Boyer Crushes GOP Challenger in District 1

Elaine Boyer, a long-standing veteran of the DeKalb County Board of Commissioners' District 1 seat, defeated her only GOP challenger Tuesday.

Boyer trounced Larry Danese in the Republican primary, taking more than 75 percent of the vote, according to preliminary returns. Out of 13,363 votes counted early Wednesday morning, Boyer had 10,178. More than 5,000 absentee votes had yet to be counted, but Boyer appeared headed toward certain victory.

And since she has no Democratic challengers in the November general election, her primary victory will stand.

Boyer ran on a platform of fiscal and governmental conservatism, saying she has voted against millage rate increases for 20 years and worked to reduce the size of DeKalb County's government.

Danese said he found the sitting commissioner's support too considerable to overcome. As a candidate, he said he wanted to ease the tension between the CEO's office and the board of commissioners, improve police presence in neighborhoods and also shrink the county government's size.

"I ran the best race that I could with the money that I had and my record, and the voters have selected Commissioner Boyer," he said Tuesday night. He said he had no plans to run again. "I'm not willing to take anything more out of my retirement account to try to overcome the advantages that a 20-year incumbent has. I think basically the voters have selected more of the same, so we're going to have another four years of more of the same."

Danese served as Kathie Gannon's representative on the county's planning commission before challenging Boyer for the District 1 seat in 2008 as a Democrat.

Boyer could not immediately be reached for comment.