England wins County Commission District 2 seat

Dan England becomes the first Republican elected in Marengo County in recent memory after defeating Chris Petrey 1,118 to 1,033 for the Marengo County Commission District 2 seat Tuesday. The final tally is unofficial as provisional ballots will not be counted until next week.

“It’s been a long campaign. As far as I know, there has never, ever been a Republican elected in this county. I want to thank everybody that voted for me. But this is not about Dan England or the Republican Party. It’s about a new day in Marengo County,” England said after his win. I want to work for everyone. I know I can make a difference. The people that voted for me are the little man and I appreciate everyone for giving me the opportunity to serve.”

Petrey won a Democratic primary runoff in April over Ben Sherrod to advance to face England, who ran unopposed on the Republican side of the race.

“I do want to say ‘thank you’ to all the people that supported me in my campaign over the last 10 months. I’ve had a lot of good people give me a lot of support and I am grateful to all of them,” Petrey said Tuesday night. “My wife and I kind of look at it as what’s meant to be will be and this apparently was not meant to be. God has a plan for everybody and this wasn’t his plan for me and we’ll just have to wait to see what comes up next.”

In the other notable local vote, Marengo County citizens passed Local Amendment 1 with 68.41 percent(5,597 votes) going in favor and 31.59 (2,584 votes) percent going against. Local Amendment 1 alters the method of paying the probate judge from a system in which the position earns a fixed rate of 90 percent of the district judge’s salary to one in which the compensation is based upon the population of Marengo County.

West Alabama Watchman managing partner Danny Smith contributed to this report.