Cole County Prosecutor Mark Richardson won a third term Tuesday, fending off a challenge by former Assistant Prosecutor Anji Gandhi, by 2,594 votes of the 22,426 votes cast in the race.
The unofficial totals tabulated by County Clerk Marvin Register's office showed Richardson, a Republican, winning 12,510 votes (55.67 percent) to Gandhi's 9,916 votes (44.13 percent).
Richardson told the News Tribune late Tuesday night: "I'm very grateful that the citizens have voted me in for a third time, and I feel like it's a great signal of confidence in the work that I've done these past eight years."
Gandhi was not available to comment on the election results.
Gandhi had said Richardson was not managing the office properly, was losing too many cases and too many assistants.
He countered that the office's won-loss percentage was following the same pattern as his predecessors, and that turnover was to be expected because Cole County's pay isn't set at a level to keep career prosecutors on the payroll.
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