Betts rallies past Waters

There was little intrigue in the local partisan races, but the battle for one of the three opens school board seats went down to the wire.
Incumbent Kristi Betts, the current board president, trailed challenger Mitch Waters for the District 1 (City of Portland) seat before a strong showing on the west side of the county vaulted her to victory. That rally put her on top by 322 votes out of more than 7,000.
“Thank you Jay County,” said Betts, “and thanks for letting me continue representing our students and teachers and staff and taxpayers.”
Though disappointed in the results, Waters struck a mostly positive tone.
“I had a lot of fun doing it, and it was exciting to go back and forth all night,” said Waters. “It was definitely an experience.

“For the first time ever being in an election or politics, I thought it went pretty well. Of course I’m a little disappointed to get beat, but when you’re up against the incumbent, and the president at that, I’m pretty proud of what we were able to accomplish tonight.”
There were a pair of other open seats, with Krista Muhlenkamp scoring a solid win over Amanda Campbell in District 6 and Phil Ford running unopposed in District 4.
The absentee voting report, which was first to be tallied and accounted for 24.4 percent of the vote, showed Betts with just a 25-vote lead. And Waters had an advantage after winning eight of the first 13 precincts reporting, including four of the five in Wayne Township (Portland).
But, mirroring her performance from four years ago, Betts owned the west side. She swept those final five precincts to report — Dunkirk 1 and 3, Knox, Penn and Redkey — with a 408-vote margin.
The closeness of the race left Betts both thankful for another four years but also wondering what issues led to her narrow margin.
“I’ve worked really hard. I love what I do. My heart and soul go into every decision I make, as well as what the constituents think, and I really can’t work any harder,” she said after winning with 52.3 percent of the vote (3,722-3,400). “But obviously there’s issues that maybe I’m not as in tune to with, the way the election went, and I’m willing to find out what those are.
“But I’m excited to be able to move forward and have four more years to see the fruits of my labor so far come into being.”
Betts noted that she wasn’t surprised by her west side margin because it was a 608-361-286 advantage over incumbent Jim Sanders and Kirk Comer in Richland Township that carried her to victory in 2012. She noted that her husband, Eric, works in the community and that she has been involved in the Dunkirk community through the Glass Days festival.
Waters, who was up by nearly 100 votes with the first two-thirds of the precincts counted, echoed Betts’ thoughts about the west side, acknowledging that he did not campaign there. He added that his campaigning was mostly limited to yard signs and one advertisement on Facebook.
“Overall campaigning, I was pretty basic,” he said. “So the fact that I did as well as I did, I’m pretty proud of it.”
Muhlenkamp, in her first run for office, won all 18 of the county’s precincts over Campbell. She performed best in Wabash Township, where she took 78.9 percent of the vote.
District 6 represents Wabash, Noble, Pike and Madison townships. Muhlenkamp will replace Greg Wellman, who decided not to run for a fourth term on the board.  
Reached by phone Tuesday night, Muhlenkamp said she was surprised by the margin of her victory.
“I never expected that,” she said, adding that while she doesn’t know Campbell well, she seem like a nice and kind person.
Muhlenkamp said Tuesday night that she believed her educational background and past years as teacher most likely played a role in large margin of victory.
The 1999 Coldwater High School graduate earned her teaching degree at Ball State University and spent 10 years as a teacher, including nine in Jay Schools, before stepping away from the profession to open Sunshine Boutique clothing store in Fort Recovery.
With her decisive win, she’s ready to jump back into education.
“I miss it,” she said. “I’m ready to get in it.”
Campbell, who was also making her first run for office, offered her congratulations to Mulhenkamp in a phone interview Tuesday. She saw her best results in the Jefferson and Noble precincts, where she took at least 40 percent of the vote in each.
In discussing priorities going forward, Betts focused on the budget, reviewing school programs, getting a handle on testing and implementing more vocation programs.
“We have so many kids that sit in the gaps that are not college kids but we’ve got good-paying jobs around here,” said Betts. “We’ve just got to get them ready for it.”
Ford picked up 6,006 votes in District 4, which represents Richland and Knox Townships outside of the City of Dunkirk. He will take over for Tammy Bennett, who chose not to run after she was selected by the board in January to fill the final year of Mike Masters’ term following his resignation.