February 7, 2015 at 6:25 a.m.
Jay County will have four contested races in May’s primary municipal elections.
Two of those will be for mayor of Portland, with incumbent Democrat Randy Geesaman facing a challenge from former police chief and street and parks department superintendent Jeff Harker. On the Republican side, former six-term Jay County Commissioner Milo Miller Jr. is squaring off against former Portland fire chief Doug Blankenbaker.
The other contested races are for the Republican nomination for Portland’s District 3 city council seat and three slots on the Democratic ticket for Redkey Town Council. Democratic incumbent Dan Watson is unopposed for his party’s nomination for mayor of Dunkirk, but will face a rematch against Republican Gene Ritter in the general election.
Residents have a month after the primary election to file for any openings on the ballot for the general election.
Geesaman is in the final year of his first term as Portland’s mayor after defeating two-term incumbent Republican Bruce Hosier 768-630 in the 2011 general election. Local Democrats selected him as the city’s clerk-treasurer in 2009 to replace the retiring Linda Kennedy, and he ran unopposed for his party’s nomination for that office in 2011 before joining the race for mayor after the primary.
Harker is a former chief of Portland Police Department who later served for nine years as street and parks department superintendent. Geesaman replaced him with Ryan Myers in 2012.
Miller served for 10 years on Jay County Council and then 24 as a Jay County Commissioner. He came up short in his bid for a seventh term when he lost in last year’s primary to Doug Inman, who went on to defeat Democrat Randy Mann.
Blankenbaker is a former Portland Fire Chief and longtime firefighter. He retired from the department in 2005 and became assistant superintendent of the street and parks department.
The race for the Republican nomination for Portland City Council’s District 3 seat pits Michele Brewster against Mark Iliff. Brewster is the wife of current council member Michael Brewster, who chose not to run for re-election.
No Democrats have filed for that seat.
Four candidates — incumbents Ted Friddle and Greg Curme and challengers and former council members Doug Stanley and “Watermellon” Jim Phillips — are seeking slots on the Democratic ticket for Redkey Town Council.
Friddle finished second in an eight-person race to earn his seat in 2011. Curme finished fourth in that election, but was selected in 2012 to fill a seat after Joe Johnson resigned.
Stanley was the council president before resigning in July 2010. Phillips is also a former council president who finished fifth in a five-person race for two seats in November.
Those four candidates will square off in the primary election with the top three vote-getters advancing to the general election.
Kyle Champ, who led the voting in 2011 and is currently the council’s president, did not file for re-election.
Former councilman David Dudelston, who lost a bid for re-election in November, is the lone Republican to file to run for Redkey Town Council.
Watson has no challengers within his party as he makes a run for a second term as Dunkirk mayor. He defeated incumbent Ron Hunt 352-60 in the 2011 primary and then edged Ritter by 24 votes in the general election.
Other candidates who are uncontested for the May primary are:
REPUBLICAN
Portland clerk-treasurer
Michele (Mickey) Scott
Portland City Court judge
Donald Gillespie
Portland City Council
District 1
Bill Gibson
Portland City Council
District 4
Don Gillespie
Portland City Council
District 5
Kent McClung
Portland City Council
At-large
Janet Powers
Dunkirk City Court Judge
Tommy (Chip) Phillips II
Dunkirk City Council
District 3
Jesse Bivens
Salamonia Town Board
Perry Jones
Pennville clerk-treasurer
Krista M. Scholer
DEMOCRAT
Portland City Council
District 2
Mark Hedges
Portland City Council
At-large
Judy Aker
Redkey clerk-treasurer
Debbie James
Dunkirk clerk-treasurer
Phonnie Kesler
Dunkirk City Council
District 1
Jack Robbins
Dunkirk City Council
District 4
Lisa Street
Dunkirk City Council
At-large
Tom Johnson
Salamonia Town Board
Donald M. Shauver
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