Ken Bush Jr. wins GOP primary for Onondaga County Legislature over Derek Shepard [Video]

Elbridge Town Supervisor Ken Bush Jr. on Tuesday defeated incumbent Onondaga County Legislator Derek Shepard in a Republican primary for Shepard’s 13th District seat on the legislature.

Bush won with 632 votes (60 percent) to 422 for Shepard (40 percent).

With no Democrat in the race, Tuesday’s victory gives Bush the only major party line on the November ballot. Shepard will remain on the ballot with the Libertarian and Independence Party lines.

The victory came after Bush narrowly survived a legal battle by Shepard to knock him out of the Republican primary. Shepard successfully challenged enough of Bush’s petition signatures for a state Supreme Court judge to remove Bush from the ballot, but an appeals court reversed the decision.

After six weeks of court battles, the appeals court last week ruled that Bush had 347 valid petition signatures, one more than he needed to get on the ballot.

In addition to winning the Republican primary, Bush retained …