Celebrating his victory as county commissioner, Mark Morse joined friends and supporters at Gusick’s Restaurant election night. Pictured are (L-R) Teresa Morse, Mark Morse, Corky Staudinger, Bill Mercer and Kent O’Donnell.
On Tuesday, 44,605 voters in Yellowstone County cast ballots in the county and state Primary Election with some surprising results.
The biggest news in Yellowstone County was an upset in the County Commissioners’ race in which newcomer Mark Morse ousted incumbent Denis Pitman in the only Republican challenged primary in county government. Since Morse has no Democrat challenger, he will assume the office next January. Morse had 14,713 votes and Pitman had 12,406.
In another closely -watched campaign in Yellowstone County, a hotly contested state race for District 20 Senate Seat pitted two veteran Republican legislators, Barry Usher and Geraldine Custer against each other in a multi-county contest. As of press time, Usher had 1,482 votes to Custer’s 765. Since there is no Democrat challenger, Usher appears to be the next District 20 Senator in the next state legislature.
County-wide, voters went on to retain the legal status of producing and selling recreational marijuana by a wide margin. Only 18,302 voters wanted to overturn its legal status, while 25,288 were opposed to returning the production, manufacture and sale of marijuana to an illegal status in the county. (The sale of recreational marijuana within the city limits of Billings remains illegal as determined by an earlier election by Billings’ voters).
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