Hendry County Votes Romney - 'No' To U.S. Sugar?

U.S. Sugar Backed Candidates Lagging, Most Incumbents Stay

LABELLE, FL. -- Hendry County voters, according to the Supervisor of Elections office have chosen Mitt Romney over Barack Obama in results as of 9 p.m Tuesday, but backed an almost Democratic local government.

With voter turnout of 60%, Romney/Ryan received 52% of the county's votes, leaving Obama/Biden with 46%. The Roseanne Barr/Cindy Sheehan ticket gathered 18 votes in Hendry county.

In local county politics,  voters have seemingly have spoken against the interests of Clewiston's U.S. Sugar Corp in the Property Appraiser and County Commission races while keeping most of the incumbent Democrats.

Incumbents came out well ahead of challengers with Clerk of Court Barbara Cox Butler well ahead of Larry Wilcoxson.  And the same lead went for Phillip Pelletier keeping a lead over Kristina A. Kulpa for Property Appraiser.

This race developed into the first Hendry campaign where the challenger was supported by a Political Action Committee backed by U.S. Sugar, spending surprising amounts of money on negative ads against incumbent Pelletier.

Challenger and restaurant owner Don Davis had a modest lead over Tris Chapman, an executive of Southern Gardens, affiliated with U.S. Sugar.

Hendry Sheriff Steve Whidden kept a big lead against Mark A. Chamberlain.and the same for incumbent Tax Collector Peggy S. Hampton leading over Tom Corbitt.

Long-time employee of the Supervisor of Elections office Brenda Hoots had the lead over Kevin Drummond and Rose Raulerson-Mason.

Republican Challenger Paul Puletti took the lead over School Superintendent Richard A. "Rick" Murphy after a fairly quiet campaign for both, neither spending much for advertising.

John Perry had a small lead of 1202 votes over Stephanie Busin's 1187 votes for School Board District 4 in this non-partisan race.

Complete Hendry Results