With nearly 70 percent of the vote, Kanawha Chief Deputy Mike Rutherford defeated Dave Tucker in a winner-take-all primary election on Tuesday.
In other Kanawha County races, a 36-year incumbent magistrate as well as an incumbent family court judge were also defeated.
No Republican had filed to be on the ballot in the Kanawha sheriff's race, so the winner in the Democratic primary won the election.
"All I can do is say thanks and I'm very humbled by everybody's support," Rutherford said. "I hope we can live up to their standards and work hard."
Rutherford received 18,584 votes, while Tucker received 8,715 votes.
Rutherford thanked Kanawha sheriff's deputies for the win.
"We've got great, great people that do a great job and I'm really proud of them," he said. "They're the ones that make me look good so I can't complain."
Rutherford and Tucker are both two-term former sheriffs. Tucker was elected sheriff in 1996, after a lengthy tenure as a Charleston police officer. Rutherford was elected to replace Tucker in 2004.
"I feel like it's home," Rutherford said.
Rutherford brought his 9-year-old grandson, Braxton Smith, to the Kanawha County voter registration office, where county officials were releasing vote totals Tuesday night. He said he would be "extremely happy" if he could leave Kanawha County a better place for his family and other families.
"We all live here," he said.
Current Sheriff John Rutherford, Mike Rutherford's brother, said in March he planned to retire at the end of this year.
Braxton, 9, can't be counted on to carry on the law enforcement tradition.
"I'm going to be a restaurant owner," he said.
He thinks it's "awesome" though, that his grandpa will be.
"He's sheriff and he gets to continue the good work," Braxton said.
Rutherford had emerged as the favorite of a number of police organizations in the county. And as of April 1, when the election's first set of campaign finance reports were due, Rutherford had raised more than double the amount of Tucker. Rutherford had received $19,653.80 in total monetary contributions and in-kind contributions, while Tucker had collected $8,819.90 in the same areas.
Judicial races are now nonpartisan, so the primary serves as the final election for those races as well.
The magistrate positions in Kanawha County are now broken up into 10 "divisions," but those divisions don't represent specific parts of the county. Instead, candidates choose which district they want to run in.
In the magistrates' race, Magistrate Ward Harshbarger, a 36-year-incumbent, lost to former Nitro mayor Rusty Casto.
Casto received 13,540 votes, while Harshbarger received 11,910. Cecilia "Cecil" Thomas, who said she had worked in a legal setting on the federal level for 30 years, also ran in Division 2. She received 11,997 votes.
Harsharger was reached by phone at about 10:15 p.m., when totals showed him losing in 142 of 163 precincts. Someone was walking down the street from voter registration to magistrate court to bring him copies of the results.
"I'm just waiting to see the rest of the results and doing my job here in night court," he said.
Harshbarger said if he did lose when the rest of the precincts came in, he would still be grateful to have served 36 years.
He said "of course" he would be upset, however, "you bow to the people."
"It's whatever the people have decided," he said. "That's the way it is. ... We'll wait and see, but it does not appear good for Magistrate Harshbarger.
"I've done as well as I thought I could," he said. "The people decided it's time for a change."
Another Kanawha incumbent, Family Court Judge Sharon Mullens, lost to Jim Douglas, a family law attorney.
Mullens received 17,030 votes, while Douglas received 18,151 votes.
A message for Mullens, left with her mother Tuesday night, was not immediately returned.
Douglas, a family law attorney, had accused Mullens of delaying rulings and keeping cases open for unnecessarily long periods of time. Mullens had said when it comes to calculating child support, she considers multiple factors. She said she was mindful of the economy, and that many of the fathers who appear in court aren't "deadbeats," but rather, they couldn't find jobs. As for her case disposal rate, she said the people before her were "more than just numbers."
