The primary election, always especially important in Hamilton County, is less than a week away. It’s a strange election due to the pandemic shutdown, but it is still an important one.
Important because as we know, winners in the county Republican primary are most likely to be elected in the November general election.
So far, virtually no Democrats have filed for county office, which is not unusual, although there are candidates for state legislature in local districts.
Without candidates the outcome in November is obvious for offices such as two county commissioner seats, three county council positions, county surveyor, county coroner and a few town council seats at stake this year.
Democrats claim they will file “some candidates” for county office before the general election deadline to fill their ticket.
The only really hot primary race appears to be between Scott Baldwin and J.R. Gaylor for the GOP nomination for State Senate in the local District 20 where Sen. Victoria Spartz decided against re-election in favor of running for U.S. Congress.
There have been extensive and expensive TV ads and mailers accusing each other of unpopular positions and associations. In most cases the ads are sponsored by shadow groups claiming not to be aligned with any candidate.
For other offices, there have been a record number of letters to the editor extolling the virtues of a favored candidate. But, because of the health crisis, there have been almost no public appearances or door-to-door campaigning.
Because of the unusual election year, no one knows what to expect on Election Day. The turnout may well be small, although the record amount of absentee voting, now over 40,000, may signal surprising interest.
June 2 is Election Day for the postponed primary. Results may not be known that day because of the record number of absentees that need to be counted, but all results will be found in the Reporter as soon as possible.
For the general public interested in viewing election returns on election night, the returns will be posted at the County Fairgrounds Exposition Building after 6 p.m. This is a change in location from the Judicial Center where results were formerly posted.