May 4, 2006

Precinct Voter data not available at ‘News’ presstime
Detailed precinct results from Tuesday’s primary election, which the News normally publishes, were not available from the Greene County Board of Elections before the paper went to press on Wednesday morning.

As a result, the News is unable to report how Yellow Springs and Miami Township residents voted for state and county candidates and the Greene County bridge levy.

Voters support Township fire levy

By Yellow Springs News reporters

Yellow Springs and Miami Township voters showed overwhelming support for the Miami Township fire levy during Tuesday’s primary election.

The levy was approved by a margin of 78.75 percent to 21.25 percent, according to unofficial results from the Greene County Board of Elections.

Local residents cast a total of 856 votes for the levy and a total of 231 votes against it.

The four-year 0.9-mill additional levy will generate $112,000 a year for the fire department.

The levy will provide money for the fire squad’s 10-year strategic plan, including capital funds to replace and upgrade equipment and vehicles, as well as to pay for part-time staffing and increased training for fire department personnel.

The strategic plan, which the Miami Township trustees approved last year, outlines an effort to spend $846,000 to replace and upgrade apparatus over the next 10 years.

The plan also recommended that the Township spend an additional $39,000 a year on improved EMS coverage and higher recruitment and retention benefits for volunteers and staff.

The fire levy will cost the owner of a home valued at $150,000 an additional $41.37 a year, for a total of almost $136 a year in property taxes to Miami Township Fire-Rescue. Property taxes account for most of the fire squad’s funding.

This is the Township’s second fire levy. The other, a five-year 3.8-mill levy, was approved last November and pays for the department’s daily operations, including personnel expenses, fuel, equipment, training and maintenance.

But because of a clerical error, the Township did not place the correct type of levy on the November 2005 ballot and, as a result, was forced to seek a second levy, which voters approved on Tuesday.

The fire department staff includes three full-time employees and nearly 50 volunteer staff members who are reimbursed at an hourly on-call rate.

DeWine, Brown win Senate races
With nearly 60 percent of the Ohio precincts reporting on Tuesday night, Republican incumbent Mike DeWine and Democrat Sherrod Brown were the clear winners of their respective primary races for the U.S. Senate.

In the Republican race, Dewine collected over 354,000 votes, while David R. Smith received just over 75,000 votes and William G. Pierce garnered nearly 69,000 votes.

DeWine and Brown will face one another in the November election.

For the Democrats, Brown garnered about 294,000 votes to Merrill Samual Keiser’s 93,000 votes.

Governor
In the Republican primary race for governor, voters picked Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell over Attorney General Jim Petro.

With 61.96 per0cent of the vote reported Tuesday night, Blackwell had received 303,006 votes, or 56.55 percent of the total, and Petro received 232,772 votes, or 43.45 percent.

In the Democratic primary for governor, Ted Strickland had pulled far ahead of Bryan Flannery.

With 61.96 percent of the vote in, Strickland had received 358,969 votes, or 80.53 percent, while Flannery had garnered 80,774 votes, or 19.47 percent.

State Attorney General
In the race for attorney general Ohio Republicans picked Betty Montgomery over Tim Grendell.

With 66.83 percent of the vote reported, Republicans cast 430,037 votes, or 73.73 percent, for Montgomery, while Grendell received 153,243 votes, or 26.27 percent.

In the Democratic race for attorney general, Marc Dann was winning handily over Subodh Chandra on Tuesday night. Democratic voters cast 323,920 votes, or 73.54 percent, for Dann and 116,554, or 26.26 percent, for Chandra.

State Treasurer
With 66.83 percent of the vote counted, Republican candidate for state treasurer Sandra O’Brien was winning in a close race over Republican Jennette B. Bradley. O’Brien had received 250,811 votes statewide, or 51.56 percent, and Bradley received 235,587 votes, or 48.44 percent.

If her leads holds, Bradley will face Democrat Richard Cordray in November. Cordray was unopposed in the Democratic primary.

Supreme Court Justice
In the Democratic race for justice of the Ohio Supreme Court, William M. O’Neill was beating A.J. Wagner with 66.83 percent of the votes counted. Statewide, Democrats cast 251,126 votes, or 58.11 percent, for O’Neill and 181,059 votes, or 41.98 percent, for Wagner.

O’Neill will challenge incumbent Terrence O’Donnell in November. O’Donnell was unopposed in the Republican primary.

In the second Democratic race for a seat on the Ohio Supreme Court, voters selected Ben Espy over Peter M. Sikora. Espy received 238,068 votes, or 55.08 percent and Sikora received 194,152 votes, or 44.92 percent.

Sikora will run against Robert R. Cupp in the November election. Cupp was also unopposed in the Republican primary.

Voters upset expectations in the Republican primary for Greene County commissioner on Tuesday, with Alan G. Anderson beating incumbent Marilyn J. Reid.

With all 143 precincts reporting, 7,164 Republican voters, or 55.73 percent, chose Anderson, while 5,691 GOP voters, or 44.27 percent, favored Reid.

Yellow Springs resident Michael Gardner was unopposed in the Democratic contest.

Anderson, a former solicitor for the Village government, will face Gardner in the November General Election.

Greene County voters also approved the county’s bridge levy, 57.04 percent to 42.96 percent, during the May 2 primary.

With all of Greene County’s 143 precincts reporting, 11,879 voters favored the bridge levy while 8945 voters rejected it.

The five-year 0.25-mill county bridge levy will initially generate $826,000 a year, although that amount is expected to gradually decrease to $715,000 annually in five years, as the state’s personal property tax is phased out.

Two incumbent Republicans were unopposed in Tuesday’s election, and will likely be elected in November because they do not face Democratic opponents. Robert W. Hutcheson won the Republican primary for Greene County Juvenile Court judge, and Luwanna A. Delaney won the county auditor primary.