Larry Barmore, R-Gerry (Photo from Facebook.com)
JAMESTOWN – In addition to a major victory for the GOP in the Chautauqua County Executive’s race, the other two county-wide offices up for election on Tuesday also went to the Republican Party.
In the only other contested county-wide race, Gerry Republican Larry Barmore defeated Jamestown Democrat Lori Cornell by a margin of 10 percent. Barmore collected 13,458 votes to Cornell’s 11,139.
Barmore said that there will be a couple of major challenges as the new County Clerk. He said the first challenge is building on the success of long-time clerk Sandy Sopak, who is retiring after five terms in office. He said another major challenge will be preparing for new state laws regarding drivers license renewals, which have been a major revenue generator for the clerk’s office.
“We’re moving into a three-year period where we will not be having any driver’s license renewals – seeing as how the state moved us from a five-year to an eight-year driver’s license – so we’re hitting that eight year period right now,” Barmore said. “It’s going to be challenging but we’re going to keep the revenue coming in and try and keep the clerk’s office profitable.”
Both Barmore and Cornell are current Chautauqua County legislators. Barmore has served as the majority leader for the GOP, while Cornell was minority leader prior to 2013.
In the other county office that was up for election, Incumbent District Attorney David Foley ran unopposed to pick up his third term as the county’s top prosecutor.
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