Hill County has contested commissioner primary

A new face has entered the field of local elections, with Hill County Road and Bridge Department office manager Deborah Walker entering the race for Hill County commissioner, challenging northern Hill County farmer Mark Peterson in the Democratic primary.

In Hill County, incumbent Democrat Dena Tippets still is running unnopposed in her bid for re-election as Hill County clerk of court, and no one has filed for the part-time county superintendent position.

Incumbent Superintendent Diane McLean was appointed in 2011 to take the position after Garty Pfister declined to accept the position. Pfister won the 2010 election.

Two-term incumbent Rep. Wendy Warburton, R-Havre, faces a general election opponent, with Democrat Karen Sloan, a retired nurse and Family Planning administrator, filing as a candidate in House District 34 in Hill and Blaine counties.

Rep. Kris Hansen, R-Havre, is running unopposed to date for re-election to represent House District 33 in Hill County.

No one had filed as a candidate as of this morning in House District 32 in parts of Chouteau, Hill, Blaine, Phillips and Valley counties. That district is represented by two-term Rep. Tony Belcourt, D-Box Elder.

In Senate District 17 in Hill and Blaine counties, appointed Sen. Craig Tilleman, R-Havre, faces Don Richman of Harlem in the Republican primary, while, as of this morning, former state Sen. and Public Service Commission Chair Greg Jergeson was unopposed in the Democratic primary.

In Senate District 16, which stretches from Chouteau County through Roosevelt County, Sen. Jonathan Windy Boy, D-Box Elder, faces Rep. Frank Smith, D-Poplar, in a rematch of the 2008 race for that district.

In 2008, Windy Boy, then a state representative, defeated the incumbent Smith, who then won a seat in the House in 2010.

In Blaine County, Democrats County Commissioner Vic Miller and Clerk of Court Kay O'Brien Johnson are, to date, running unopposed for re-election to their positions.

In Liberty County, County Commissioner Larry Hendrickson, a Republican, and Clerk of Court Anne Seidlitz-Melton, a Democrat, were running unopposed for re-election as of this morning.

In Chouteau County, a three-way Republican primary has developed for the seat now held by Republican Jim O'Hara, who is running for governor.

William J. Courtnage, Robert J. Pasha and Wilson "Bill" C. Zanto have filed as candidates for that seat, with no Democrats filing as of this morning.

Clerk of Court Rick Cook, a Republican who, in his position, also serves as superintendent of schools and surveyor for Chouteau County, is running unopposed for re-election.