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By Mark Freeman Mail Tribune November 04. 2014 2:00AM Incumbent Peterson concedes to Hoppe in judge's race David Hoppe Circuit Court Judge Adam Peterson has conceded his seat on the bench to prosecutor David Hoppe, becoming the first sitting Jackson County judge in at least 50 years to lose as a first-time incumbent. Early returns show that Hoppe gathering 57.6 percent of the early votes counted in the first round of tallies tonight at the Jackson County Elections Center, with Peterson gaining just 42.1 percent. Hoppe totaled 29,721 votes in the early returns compared to 21,757 for Peterson. That was enough for Peterson to telephone Hoppe shortly after the polls closed at 8 p.m. to concede. "I told Dave congratulations," Peterson said in a telephone interview moments after conceding. "It was a hard-fought race and we wish there was a different result at the end of the day. "I am honored for the time I got to serve the people of Jackson County as a judge and I'm looking forward to new opportunities." Before the concession call, Hoppe said he was "gratified" by the early results and that he looked forward to similar voting trends in later counts tonight. "I'm grateful he called me," Hoppe said. "If the election results hold up, I look forward to taking office in January and doing what we said in the campaign.' Peterson, 34, was a seven-year prosecutor working largely with juveniles when he was tapped in September 2013 by Gov. John Kitzhaber over Hoppe and others to fill the seat vacated by the retiring Judge G. Phillip Arnold. This was Peterson's first election. Not since at least the early 1960s has a sitting Jackson County judge lost his seat in his first election after his or her appointment. Peterson and Hoppe squared off in today's runoff election after both failed to gain 50 percent of the vote during May's nonpartisan election whose campaign that saw accusations that Peterson puffed up his resume and that Hoppe was playing dirty politics. The fall campaign in a normally staid judgeship race continued with much of the same, with the challenger running on experience and the incumbent touting new ideas. Hoppe, 47, hounded Peterson for what he considered to be too little experience for the bench compared to his 14-year career as a prosecutor. Hoppe pointed to what he said was Peterson's botched handling of his one and only murder trial in June, a case that ended in a mistrial. Peterson counter-punched with accusations that Hoppe wielded an "unfounded political attack." http://www.mailtribune.com/article/20141104/NEWS/141109830 © 2015 Copyright © 1995-2011 Crain Communications Inc. All Rights Reserved. Terms of Use Privacy Statement -->