Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Ross easily retains seat in Washington

U. S. Representative and Prescott native Mike Ross is headed back for another term in Washington. Ross trounced his first-time Republican challenger Nov. 7.

That opponent was El Dorado landscape architect Joe Ross. The two men are not related.

It looks like the Democrats are going to have a majority in the U.S. House of Representatives, Ross said late on election day. Im proud to have helped bring that about. Ive spent two years working to get moderate Democrats to run against Republicans. Im a conservative Democrat and that is what Ive been trying to do.

Ross said he was pleased by the voter response.

We never dreamed wed get the vote we got tonight, he said. The margin of the victory is greater than we hoped for. I hope that demonstrates I stand for the values and priorities of the people of my district.

Mike Ross won every box in Hempstead and Nevada counties, polling across both city and rural precincts with equal strength.

Among his largest margins was in the absentee ballotting in Hempstead County, where he received 283 votes to 66 for Joe Ross, in Box 1-A in Hope, where he tallied 115 votes to 8 for his challenger, and in Box 7 in Hope, where he won 208 votes to 65.

Congressman Ross polled equally well in his home ground of Nevada County, taking 111 votes to 13 in Liberty and 111 votes to 10 in Rosston; and, sweeping boxes in Jackson 33-0, Leake 7-0, Ward 4 96-0, Bluff City Rural 30-0, Reader 3-0, and Union 59-0.

The Congressman said he believes the victory will send him back to Washington with a stronger position on the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

Ross said he will continue to push common sense solutions for America.

As a leader of the conservative Democrat movement, I plan to have an important part of bringing my party back to the middle, he said.