Puett Loses Republican Nomination to Grove for County Sheriff
By: Staff
Updated: August 7, 2012
Patrick Grove won the Republican nomination for Buchanan Co. Sheriff over Undersheriff Bill Puett.
Cheers filled the room at O'Malley Beverage Inc. as supporters for Pat Grove cheered on their candidate.
"We've got some more work ahead of us," said Pat Grove. "I have some plans. We have a lot of good officers here and we can make this department the best in the state."
The race was separated by a slim margin of Grove's 3,452 votes to Puett;s 3,400.
The 52 votes separating Puett from Grove left a room at Bandana's Bar-B-Q silent except for a few plates being cleared off tables.
Puett supporters watched the television screen hoping the final precinct to be tallied was pro-Puett.
Once the call came in, Puett began thanking his supporters and his hosts at the restaurant after a close campaign.
"Ran a good campaign," said Puett. "We had a great number of people who supported us. It was a clean campaign."
Grove will face off against incumbent Democrat Mike Strong on the November ballot.


