Breckenridge City Commissioners to face challengers in May election
By Carla McKeown/Breckenridge Texan
The City of Breckenridge is the only local governing board that will have a contested election in May.
The City Commission election will include the positions of Mayor and Commissioner Place 1 and Commissioner Place 2. As of 5 p.m. today, Feb. 16, the deadline for filing to run for office, current mayor Bob Sims is the only candidate for the mayor’s office. However, both Place 1 and Place 2 have two candidates each. For Place 1, incumbent Blake Hamilton and challenger Tony Patterson have applied to run for the office. For Place 2, incumbent Rob Durham and challenger Greg Akers, a former City Commissioner, have filed to run for the office.
At the Breckenridge Independent School District, there are two school board positions open, Place 1, currently held by Graham Reaugh, and Place 2, currently held by Paul Lippe. At the Feb. 12 school board meeting, Superintendent Bryan Allen announced that Reaugh and Lippe said they will not run for re-election. Ky Kennedy has filed to run for Place 1, and Cheyanna Gill is running for Place 2.
Stephens Memorial Hospital has four at-large positions up for election. Those positions are currently held by Kevin Simmons, Wade Toombs, Todd Tidwell and Bruce Curry. All of the incumbents have signed up to run for re-election, and there are no challengers for the positions.
According to the Texas Secretary of State’s website, the last day to file a declaration of write-in candidacy is Tuesday, Feb. 20.
For local political subdivisions, such as the school board, city commission and hospital board, if an entity does not have any races with more than one candidate, they do not have to hold an election. The unopposed candidates will be considered elected. The hospital board and BISD have indicated that they will cancel their elections at their next meetings.
As the only board to have a contested races, the City of Breckenridge will hold its election at City Hall, 105 N. Rose Ave., City Secretary Jessica Sutter said at the Feb. 6 city commission meeting. The election will be May 4 with Early Voting scheduled for April 22-30.
The last day to register to vote in the City of Breckenridge election will be April 4.
Primary Election
The election for Breckenridge’s City Commission is separate from the upcoming Republican and Democratic Primary Elections. The primary elections will be held on March 5 with Early Voting starting next week — Feb. 20-March 1.
The primary election will be for county, state and federal offices, including sheriff, county commissioner and others. There are no contested local races on the county level. However, in the two area state races for State Representative and State Senator, both incumbents will face challengers in this year’s elections.
For State Representative District 60, which includes Stephens, Palo Pinto and Parker counties and is currently held by Glenn Rogers, there will be a rematch between Rogers of Graford, who lists his occupation as veterinarian/rancher, and Mike Olcott of Aledo, whose occupation is listed as retired. Rogers and Olcott faced off in the 2022 Republican Primary Election and subsequent run-off, and Rogers won the run-off election with 10,043 votes to Olcott’s 9,725 votes, according to the Texas Secretary of State’s website. There are no Democrats who filed to run in the State Representative District 60 race.
In the State Senator-District 10 race, which includes Stephens County, incumbent Phil King, an attorney from Weatherford, is running unopposed in the Republican primary. However, Andy Morris, an attorney, is running unopposed in the Democratic Primary, setting up a challenge for King in the General Election in November.
On the Federal side, in the Congressional House Race for U.S. Representative 25, currently held by Roger Williams, whose district includes Stephens County, as well as all or parts of 12 other counties, there are three candidates who have filed for the Republican Primary. The candidates include Vince Crabb, whose occupation is listed as a retired Army colonel; Matthew Lucci of Arlington, whose occupation is an entrepreneur; and the incumbent Roger Williams, who lists his occupation as a car dealer. There are no Democratic candidates running for the office.
The primary election will also include the candidates for the Republican and Democratic nominations for U.S. President and Vice President, Senator and other offices.
