(CAMERON)  Two locally contested races drew only a handful of Milam County voters to the polls Tuesday.  Only 15% of the county’s registered voters cast ballots in the Primary elections including 1998 Democrats and 473 Republicans.  Milam County’s new Precinct 2 Commissioner will be Kenneth Hollas, who received 437 votes to Dwight Jekel’s 175.  Hollas will run uncontested in November and take office January 1^st 2003.  He will replace commissioner Troy Mode who is retiring at the end of the year.

In the other contested county race, incumbent Danica Lara defeated her challenger, Linda Layne Grothe, 1,053 to 859.

All other local races on the Primary ballots were uncontested.  Those included County Judge Frank Summers, District Clerk Betty Robertson, County Clerk La Verne Soefje, Precinct 4 Commissioner Burke Bauerschlag, Democratic Chair Richard Dodd, and JP’s Chip Dunsmoor, Melanie McClaren Reed, Twila Harris and Martin Hobbs in precincts 1 through 4 respectively.

On the Republican ballot, Dan Gattis and John Whitworth are headed for a run-off on April 9^th after rising to the top of that four candidate race for the new House District 20 of which Milam is a part.  In Milam County, Gattis led the ticket with 269 votes while Whitworth had 91.  District 20 includes Milam County and most of Williamson County.