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With his primary victory in hand, Steve Mason is looking forward to a little break.
Mason defeated incumbent Jeff Utley in Tuesday’s Republican primary for the Effingham County Board of Commissioners’ 3rd District seat. Mason
had 362 votes to Utley’s 313.
“We’re going to take a couple of weeks off,” Mason said. “And then we’ll get back in it.”
Both primaries pitted candidates with political experience against newcomers to campaigning. In both instances, the new faces won, as Lillie Smart-Brown defeated former commissioner Homer Lee Wallace.
“I am very pleased,” Brown said. “I thank God for all the voters. I realize, for me, this is a big step.”
An anti-incumbent sentiment may have helped Mason.
“The reason I ran is the people of the north end of the county wanted a change,” he said. “They want representation to stand up when you’re popular and stand up when you’re not popular.”
Mason said he and Utley agreed that the winner would get the endorsement of whoever was defeated.
Brown finished with 183 votes, with Wallace collecting 175.
“I’m not going to make any promises,” she said. “I’m going to do the best I can. My focus is property taxes, the budget and the library.
“We can do this as a team.”
