ADDISON COUNTY— Two contested Vermont House primaries and several statewide races were decided in Primary voting.
In Middlebury, Addison 1 House race, three Democrats were competing for two seats. First-term incumbent Amy Sheldon was top vote-getter with 925, followed by Robin Scheu with 632. Jill Charbonneau was third with 581.
No Republicans filed for the primary, meaning that it is a possibility Sheldon and Scheu will not face a general election race unless there is a write-in campaign.
In the Addison-4 (Bristol, Lincoln, Monkton and Starksboro) House primary among Democrats: Incumbent Dave Sharpe finished with 887 votes; Mari Cordes had 748; and Stephen Pilcher had 577. Sharpe and Cordes will represent Democrats for the two-seat district going up against Republicans Fred Baser and Valerie Mullin.
In the Republican primary, Baser received 433 votes and Mullin had 388. Both advance to represent their party.
In statewide elections, there are a few surprising early results:
With 190 out of 276 precincts reporting (69 percent); Sue Minter had a commanding lead in the Democratic Primary race for governor with 51 percent of the vote compared to 38 percent for Matt Dunne; and 9 percent for Peter Galbraith. After the final count, Minter did, indeed, prevail.
On the Republican side, Phil Scott held a lead early in the eveningof 60 percent to 40 percent lead over Bruce Lisman, and Scott won in the end.
And, in what may be the surprise of the night, David Zuckerman has a sizable lead over House Speaker Shap Smith, 44 percent to 38 percent with 68 percent of the precincts reporting. In the end, Zuckerman won the election.
For complete Primary election results, including town-by-town tallies in Addison County, visit addisonindependent.com on Thursday or pick up a copy of the Addison Independent newspaper at your local newsstand.