And in the race to replace County Treasurer Jim Aumann, Barney Wright, a retired banker with Lebanon Citizens National Bank, will run against Desiree Batsche, a Mason resident whose husband is Mason Municipal Judge Andrew Batsche.
There will be no primary race for two seats on the county Board of Commissioners. Incumbent Dave Young and State Sen. Shannon Jones, R-Clearcreek Twp., are unopposed in the GOP primary in the heavily Republican county. Jones is unopposed in the primary for Pat South's seat on the commission.
Mike Kilburn, a former commissioner who considered another run, said he would have counted on support from Tom Grossmann, one of two Mason residents holding the other two seats on the commission, to help him overcome Jones’ political strength. Young, also from Mason, came out in support of Jones.
Kilburn said Grossmann’s decision not to back him was key in his decision not to oppose Jones, an influential state lawmaker who trounced former Springboro school board member Kelly Kohls to win re-election to her Senate seat.
Jones faces term limits in two years.
Kilburn said a new generation of politicians and population growth — in Mason and across the county — have transformed the local political scene.
“Warren County has changed so dramatically,” Kilburn said. “Mason is so big now, I’m not even sure people even know who goes to church with them.”
The Gilb and Batsche races should provide different perspectives on Mason’s influence on countywide races. The city currently includes 4,132 registered Republicans, about one-eighth the total number registered, 32,558, in the entire county.
Since 2010, the number of Republicans registered in Warren County has grown by more than 25 percent from 26,398, according to the board of elections.
Gilb is a relatively new resident of Mason. He was appointed to the judicial seat this year after two appointments to the Mason City Council. He finished fourth in a race for three council seats in 2011 and served the Findlay area as a state representative from 2001 to 2007. Gov. John Kasich appointed him to fill an open judicial seat after the retirement of Judge Jim Flannery.
Batsche’s Mason roots are deeper. Her father-in-law, David Batsche, was a municipal judge. The Batsche family moved to Mason in 1934.
“With a name like Batsche,” her candidacy should benefit from the family’s Mason heritage, as well as the fact the city has recently become so influential in county politics, Kilburn said.
Assuming all petitions are certified Friday, two other contested races are expected. Two Springboro lawyers, Jeff Kirby and Lauren Clouse, are running for the common pleas seat presiding over domestic relations cases. Three veteran Republican politicians, Scott Lipps, Steve Muterspaw and Ray Warrick, are vying for the state representative in the 62nd District.
Incumbents Prosecutor David Fornshell, , Coroner Russell Uptegrove and Sheriff Larry Sims are unopposed for county office in the GOP primary. The reelection of State Rep Paul Zeltwanger, R-54, is also unopposed in the GOP primary in this heavily Republican primary.
On the Democratic side, former Waynesville Mayor Charles Sanders filed to oppose Young in the November election. Samuel Ronan of Springboro is to run against the GOP winner in the 62nd District, Rick Smith of Mason to oppose Zeltwanger in November.
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