciate the vote of confidence in having me stay in this position."

Greg Gianforte ended 16 years of Democratic control of the governor’s office as he collected 326,570 votes to best Mike Cooney, who garnered 249,816.

In other state races, Republicans swept the available seats with rather easy wins.

For Secretary of State, Christi Jacobsen had 60% of the vote while Austin Knudsen claimed the Attorney General post with 58% of the vote.

In the state Auditor race, Troy Downing had 55% of the vote and for the state Superintendent of Public Education, Elsie Arntzen won 52% of the vote while Democrat challenger Melissa Romano had 44% and Libertarian Kevin Leatherbarrow had 4%.