Bobby Chamberlin beats Brady in Supreme Court seat runoff
Published 7:01 am Wednesday, November 30, 2016
Circuit Judge Bobby Chamberlin of Hernando won the District 3, Position 1 seat on the state’s top court, defeating attorney John Brady of Columbus in a northern district runoff.
Chamberlin garnered 55 percent of the vote from the entire district, which covers 33 counties. A total of about 36,000 people in those counties cast their vote in Tuesday’s runoff election.
In Lafayette County, only 1,796 people voted in the entire county that has more than 25,000 registered voters. Of those who voted in Lafayette County, 1,043 voted for Chamberlin and 451 voted for Brady.
Chamberlin will begin an eight-year term in January. He will succeed Justice Ann Lamar of Senatobia, who did not seek re-election to the nine-member Supreme Court.
Chamberlin is currently a judge for the 17th Judicial District of Mississippi. He was re-elected after running unopposed on Nov. 4, 2014, for a term that begins in 2015 and will expire in 2018. He has been a judge in a circuit including DeSoto, Panola, Tallahatchie, Tate and Yalobusha counties since 2004. Before that, he was a Republican state senator representing DeSoto County from 2000 to 2004 and a municipal judge in Hernando.
Chamberlin received his Bachelor’s of Arts degree and his law degree from the University of Mississippi Law School. He was admitted to the bar in 1990.
He and his wife, Kim have a son, William.
Brady has worked in private practice for law firms in Jackson and Columbus.
Runoffs on Tuesday also decided one on the state Court of Appeals and two in the state House of Representatives.
Court of Appeals
Judge Jack Wilson retained his seat on the Mississippi Court of Appeals and begins an eight-year term in January.
He defeated Ed Hannan. Both men live in Madison.
The district encompasses all of 14 counties and parts of five others in the east central part of the state.
Wilson was appointed to the Court of Appeals by Republican Gov. Phil Bryant in July 2015 to succeed Judge Larry Roberts, who retired. Wilson was a staff attorney for Bryant’s office from 2012 to 2014. He was endorsed by the state Republican Party.
Hannan was first elected as a Madison County Court judge in 2006 and has served since then. Before winning the county judgeship, he served nearly a decade as municipal court judge for the city of Madison.
Legislative seats
Winners of the runoffs for two state House seats will serve the final three years of a four-year term.
Donnie Scoggin defeated Ron Swindall in District 89 in Jones County. Scoggin will succeed Republican Rep. Bobby Shows of Ellisville, who retired.
John Glen Corley defeated Greg Holcomb in District 106 in Lamar and Pearl River counties. Corley will succeed Republican Rep. Herb Frierson of Poplarville, who left the House to become state revenue commissioner.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.