Mayoral, judge races on primary ballot

DAVE MOSIER/independent editor

A three-way contest for mayor, a two-way race for Van Wert Municipal Court and several City Council contests highlight the choices that voters – actually, Republican voters – must make during the May primary election.

Without the addition of Second Ward Councilman Kirby Kelly, the Republican mayoral primary would have been a rematch of the 2007 race, when then-incumbent Don Farmer was defeated narrowly by Republican challenger Louis Ehmer.

This time Ehmer is the incumbent and Farmer, currently an at-large member of City Council, wants the job back, while Kelly, who is completing his first term at Second Ward councilman, hopes to sneak past both the current and former mayor to win the Republican nomination.

Van Wert Municipal Court Judge Jill Leatherman, who was appointed to that position in November by then-Governor Ted Strickland, is challenged in her first attempt to get elected to the position by local attorney Todd Wolfrum, a Middle Point resident. The judge’s race is the only primary contest that affects voters countywide.

While there won’t a primary race for the Van Wert law director’s position, incumbent Greg Unterbrink, a Democrat, will face Republican John Hatcher in the November general election.

City Auditor Martha Balyeat is running unopposed, as is Council President Gary Corcoran.

None of the three at-large City Council incumbents are seeking re-election to that position – although one incumbent, Farmer, is running for mayor, and a second incumbent, Joi Mergy, will face newcomer Ian Miller in a Republican primary race for the Second Ward City Council seat.

Of those running for three at-large Council seats, one (Fourth Ward Councilman Stan Agler) is a current councilman, while a second candidate, Brent Crone, is a former at-large councilman. The third candidate is Rev. Paul Hamrick.

Those three will meet former First Ward councilman Jeff Agler, a Democrat, in November for a chance at one of the three at-large seats.

Two candidates for Ward council seats are also running unopposed. Incumbent John Marshall has no opposition in First Ward, while newcomer Stuart Jewett is running unopposed to replace Jon Tomlinson as Third Ward councilman.

In addition to the Second Ward race between Mergy and Miller, two Republicans – Bob Hughes and Pete Weir, will seek Stan Agler’s Fourth Ward seat.