Peters, Traylor ousted in Tuesday's primary

Historic change is coming to the Gulf County Board of County Commissioners.

In a stunning sign for incumbents, the two longest-serving county commissioners, Billy Traylor and Nathan Peters, Jr., were resoundingly defeated in Tuesday’s primary voting.

All results are unofficial until the official tally is sent to the state later this week. The voter turnout was roughly 39 percent.

Traylor, who has served just shy of two decades on the board, was routed by Tom Semmes in a rematch from four years ago of the Republican primary in District 2, won handily by Traylor.

Semmes garnered 311 votes, or 71 percent, to Traylor’s 130, or 29 percent.

“I think the people of District 2 are tired of poor management in government,” Semmes said. “This is the biggest change in Gulf County government in history.”

The change continued in District 4, where Peters had served for over two decades, the longest tenure of any elected official in the county.

Peters, in a three-way universal primary that decided the seat as all candidates were Democrats, lost soundly to Tan Smiley.

Smiley took 352 votes, or 56 percent, to Peters’ 210 votes, or 34 percent. The other challenger in the race, Amy Rogers, took 8 percent of the vote, or 47 ballots.

“This is the biggest thing to happen to me in Port St. Joe since we won the state (football) championship (in the mid-1980’s),” Smiley said. “I feel real good that the citizens came out to vote for me.

“I’m going in for the people. I have always believed in helping people. I grew up poor and we always did our best when we came together. That is what I plan to do. The people put me in tonight. I am going to serve them.”

Semmes, meanwhile, will face a November general election against Democrat Ward McDaniel.

McDaniel easily won the Democratic primary in District 2 over Danny Clayton, securing 371 votes to Clayton’s 151 for a 71-29 percent margin.

Traylor and Peters were perceived as two of the main stumbling blocks to county-wide voting, which voters overwhelmingly supported the last two times the question was put on a ballot.

Traylor and Commissioner Carmen McLemore had also come under scrutiny for dealings with BP since the Deepwater Horizon explosion and leak in late April.

The board voted to hire a law firm with an eye toward litigation against BP, but a week later the board reversed course and rescinded the agreement. During the interim, Traylor and McLemore went to work for BP.

Peters’ son also went to work for BP during that span of a week.

Traylor and McLemore have abstained, due to conflict, from every vote involving BP since while Peters was cleared to vote after his son returned to college.

Commissioners Bill Williams and Warren Yeager each entered office pledging a swing away from single-member districts, only to be blocked by Traylor, Peters and McLemore.

Semmes sent a message to those commissioners Tuesday night.

“If Bill Williams and Warren Yeager are true to what they ran on, county-wide voting, I will be that third vote if I win in November,” Semmes said.

In the county’s other local race, Charlie Pettis decisively beat Daniel Hudak for the Wewahitchka Ward 4 commission seat, 520 votes to 99.