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Republican candidates for state offices held off Democratic challengers among Kosciusko County voters.
The Republican team of Steve Goldsmith and George Witwer got the support of 14,751 voters, or 62 percent. While Frank O'Bannon and Joe Kernan won statewide, they received only 8,712 votes, or 37 percent, in Kosciusko County.
Likewise, Democrat Jeff Modisett, who will be the new Indiana attorney general, won only 6,953 votes in Kosciusko County; his opponent, Republican Stephen R. Carter, received 15,575 votes here.
In the race for superintendent of public instruction, voters in Kosciusko County mirrored those in the state by returning Republican Suellen Reed to office, with 66 percent of the vote. Reed's Democrat opponent, Ann England, got 29 percent. Libertarian cadidate Steve Dasbach, a former Whitko High School teacher, got the most votes of any Libertarian candidate in Kosciusko County with 944, or 4.20 percent.
Republican Kent Adams won another term as state senator from the 9th District. Locally he received 11,020 votes, or 76 percent, to Mark Meissner's 3,399 votes, or 24 percent.
Incumbent 13th District state senator Robert L. Meeks successfully fought off Democratic challenger attorney Jay A. Rigdon, with a vote margin of 66 percent to Rigdon's 34 percent.
And state senator Thomas Weatherwax, 18th District, beat Democrat Charles Ellison with a vote margin of 1,413 to 594.
Republican state representatives were also successful, with Kosciusko County returning three incumbents to the statehouse.
In the 16th District, Mike Smith beat Michael Silverthorne with a vote total of 497 to 231.
Republican representative Bill Ruppel, of the 22nd District, was unopposed.
The most hotly contested state rep race in the county was in the 18th District, between Republican incumbent David Wolkins and Democrat challenger Steve Haines. Wolkins won that race with 14,654 votes, or 72 percent, to Haines' 5,605 votes, or 28 percent.
