A challenger for Hartmann

Howard Wilkinson reports in Wednesday's Enquirer

The Democratic and Republican parties may have cut a deal to give their candidates for Hamilton County commissioner a free ride, but one Crosby Township Democrat isn’t playing along.

Chris Dole, a 47-year-old electrician who was elected township trustee two years ago, walked into the Hamilton County Board of Elections and took put petitions to run as an independent candidate in the fall against Republican clerk of courts Greg Hartmann, who is the GOP’s choice for an open county commission seat.

“This whole deal left a bad taste in my mouth,’’ said Dole, who has never run for countywide office before. “Somebody needs to challenge this. And I am as qualified as anybody.”

Dole was one of many in both parties displeased with the Republican and Democratic parties for the last-minute deal cut on Friday, hours before the candidate filing deadline for the March 4 primary.

The deal means that, this fall, there will be no Democrat candidate on the ballot to challenge Hartmann, who is running for the seat Pat DeWine is vacating in order to run for a judgeship. And it will mean that only the name of anti-tax activist Ed Rothenberg – who will have no Republican party backing – will be next to that of Democratic incumbent Todd Portune.

Hartmann, though, still has a Republican primary opponent – former probate court judge Wayne Wilke, who filed petitions for the seat before DeWine dropped out to run for judge.
Dole said he is a Democrat, but doesn’t need or want the backing of the party.

“I’m not afraid to offend the Democratic party,’’ Dole said. “When I ran for township trustee, I was running in a non-partisan race. The party label didn’t mean anything.”

His campaign, Dole said, “will be a grassroots thing. I don’t have any money and I don’t have a lot of support. But I’m going to go out there and work and give people a choice.”

He was, he said, taken aback Tuesday morning when he went to the board of elections to pick up petitions and was told that he would have to gather the signatures of 2,875 registered Hamilton County voters by the March 3 independent filing deadline.

The candidates who filed to run for county commissioner in the March 4 Democratic and Republican primaries only had to gather signatures of 50 registered voters to qualify. But, under Ohio election law, the requirements for independent candidates are more rigorous.
“I thought it would be a handful of signatures – 50 or so – but it looks like I’ve got my work cut out for me,’’ Dole said.

Dole is a member of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 212 and is hoping his friends in organized labor will help him with the petition drive. He believes he will need to gather about 4,000 to get the 2,875 valid signatures.

“I’ll stand out on Fountain Square every day between now and the filing deadline if I have to,’’ Dole said.

Hartmann said he has assumed all along that he would have opposition of some kind.

“Now I’ve got two people running against me,’’’ Hartmann said, “and that’s fine with me.”