Rich Kelly came away as the winner in a four-person contest for the Clinton County Sheriff’s race Tuesday night in the Primary Election.
Kelly wound up with 1,671 votes (35.77 percent), former Sheriff Mark Mitchell was second with 1,278 votes (27.35 percent), Matt Myers was third with 863 (18.47 percent) and Jerrad Blacker was fourth with 860 (18.41 percent).
Kelly now moves on to the General Election on November 6 where he will currently run unopposed. Kelly will replace two-term incumbent Sheriff Jeff Ward, who couldn’t run again due to state law.
In other contested races, Scott Shoemaker defeated Richelle Lutz for the Clinton County Commissioners District 3 race and incumbent Alan Dunn defeated Bechel “Frankie” Crew to capture the Clinton County Council District 4 race.
Shoemaker finished with 3,513 votes (81.5 percent) to 797 (18.5 percent) for Lutz, while Dunn wound up with 895 votes (59.9 percent) to 598 (40.1 percent) for Crew.
The only other contested race locally was for Forest Township Board where four candidates were vying for three spots. Irma Sanders was the winner with 83 votes, Marla Caldwell and Jerry Milner tied for second with 70 votes. Michael Sexton was fourth with 57 votes.
Other uncontested winners were Tony Sommer (Clinton County Prosecutor), Rhea Copas (Circuit Court Clerk), Britt Ostler (County Auditor), Dana Myers (County Assessor), Jon Hussey (County Council District 1), Jake Myers (County Council District 2), Ron Gascho (County Council District 3), and Kevin Evans (Center Township Trustee).
A total of 5,265 votes were cast or 28.15 percent.