Murray, Clarendon carried Bower to victory in sheriff’s race

By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 5 November 2015 at 12:00 am

Tom Drennan won four of the 10 towns in Orleans County on Tuesday, including a huge advantage in his home town of Kendall. Drennan had 290 more votes than Randy Bower in that town.

However, Bower won six of the 10 towns, and had big leads in Murray and Clarendon. Bower topped Drennan by 334 votes in Murray (Bower’s hometown) and by 257 in Clarendon.

Bower won county-wide by 444 votes, 3,951 to 3,507 for Drennan. Don Organisciak had 847 votes, running as a Democrat.

Here is the voter breakdown in each of the 10 towns:

Town Bower Drennan Organisciak
Albion 583 515 120
Barre 281 225 46
Carlton 347 307 48
Clarendon 481 224 52
Gaines 320 342 71
Kendall 181 471 36
Murray 603 269 50
Ridgeway 433 439 182
Shelby 352 454 172
Yates 370 261 70
Total 3,951 3,507 847

Source: Orleans County Board of Elections

The strong support in Murray and Clarendon was critical in Bower’s election. Murray was his most supportive town with 65.4 percent of the votes, 603 out of 922 cast for sheriff. He received 63.5 percent of the vote in Clarendon.

Bower received 47.6 percent overall in the county running under the Republican and Conservative lines.

Drennan wasn’t too far behind with 42.2 percent of the vote under the Independence and Reform lines. Drennan had strong support in Kendall, receiving 68.5 percent of the vote. That was the most dominant showing in a town for any of the candidates.

Drenann also won Shelby by 102 votes over Bower and had narrow leads in Ridgeway and Gaines.

Organisciak, a retired Medina police officer and investigator, received 10.2 percent of the vote for sheriff countywide. He had his best showings in Shelby, 17.6 percent; and Ridgeway, 17.3 percent.