Bash Won 75 Percent in His District. The Paper Says the Rest of Benton County Should Listen.
An endorsement for F. L. Bash argues that the middle commissioner district's decisive primary vote should carry weight across Benton County—and warns that an entirely new board could otherwise take over.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
IT is rather unfortunate that this year, contrary to the intent of the state election laws, three commissioners are to be elected in the county instead of two. The election laws were so framed that each year one of the three commissioners will hold over. The object of this provision, of course, is always to have on the board at least one man who is familiar with the details of county government. It so happens in this county that two of the present commissioners are holding office by appointment and their terms of office automatically expire at this election regardless of the length of term for which their predecessors were elected.
The fact that there is a possibility of an entirely new board being elected is all the more reason, we believe, why the friends of F. L. Bash take an active interest in his candidacy. Not only do we believe that Mr. Bash is entitled to election upon his record but the wishes of the people in his district are entitled to consideration at the hands of the voters in the other two districts.
There is no gainsaying the fact that Mr. Bash is the man whom the people of the middle district want to represent them on the board of commissioners. The vote at the primary election was too decisive to leave any room for doubt on this score. Not only did he record a sweeping victory in his own party but he got almost seventy-five per cent of all the votes in the district, both Republican and Democratic. The combined votes of Andrews, Republican, and Gibson, Democrat, was only 97 as against 231 for Bash.
Seventy-five per cent of the people in the first district have said they want F. L. Bash as their commissioner. Certainly this expression is not to be ignored by the voters in other parts of the county. The wishes of the people in the middle district should be heeded and Mr. Bash's percentage on November 7 should be as large as it was on September 12.
“Not only did he record a sweeping victory in his own party but he got almost seventy-five per cent of all the votes in the district, both Republican and Democratic.”
County commissioner races still turn on turnout, district pride and the argument that a local mandate should translate countywide. The specific numbers here—231 to 97—make a small 1916 primary feel like a live political fight rather than a dusty notice.
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