By Associated Press
Fairhope, AL – No candidate received enough votes to decisively win Tuesday's Republican primary election to replace Republican Bradley Byrne in the Alabama Senate.
Randy McKinney and Lee ''Trip'' Pittman will vie for the Republican nomination for the Baldwin County District 32 seat in a runoff election on September 11th. The winner will advance to the general election October 16th against the only Democrat to qualify for the special election, Former Prichard Mayor A.J. Cooper, now a Fairhope attorney.
McKinney, a State Board of Education member from Gulf Shores, got 36.04 percent of the vote Tuesday, while Pittman, a tractor dealer from Daphne, snagged 29.60 percent, according to tallies released tonight by the Alabama Republican Party.
Baldwin County Commissioner David Ed Bishop of Fairhope got 14.53 percent of the vote. Former state senator and former agriculture commissioner candidate Albert Lipscomb of Magnolia Springs got 14.32 percent. Baldwin County Republican Party Chairman Don McGriff of Montrose, who previously served on a special state parole board, got 5.51 percent.
Byrne, a two-term senator from Fairhope, resigned May 24 to become the state's two-year college counselor.
(Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)