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Purdy and Charter appear on the road to a fall runoff By DANI DODGE Mail Tribune Neither of the two candidates in the race for Jackson County Circuit Court judge received 50 percent of the vote, so Bill Purdy and Joe Charter appear headed for a runoff and another campaign in the fall. Final unofficial numbers Tuesday night showed Purdy with 17,574 or 41.36 percent of the vote and Charter with 17,103 or 40.25 percent of the vote. Write-in votes totaled 583 or 1.37 percent of the vote and 17 percent of the voters declined to make choices in the judicial race. "At this point they are very, very close," County Clerk Kathy Beckett said Tuesday night. "That was the fear that they would split the vote, causing them to go to a run-off in the November election." Beckett said there is a remote chance that the state could declare Purdy the winner because he received the most votes, but as she understands it, one of the candidates had to get 50.1 percent of the vote to avoid a run-off and actually win. Both Purdy and Charter said they would start gearing up for another run. "I'm speechless - and you can quote me," Charter joked. Charter said he will concentrate on finding out why so many people declined to vote in the race. "Certainly there was a lot of information out there - through the Voters' Pamphlet, television, radio and newspapers, and yet 17 percent said 'Don't care' essentially," Charter noted. Purdy failed to get his information into the Voters' Pamphlet in the primary, and said that would be the first thing he'd rectify in the general election in November. "I'm going to go business-to-business and door-to-door, same thing as here," Purdy said. "But I'll be in the Voters' Pamphlet." Charter, Purdy and write-in candidate Walt Nunley were vying for Circuit Court Judge position 8, a new position created by the Legislature to ease overcrowding in Jackson County's courts. Charter and Purdy were on the ballot while Nunley ran as a write-in candidate. Nunley could not be reached for comment Tuesday night. Charter, 44, of Ashland is a trial attorney in private practice. Purdy, 68, of Medford, has worked as corporate counsel for Asante and in a large prestigious firm in the Rogue Valley. Nunley, 82, of Medford, served as a district attorney in the 1950s and as a private attorney with a varied practice. Purdy and Charter spent more than $66,000 during the election, with both candidates chipping in funds from their own wallets to help their chances. At age 82, Nunley is older than the mandatory retirement age for judges and the secretary of state refused to allow him on the ballot. Nunley appealed the decision to the Oregon Supreme Court, alleging age discrimination and noting that while sitting judges must retire at 75, the rule doesn't apply to him because he'll never turn 75 while on the bench. The court dismissed his petition without comment. It's unlikely it will ever be known how many of the 583 write-in votes were actually cast for Nunley, since the county clerk tallies the details of write-in votes only if they could sway a race. Reach reporter Dani Dodge at 776-4471, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2002 Mail Tribune, Inc.