Countywide turnout in the May 19 primary election tallied at 25.24% of registered voters, a bit lower than usual for a presidential primary election, county Board of Elections Director Faith Lyon said.
All told, 27,324 ballots were cast, 8,491 being Democrat, 17,969 being Republican and 864 being nonpartisan (issues-only ballots). An additional nine people turned in totally blank ballots.
Tuesday’s election results saw 72nd District State Rep. Gail Pavliga being bested by challenger Heidi Workman. The Portage County Board of Elections posted final but unofficial results at 7,627 votes to 4,796.
The Pavliga-Workman contest totaled 12,423 votes. The Board of Elections vote crunch also shows that six people overvoted, meaning they filled in the bubbles next to both candidates’ names. The Board of Elections does not award those votes to either candidate, nor does it count those ballots in the vote total, Lyon said.
Another 873 people skipped that race altogether, and those ballots are not included in the vote total. The actual 12,423 vote total does not match the countywide ballot figure because the 72nd district does not cover all of Portage County, Lyon said.
In the county commissioner’s race, Republican incumbent Tony Badalamenti lost to Jill Crawford by a vote of 7,850 to 7,676, according to complete but unofficial results posted by the Portage County Board of Elections.
The Badalamenti-Crawford matchup also showed six people voting for both candidates, and 2,437 voting for neither candidate. Those votes are not attributed to the total vote, Lyon said.
PAVLIGA-WORKMAN
“The voters have made their choice. I am proud of my record and the resources that I have brought back to our communities,” Pavliga said, declining further comment.
Workman said her goal was to call out Pavliga for siding with state house Democrats to give Republican Jason Stephens the speaker’s gavel in 2023 and to expose Pavliga’s voting record in the statehouse.
“On all fronts, we nailed those two goals. My goal was to empower the people and make sure they knew what was at stake here,” Workman said.
Pavliga was one of 22 Republicans who sided with Democrats to elect Stephens as Speaker of the Ohio House.
Calling Pavliga one of the “Blue 22,” Workman said Pavliga “sold our Republican votes to the Democrats, which ultimately changed the structure of the Ohio House and paralyzed any collaboration among the Republican caucus.”
Pavliga sponsored House bill 3, which would accept federal funding for affordable housing to be built throughout Ohio, but Workman said the Congressional Record shows there is no eligibility criteria to keep “illegal aliens” from occupying the homes. The bill is in committee in the Ohio House at this point.
Should she prevail in November, Workman said she will stand up for district voters and fight against corruption, no matter the cost.
“The citizens here are sick and tired of dirty politics, and no amount of money is going to buy their votes,” she said. “I’m honored to be their choice for state representative, and I’m so proud of what we’ve done here in House District 72.”
Workman’s first goal, should she win in November, would be to cap county property tax increases, which she said could go as high as 30% to 40% this year. What the cap would be is yet to be determined, she said.
She said she would also like to cut taxes overall, decrease energy costs and equip schools and students. Connecting high school students with trade schools and four year colleges, and then networking with those institutions of higher learning, would encourage a skilled workforce to remain local, she said.
DEM CHALLENGER
Workman will face Democratic candidate Nathaniel Adams in November.
He said he looks forward to campaigning throughout the 72nd district and to hearing about the issues voters say they face.
Should Adams prevail in November, he said he will support the right of women to make their own health decisions, including their right to choose, combat climate change, fund public schools, and address gun violence in Ohio and throughout the country.
He said he would support a bipartisan Statehouse speakership like state lawmakers agreed to in 2023, but would expect House Speaker Stephens to agree to some concessions: that the House would address corruption in Portage County and that state house lawmakers would consider climate change legislation.
BADALAMENTI-CRAWFORD
After a very close race, county Commissioner Badalamenti said he accepts defeat.
“I did my job as a commissioner,” he said. “When I told the sheriff that we had to freeze his budget, that put him in a tizzy. He went and found three people who would run against the Republicans. Their base apparently is pretty good, and they came out, for the most part, better than we did.”
Reflecting on his tenure as commissioner, Badalamenti said he had no regrets.
“I believe Portage County is a better place and has made incredible advances since I had the opportunity to be a commissioner for the last three years, and they still get to have me for the next 9 months, so we’ll see what happens over the next 9 months. We’ll keep working to make the county better,” he said.
Crawford, who declined The Portager’s request for comment, will face Democratic challenger Carmen Lisa Laudato in the November general election.
Reflecting on the election results, Laudato said one thing admirable about Portage County is its support of female candidates.
A former finance chairperson when she served on Streetsboro City Council, Laudato said she and her colleagues had to deny funding requests on a regular basis.
Should Laudato win the November election and advance to the board of commissioners, she said she would push for new county policy governing department budgets even if a board of control must be created to monitor large expenditures. There is no oversight, no system of checks and balances in Portage County, she said, adding that “that needs to be fixed ASAP.”
Wendy DiAlesandro is a former Record Publishing Co. reporter and contributing writer for The Portager.