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Thursday, November 5, 2009
Tori’s Station update 7 - Fourth round counted
There was no endorsement after the fourth round of voting by the Butler County GOP for endorsement for county commission next year. One more runoff vote to go.
I’m told there were 290 cast ballots in the fourth round, with 174 percent needed to win the endorsement:
The breakdown was:
- No endorsement - 68 votes
- Nancy Nix - 113 votes
- Jose Alvarez - 109 votes
They are casting ballots for a fifth and final round, with no change in candidates.
More on this race below.
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Tori’s Station update 6 - Third round counted
Clerk of Courts Cindy Carpenter was eliminated in the third round of voting by the Butler County GOP for endorsement for county commission next year.
I’m told there were roughly 300 cast ballots in the third round, with 60 percent needed to win the endorsement:
The breakdown, I’m told, was:
- No endorsement - 25 votes
- Nancy Nix - 109 votes
- Cindy Carpenter - 56 votes
- Jose Alvarez - 111 votes
They are casting ballots for a fourth round without Carpenter.
More on this race below.
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Tori’s Station update 5 - Second round counted
Commissioner Gregory Jolivette was eliminated in the second round of voting by the Butler County GOP for endorsement for Jolivette’s seat next year.
There were 313 cast ballots in the second round, with 187 needed for endorsement.
The breakdown was:
- No endorsement - 7 votes
- Nancy Nix - 94 votes
- Gregory Jolivette - 50 votes
- Cindy Carpenter - 57 votes
- Jose Alvarez - 105 votes
They are casting ballots for a third round without Jolivette.
More on this race below.
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Tori’s Station update 4 - First round counted
No endorsed candidate for Butler County commission emerged from the county GOP’s first round of voting here at Tori’s Station.
There were 318 cast ballots, with 190 needed for endorsement.
The breakdown was:
- No endorsement - 10 votes
- Wes Retherford - 13 votes
- Nancy Nix - 84 votes
- Gregory Jolivette - 54 votes
- Cindy Carpenter - 66 votes
- Jose Alvarez - 91 votes
This means Retherford is eliminated and they go to another round.
More on this race below.
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Tori’s Station Update 3
The speeches have been delivered. Questions have been asked and answered. I’m told the Butler County Republican Party has finished its first round of voting and are tallying the votes now.
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Update from Tori’s Station 2
Those inside the Butler County GOP endorsement meeting next door (see post below) say 330 people turned out to vote. That’s more than half the committee.
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Update from Tori’s Station
I’m at Tori’s Station in Fairfield, where the roughly 525-member executive committee of the Butler County Republican Party is voting to endorse candidates for several races.
They endorsed several unopposed candidates, including John Kasich for governor, Steve Chabot for U.S. Congress.
This also includes Barbara Schneider Carter, a Hamilton attorney who is running for Domestic Relations judge after incumbent Judge Eva Kesslar has said she’s not seeking re-election.
The big show of the night, though, is about to start. That’s the competition for Butler County commissioner. See more on that race below.
I’m not actually in the room where the voting takes place. The public, and media, are not allowed. I’m in an adjacent room, waiting for people to emerge and relay to me the results.
Incumbent Commissioner Gregory Jolivette passed along a copy of his speech.
It starts with a recap of his tenure, including improving the county’s bond rating, keeping sales taxes low, lowering sewer rates and overseeing a period of economic growth locally. Then this:
“With that said, why do I have opposition for this endorsement? In my mind there are two reasons — let’s get to the heart of the matter right now.”
“First, the ethics complaint. My counsel has cleared me to inform you that I confidently state that I expect to continue in my capacity as commissioner and will stay in my office as long as I am elected by the fine people of Butler County.”
More to come…
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County approves caregiver union contract
Butler County Commissioners unanimously approved a contract with the union representing caregivers working for Developmental Disabilities this morning, Nov. 5.
This breaks an impasse between county and the Professionals Guild of Ohio — which represents 75 agency employees, most of whom are direct care staff — after commissioners voted down the first proposed contract 2-1.
The revised contract includes a 2 percent pay raise this year, but does away with raises in 2010 and 2011 included in the first contract.
And it gives union members an additional day off starting in 2010 — which agency officials say other employees there already get — and allows them to accrue vacation days faster, starting in 2011.
“If raises weren’t going to be provided during certain periods, then employees needed to receive something else,” said union negotiator John Campbell-Orde.
Commission President Donald Dixon, who opposed the original contract along with Charles Furmon, called the revision “a good compromise.”
“I’d say we didn’t get everything we wanted, but we got a lot,” Dixon said, estimating the county’s savings at $80,000 per year. “They had come a long way from where they wanted to be.”
