By Gary Ogle
gogle@wbcowqel.com
The 87th District to the Ohio House includes all or part of five counties. Steve Reinhard once held that seat and won three of the five counties in a bid to take it again. But three of those five counties weren’t enough to send Reinhard back to Columbus as Wes Goodman apparently won the race for the Republican nomination on Tuesday by 1,733 votes.
Fifteen precincts in Marion County had not yet reported, but Reinhard was clearly disappointed in the outcome as well as lack of support.
“We ran a positive campaign. I guess that doesn’t mean much to the voters,” Reinhard said.
Citing his stance on getting back Local Government Funds to local municipalities and government entities, something he said local politicians indicated was very important to them, Reinhard continued, “In the long run it doesn’t make a difference.”
Reinhard won the favor of Crawford County Republican voters with nearly 47 percent of the vote here in the three-man race involving Morrow County residents Goodman and Tom Whiston. Reinhard won even more handily in Seneca County with 54 percent of the vote there.
It was much tighter in Wyandot County, but Reinhard was still the favorite by 25 votes or just 0.63 percent.
While Goodman has apparently won Marion County by 176 votes over Reinhard with 15 precincts still to be counted, the difference was clearly in Morrow County where both Goodman and Whiston reside. Goodman received 3,553 votes there and Whiston was the choice of 3,274 other Morrow County voters while Reinhard got just 1,106 votes there.
Morrow County was the only county Whiston did not finish third and the only county in which Reinhard did not finish first or second.
“When you look at the candidate who probably won, most of his money came from Washington, D.C.,” Reinhard said. “I guess that’s who we’ll let control our elections.”
Reinhard, one-time state representative who termed out of office and current Crawford County commissioner who chose not to run for re-election, was also unhappy with support various Crawford County politicians gave his opponents.
“When your own mayor doesn’t support you, that doesn’t help either,” Reinhard said.
Fellow Crawford County Commissioner Jenny Vermillion threw her support behind Goodman who will be the Republican nominee on November’s ballot.
Reinhard said he had plenty to do without being in politics including farming, running his own business and other commitments including being president of the Ohio Expo.
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