Gaylor captures seat on District Court
By Staff Reports
Published in News on November 5, 2008 1:46 PM
A big turnout in Wayne County helped Charles Gaylor III easily defeat Kinston lawyer Chris Rogerson to win a seat on the 8th Judicial District bench that serves Wayne, Lenoir and Greene counties.
Gaylor, a Goldsboro lawyer, finished with 31,743 votes to Rogerson's 25,041 to take the seat held by Joe Setzer, who did not seek re-election.
Gaylor won handily in his home county of Wayne, taking 72 percent of the votes cast. He finished with 23,974 votes to Rogerson's 9,222.
In Lenoir County it was a different story, with Rogerson taking 69 percent of the vote in his home county. Rogerson received 12,377 votes in Lenoir to Gaylor's 5,555.
Greene County voters also went for Rogerson, giving him 60 percent of the vote. He finished with 3,442 votes in Greene to Gaylor's 2,214.
But the victories in Lenoir and Greene were not enough to offset Gaylor's big margin in Wayne. Late Tuesday, Gaylor said he wanted to thank his supporters for turning out in big numbers.
"I am very grateful for the support we received in Wayne County, and from Greene and Lenoir as well," he said.
The seat was the only one of five District Court judge seats up for election that was contested. Four other judges were re-elected without opposition: Tim Finan, Lonnie Carraway, David Brantley and Les Turner. District Court Judge Beth Heath was not up for re-election.