Commissioner Gregory Jolivette had sided with the union on the original contract, arguing Developmental Disabilities is levy funded and operating in the black, unlike the county general fund. But Dixon and Furmon said it was unfair to cut other offices and give out raises at that agency.
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Vote will shape county commission race: ‘It’s gonna be a nail-biter’
From today’s paper:
Three sitting, elected Butler County officials, a former township trustee and an unknown Hamilton resident will go before the county GOP’s executive committee tonight, Nov. 5, all seeking the party’s backing for county commission next year.
It’s the seat that currently belongs to Commissioner Gregory Jolivette. But challenges from fellow Republicans mounted after revelations that Jolivette voted years ago on hiring his son and daughter as county employees.
Although it may be the political machine that controls nearly all countywide seats, the party is far from monolithic.
Big hitters within the party — especially from eastern Butler County — have thrown support behind Jose Alvarez, a former West Chester Twp. trustee.
But party insiders say Jolivette, Treasurer Nancy Nix and Clerk of Courts Cindy Carpenter each have entrenched supporters.
Then there’s Wes Retherford, whose status as a true outsider has drawn him support from the Cincinnati Tea Party.
As an Ohio Ethics Commission investigation of Jolivette drags on, heated campaigns have wound up in recent weeks as candidates court support from the party’s roughly 525-member executive committee.
That committee will meet behind closed doors at Tori’s Station in Fairfield tonight. There will be five rounds of voting, with the lowest vote-getter eliminated after each round until someone gets 60 percent.
Canididates who lose the endorsement rarely run in the primary.
Jolivette believes the intra-party challenge has a much to do with “vendettas and personal agendas” — stemming from his vote to slash the budgets of other officeholders — as with accusations of nepotism.
He is seeking the endorsement. But based on the support showed for him tonight, he may run even without the party’s nod. “My gut tells me yes, I’m running, but it will take due diligence after tomorrow night,” Jolivette said Wednesday, Nov. 4.
If it gets down to two people, and neither can get 60 percent of the vote, the party goes into the primary with no endorsement. If that happens, the other candidates will also be looking to tonight’s vote to determine if they have enough support to stay in it.
“A lot depends on tomorrow night,” Nix said Wednesday.
The candidates spent Wednesday night brushing up on their speeches and making last-minute calls for support to party members.
It’s the culmination of a full-scale political campaign in miniature, leading up to the Butler County Republican Party executive committee’s vote tonight, Nov. 5, on endorsement for a contested county commission race next year.
The candidates include incumbent county Commissioner Gregory Jolivette, Treasurer Nancy Nix, Clerk of Courts Cindy Carpenter, former West Chester Twp. trustee Jose Alvarez and Hamilton resident Wes Retherford.
Jolivette said he’s running on his record of keeping local taxes low while attracting jobs to Butler County since he joined the dais in 2004.
“I’m going against some very powerful people who have, I think, made it their agenda to have their revenge on me for making tough budgetary decisions,” he said. “But I have faith in the party and the committee, and I will be there to present my case and my suggestions for the future, and we will take it from there.”
Jolivette has come under fire for voting on the hiring of his son and daughter years ago. The revelation came to light shortly after he voted for heavy-handed cuts to the county’s budget earlier this year.
But he’s not the only one running on his record.
“My sense is I’m the leader in this race, right now,” Carpenter said. “I am the experienced candidate whose experience distinguishes me from the other candidates.”
Specifically, she said her background working with the criminal justice system and human services gives her insight on programs that account for 70 percent of the county’s ailing budget.
Nix’s record includes a term as vice mayor of Middletown and reducing staff in her office — which the party appointed her to clean up after the former treasurer was found guilty of nepotism charges — by 30 percent.
“It’s about qualifications, it’s about the future, it’s about my record and bringing that to the commissioners office,” Nix said.
Alvarez, who served as a trustee from 1995 to 2005, is running on a return to conservative roots campaign.
“We need to convince the voters that we can lead, that the GOP in Butler County can still lead, that the folks are willing to endorse somebody who they have faith in to be above board and have personal integrity,” he said.
And Retherford said he’s running as an outsider, as he put the finishing touches on his speech Wednesday.
“I’m going to hit on the fact that I am a new face, and new blood, something people are asking for,” he said. “The fact that I’m a regular, hard-working citizen that knows what it’s like to struggle with bills, that can relate to people.”
“I think it’s going to be pretty tough tomorrow night, all around. There’s a lot of pulling and pushing for the different candidates and all the candidates have their positive and negative qualities, and there’s a lot of support for each one of them,” Retherford said.
“It’s gonna be a nail-biter all the way down to the end.”
