Campaign primary spending released

DAVE MOSIER/independent editor

The crowded Van Wert County commissioner races this November could likely have led to a record in local campaign spending for the 2012 primary election.

Friday was the deadline to have campaign spending reports in and all local candidates met the deadline, Elections Director Linda Stutz said.

Total spending for both commissioners’ races totaled $32,210.17, with the majority of that spent among the four candidates for Gary Adams’ commissioner’s seat. Spending for that seat among the four candidates, winner Todd Wolfrum, 9-1-1 Coordinator Kim Brandt, York Township Trustee Bill Evans and local businessman Phil Baxter, totaled $27,118.40, with Baxter spending the least ($4,515.12) and Wolfrum, the election winner, spent the most ($8,546.76). Brandt, who came in second, spent a total of $6,910.96, while Evans, who finished in third place, spent $7,085.56.

If the totals are divided by the number of votes each candidate received, Wolfrum spent $4.41 for each of his 1,940 votes, Brandt’s 1,471 votes cost her $4.70, Evans’ spent $6.35 for each of his 1,116 votes, and Baxter’s 526 votes cost him $8.70 apiece.

The race for Clair Dudgeon’s commissioner’s seat was nearly 180 degrees from the election for Adams’ seat. County Sheriff Stan Owens, who garnered 77 percent of the vote (3,831 votes), spent only $1,917.50 (50 cents per vote). Opponent Denzil “Denny” Wortman, who finished second with 1,124 votes, listed campaign spending of $3,174.27 — $1,200 higher than Owens and an average of $2.82 per vote.

Average spending for Adams’ seat was $6,779.60 per candidate, or $5.37 a vote, while candidates for Dudgeon’s seat spent an average of $2,545.89 each, or approximately $1.27 per vote.

All of the other county candidates were running unopposed, with Deputy Tom Riggenbach, the Republican candidate for Owens’ county sheriff’s position, the only other candidate to list any campaign expenses. Riggenbach reportedly spent $199.55.