by
Fred Swift
Hamilton County Reporter
(NOTE: This is a commentary written by Fred Swift of the Hamilton County Reporter. The views expressed are those of Fred Swift and do not necessarily reflect the views of LarryInFishers.com. This opinion piece is posted here as part of a partnership between the Reporter and LarryInFishers.com)
The stage is now set for Hamilton County’s May 8 primary election
where local officeholders are traditionally selected. And, most incumbents
seem headed for a free ride since the deadline for filing passed at noon Friday
leaving them unopposed for Republican nominations.
There are exceptions, such as the county sheriff’s position where four candidates will
vie for the GOP nomination. There will also be a contest for judge of Superior Court 1,
and a state legislative contest shapes up to determine who will succeed retiring State
Rep. Kathy Richardson.
Unopposed for the Republican nomination are Prosecutor Lee Buckingham,
Judge Gail Bardach, County Councilor Amy Massillamany, County Assessor Robin
Ward, County Recorder Jennifer Hayden and County Coroner John Chalfin. In addition,
Richardson is unopposed in her bid for county clerk.
Democrats will say ‘wait a minute, we will have some candidates,’ but for county
office they have aspirants for only the county council in Districts 1,3 and 4, and only
a partial ticket is expected to be eventually fielded by party leadership as allowed by
law before the November general election. History is not on the side of the Democrats
in one of the nation’s most Republican counties.
In the GOP primary a spirited four-way contest is set for sheriff between Bill Clifford,
Eddie Moore, Dennis Quakenbush and Mitch Russell.
There will be a contest for judge of Superior Court 5 where Judge Steve Nation
has decided against running again. Candidates are Michael Casati and Will Riley.
There are races for county council in District 1 where incumbent Fred Glynn is being challenged by Sue Maki, in District 3 where incumbent Steve Schwartz faces Mark Hall,
and in District 4 where Ken Alexander, Sheldon Barnes, Christine Pauley and Rick
Sharp are seeking to succeed retiring Councilman Paul Ayers.
Hamilton County Commissioner Christine Altman will be challenged by Matt
Milam in the District 1 race.
A competitive race is seen for the open state representative seat being vacated
by Rep. Richardson. It features Brad Beaver, Garen Bragg, Charles Goodrich
and Gregory O’Connor.
Contests elsewhere in the county find State Sen. Mike Delph being challenged
by Corrie Meyer, and State Rep. Jerry Torr facing Tom Linkmeyer.
At the township level, there are GOP primary contests between Chris Miller
and Robyn Cook for Jackson Township trustee, Fall Creek Township between
Doug Allman and Ben Slota for trustee and in Washington Township Marla Ailor
will run against Daniel Carey Tolan.
While Democrats have not filed at the top of their primary ballot, numerous
candidates for precinct committeeman and state convention delegate have filed. But,
these are party positions and actually not public offices. Republicans also have filed
in large numbers for their state convention, but GOP precinct committeeman
posts were filled two years ago and not up for election this year