In 1989, the West Virginia Supreme Court suspended Douglas' license to practice law. After Clay County teacher Ida Jane Steele, who had a daughter in 1983, sued Ricky DeWayne Morris for child support, Morris, who was represented by Douglas, denied he was the father. Morris later admitted he was the father and sued Steele, alleging she had promised to pay him a $5,000 "stud fee" for impregnating her. Morris dropped the lawsuit after Steele filed an ethics complaint against Douglas with the State Bar's Office of Disciplinary Counsel.
Douglas has said he also took heat over a case he argued before the state Supreme Court in 2005, in which justices gave his client, the lesbian partner of a deceased woman, the parental rights over a 5-year-old child the two had been raising together. The slim 3-2 decision marked the first time the state's high court recognized the standing of a gay or lesbian parent as a "psychological parent" and granted them legal custody on that basis.
Two races for family court judge in Kanawha County were contested.
Judge Robert Montgomery beat Patrick Cottrell by 18,230 votes to 14,111 votes.
Cottrell had also accused Montgomery of keeping lawyers and litigants waiting. Montgomery said he thought it was important to "let everyone have their say in court. ... That way, they're less likely to come back."
Judges Kenneth Ballard and R. Joseph "Joe" Zak were unopposed in the election for family court judges.
Lera VanMeter ran unopposed for family court judge. She will replace retiring family court judge Mark Snyder.
The other Kanawha County incumbent magistrates won their races.
Brent Hall, a one-term magistrate, faced Marva Lee Crouch, a former Kanawha magistrate who has since worked as a senior-status magistrate around the state, and Kathy Ferguson, who said she has more than 25 years of criminal justice experience.
Hall received 18,808 votes, Ferguson received 10,724 votes and Crouch received 5,642 votes.
Magistrate Mike Sisson, a retired St. Albans police officer, faced Pam Nixon, who worked at the state Department of Environmental Protection for 15 years.
Sisson received 19,823 votes, while Nixon received 13,258 votes.
Julie Yeager, an 11-year-magistrate, faced Melanie Rucker, who has worked as a magistrate's assistant.
Yeager received 17,727 votes, while Rucker received 15,444 votes.
Magistrate Kim Aaron, a 13-year incumbent, faced Todd Chevalier, a Kanawha County teacher.
Aaron received 22,310 votes, while Chevalier received 13,789 votes.
Aaron said she wanted to thank the voters.
"The past couple weeks have been a very difficult time with the death of my only child, Adam Aaron," she said. "Adam was my 'go to guy' for politics. I claim this victory in his honor."
Magistrate Tim Halloran, who has served as magistrate 17 years, faced Steve Harper, a former Charleston police officer; Dianna Graves; Margaret Chico-Eddy, who has a bachelor's degree in criminal justice from West Virginia State University; and Paris Workman, a police officer in Montgomery and former Kanawha magistrate.
Halloran received 11,703 votes. Other vote totals included: Workman, 9,260; Harper, 7,260; Graves, 4,004; and Chico-Eddy, 3,619.
Magistrates Pete Lopez, Jack Pauley, Joe Shelton and Traci Carper-Strickland ran unopposed.
Kanawha Commissioner Dave Hardy will face Lance Wheeler in the general election. Hardy ran unopposed for county commissioner on the Democratic ticket, while Wheeler ran unopposed for county commissioner on the Republican ticket.
Judges Carrie Webster, Joanna Tabit, Tod Kaufman, James Stucky, Louis "Duke" Bloom, Jennifer Bailey and Charles King were all re-elected as circuit court judges after being unopposed in the election.
Circuit Clerk Cathy Gatson ran unopposed on the Democratic ticket. No Republicans filed.
County Clerk Vera McCormick ran unopposed on the Republican ticket. No Democrats filed.
Prosecuting Attorney Chuck Miller ran unopposed on the Republican ticket. No Democrats filed.
Assessor Sallie Robinson ran unopposed on the Democratic ticket. No Republicans filed.
Reach Erin Beck at erin.beck@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-5163, Facebook.com/erinbeckwv, or follow @erinbeckwv on Twitter.