Boyd County: Watts upset in primary, Reihs secures sheriff candidacy

Henry Culvyhouse, The Daily Independent, Ashland, Ky.
·3 min read

May 18—CATLETTSBURG — A former Democrat upset a sitting Boyd County Commissioner in Tuesday's GOP race, winning the vote by a gnat's hair.

David Salisbury II eked out a win over sitting Commissioner Keith Watts by less than a single point margin in Tuesday's race, winning 926 votes to 909 (36.36% to 35.96%).

A third contender in the GOP primary, Joe Blair, came in with 693 votes, or about 27.41%.

According to the unofficial results, Salisbury was ahead of Watts 30-18 in absentee ballots, but behind 45 to 50 in the early voting tallies. However, on election day, Salisbury had a margin of 10 votes over Watts, 851 to 841.

Blair only garnered 8 votes in absentee voting, 21 votes in early voting and 664 votes on Election Day.

Watts was first elected to the post in the 2018 elections, where he beat Salisbury, who was on the Democrat ticket at the time.

On the Democrat side of the ticket, Heather Moore-Frame won out over Kenny Messer with 1,028 votes to 908 (53.10% to 46.90 %). The results show Messer had a slight lead in both absentee voting (57 to 50 ballots) and early voting (43 to 42), but Moore-Frame blew it out 936 to 808 on Election Day proper.

Here's the results of some other local races:

Boyd County Sheriff GOP

Jamie Reihs, a former deputy with the Boyd County Sheriff's Office and a current Catlettsburg Police officer, ended the night with an easy victory over fellow Catlettsburg PD officer Terry Clark. Reihs saw 1,939 (70.43%) votes, to Clark's 814 (29.57%).

Reihs will be facing his former boss, two-term Democrat sheriff Bobby Jack Woods, in November.

State Rep. District 98

Much like Moore-Frame, challenger Jamie Campbell saw massive turnout in his favor on Election Day in the race against Danny Bentley in the Boyd County portion of the 98th District.

However, Campbell's last day rally wasn't enough to catch up with Bentley — not that it mattered much, considering the now four-term state rep blew the challenger out of the water in Greenup County with roughly 3-to-1 votes.

Over on the Boyd County side of the district, Campbell saw 256 voters turn out to Bentley's 286, but the math didn't add up — between absentee and early voting, Campbell only had 9 votes to Bentley's 21.

The total tallies show Bentley wining by 307 to 265 (53.67 % to 46.33%).

Bentley faces no challenger in November.

District 1 Constable

Brian Ramsdell won the plurality of the vote over William Steen and Cory Rice in the wide open GOP primary. Ramsdell won 416 votes (48.6%) to Steen's 250 (29.21%) and Rice's 190 votes (22.2%).

Since no Democrat is vying for the seat in November, this means Ramsdell will be the District 1 constable come Jan. 1, 2023.

(606) 326-2653 — henry@dailyindependent.com