Oct 22, 2013 3 min read

This is one of those odd-year elections in which some county row offices are up for grabs and municipal races for offices such as township supervisor, borough council member and school director are contested.

Now, I don’t want to be responsible for contributing to a pathetically low voter turnout, but here in Greene County, I am afraid that’s what’s going to occur. Why? Because practically no one is running.

We could have had an interesting race for sheriff, had Brian Tennant, a registered Democrat, not won both party nominations in the spring. On the Democratic side, Tennant defeated Erik Ketchem, son of the incumbent sheriff, Richard Ketchem, who chose not to seek re-election, and William Lewis Jr., a deputy coroner and state constable from Carmichaels.

Then, the former patrolman with the Waynesburg Borough Police Department proceeded to accumulate enough write-in votes to win the GOP nomination. So, barring some unexpected, and I think extremely unlikely, write-in campaign, Tennant will be the next Greene County sheriff.

The other countywide race is also a nonrace. Incumbent Democratic Coroner Greg Rohanna not only is assured of another term, he also secured his nomination without a challenge.

I understand why the county’s Democratic leaders would not throw a candidate against their entrenched incumbent. Why would they, for heaven’s sake?

The question I have is, where were the Republican candidates? I suppose the GOP leadership might have come to the realization that, at least when it came to coroner, the chance of unseating an incumbent was slim.

But the sheriff’s race was the perfect opportunity for the GOP to get some credibility as a major party in this county by having a candidate on the ballot. It was a wide-open race in the primary, meaning there was no incumbent to challenge. The opportunity was ripe for a Republican to jump in and get the party’s nomination.

Had that been the case, assuming Tennant’s write-in numbers did not exceed the numbers of the balloted candidate, Tennant would have had to spend some money. That, in itself, would have been a moral victory for the GOP.

There’s next year, of course, when state representatives and some state senators are up for re-election, and 2015, when there will be races for commissioner, recorder and register, prothonotary and clerk of courts.

I am betting there might be some good Democratic primary races, but for the Republicans, it will be the same old story – no candidates, except for the mandated minority commissioner, which in Greene County’s case is the Republican. And, if the GOP party leaders don’t like that assessment, just prove me wrong.

By the way, I really do want to thank the minority party in Greene County. For the first time in decades, I probably won’t be working election night.

Jon Stevens is Greene County bureau chief. He can be reached at jstevens@observer-reporter.com.