Mar 15, 2015 3 min read

Two important races are up for grabs in Greene County in the May 19 primary election. That’s when voters will decide who will be the Democratic nominees for county commissioner and who the Democratic and Republican nominees will be for one seat on the common pleas court.

But on the county level, that’s it. The remaining incumbent county row officers, all Democrats, are running unopposed, and unless someone launches a write-in campaign, they will remain unopposed in the fall.

Judging by the number of candidates who filed nomination petitions last week, it appears interest in running for public office is on the wane in Greene County. The lack of interest runs deep, and also impacts the elections of school directors and municipal officers.

In only Carmichaels Area School District is there a race for the five board seats up for election. Seven candidates filed nomination petitions for seats on the board. In one school district, Central Greene, only one candidate filed petitions for the five seats open on the board. West Greene and Southeastern Greene districts fared slightly better, each with three candidates for the five open board seats.

The municipal level in Greene is also a mixed bag. In the county’s 20 townships, only seven will have contests for open supervisor seats; and for the county’s six boroughs, only one will have a competition for a council opening. In fact, two municipalities, Freeport Township and Rices Landing, had no candidates file nomination petitions for any of the open offices.

It certainly is not difficult for a person to run for office. For municipal and school board slots, a candidate must only obtain 10 signatures from voters registered with the party from which he or she is seeking the nomination. A little more effort is required of row officers, who must receive 100 signatures. Of course, anyone seeking office also must be willing to devote the time involved in attending meetings and participating in other activities, should they be elected.

Many reasons probably exist for why people don’t want to be involved. Time is undoubtedly an issue, and some probably don’t feel there’s any connection between their local government and what happens in their lives. Some are perhaps satisfied with the status quo.

But, as we said earlier, voters will have to decide several important races this year. We believe more than a little interest will be generated in the coming months by the judge’s race. Three candidates – Louis Dayich, David Russo and Jeffry Grimes – are vying to replace Judge William Nalitz, who retired after 18 years on the bench. All three candidates cross-filed, and will appear on the ballots of both parties, so unless one candidate can win both nominations, this contest will stretch into the fall.

The commissioners’ race also could generate some interest, at least in the Democratic primary, when voters select two nominees from the three candidates: incumbents Chuck Morris and Blair Zimmerman and former commissioner Dave Coder. The two Republican candidates, incumbent Archie Trader and newcomer Keith McClure, are unopposed. The four candidates nominated in the primary will face off for the three commissioner seats in November.

It seems to us the more candidates who are out knocking on doors and talking to people about themselves and their ideas, the more voters get it in their minds to go the polls. We just hope the county races and the smattering of local races are enough to interest people in voting and we avoid another year of desperately low voter turnout.