Glenn Hess Defeats Incumbent Steve Meadows

Glenn Hess received the call he waited almost a year for Tuesday night.

As the results rolled in, Incumbent State Attorney Steve Meadows conceded at 8:20. "He was very gracious" Hess said, "and promised me a smooth transition and I'm looking forward to it." Hess defeated Meadows by 10,655 votes.

Meadows will occupy the office until January. Shortly after conceding he told News 13, "I'm honored to have had the opportunity to have that position. He (Hess) now has the ability to build upon the successes that we've had so that he can make it even better and my hope is that he will be able to do it."

During his campaign, Meadows hurled numerous ads toward Hess accusing him of being a liberal judge and soft on crime. Still, Hess says he stuck to his guns and ran a positive campaign. "I think we did a campaign that the people of this circuit appreciate. That's what I promised I'd do. I kept my promise and I think that's why we won."

Hess says he'll be quick to make improvements to the State Attorney's Office. "We're going to start with the idea that we want to have a professional trial attorney's office. They'll be the best trial attorney's office in the circuit. We're going to have a team prosecutors approach. We'll put our team prosecutors together. We'll do the training we talked about and I want to see the State Attorney's Office be the best in the circuit."

Before that happens, however, Hess will start his family vacation in Colorado Friday. Hess says the vacation was months in the making, and will be with a much happier and relieved State Attorney Elect.

State Attorney Election Results – by county

Bay County
Steve Meadows – Rep.	33,629
Glenn Hess – Dem.	45,409
Calhoun County
Steve Meadows – Rep.	3,020
Glenn Hess – Dem.	3,093
Gulf County
Steve Meadows – Rep.	3,192
Glenn Hess – Dem.	3,848
Holmes County
Steve Meadows – Rep.	2,515
Glenn Hess – Dem.	1,770
Jackson County
Steve Meadows – Rep.	10,485
Glenn Hess – Dem.	10,513
Washington County
Steve Meadows – Rep.	5,532
Glenn Hess – Dem.	5,389
Total 14th Judicial Circuit
Steve Meadows – Rep.	58,373
Glenn Hess – Dem.	70,022