Rogers rolls over Hamblen: Defeats incumbent by over 1,700 votes
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Four years later, Rogers has avenged his heart-breaking loss, soundly defeating the incumbent by a comfortable margin, denying her a second term.
“I was surprised by the margin,” Rogers said. “I expected it to be a lot closer.”
Rogers won with 54 percent of the vote, pulling 5,789 votes to Hamblen’s 37 percent or 4,006 votes. The vote total was more than 2,000 more votes than he received in 1998 when he received 3,513 votes. Independent candidate Bob Warren received 9 percent or 911 votes Thursday.
Rogers carried the vast majority of the precincts on his way to victory, faltering slightly in a limited number of city precincts. His margins of victory in the precincts outside the city were large in many cases.
Rogers said he is proud of the campaigns waged by all three candidates, noting there was no mud slinging.
“Both of my opponents ran good campaigns and stayed away from the mud slinging,” Rogers said.
The loss of industry over the past few years in Warren County was likely a big factor in the race, with both Rogers and Warren making the recruiting of industry and jobs a major point of their campaigns. Hamblen said laying the economic woes of the county at the door of the county executive was not accurate.
“Over the last four years, we’ve worked very hard keeping the best interest of Warren County first,” Hamblen said. “Our goal was to run a positive campaign. We did not use misinformation or untruths in our advertising. Personal integrity is something which is very important to me.”
Rogers said recruiting industry to Warren County will be at the top of his list.
“My number one priority will be to bring industry to Warren County and put the county back to work,” Rogers said. “The voters have put their trust in me and now I have to prove myself.”
Rogers said he will have an open-door policy at his office and will return all phone calls.
“It’s going to be a whole new ball game,” Rogers said of his upcoming job. “There’s been some questionable spending and I’m going to do what I can to put a stop to it. But, number one is jobs. That’s what I campaigned on and that’s what I intend to do.”