May 3, 2023 at 6:27 p.m.
Westlake ousts
Portland police dispatcher dominates four-way mayoral primary while incumbent finishes third
Westlake ousts
By Ray Cooney and Bailey Cline-
John Boggs will be a one-term mayor.
Jack Robbins now has his opponent.
Neither of the races for Republican mayoral nominations turned out to be close Tuesday as Jeff Westlake ran away with the bid in a four-way race in Portland while Jay Miller more than doubled up Alden Glessner in Dunkirk.
It was a rough day for Republican incumbents in general, as Dunkirk City Council member Kevin Hamilton and Pennville clerk-treasurer Krista Scholer also lost in their efforts toward earning another term.
There were no contested races on the Democratic ticket.
Early voting results, which are available shortly after the polls close, showed Westlake running strong as he was about 20 percentage points ahead of Todd Wickey in the race for the Portland mayoral nomination that also included Joel Smitley and Boggs. That margin only increased.
By the end of the evening, Westlake had edged just above 50% with 324 of the of the 647 votes cast in the race. Wickey, former investigator for Portland Police Department, was a distant second with 27.2% of the vote while Boggs came in third with 15.6%. Smitley was last with 7.1%
“It feels like a blessing has been given,” said Westlake, who works as a dispatcher for Portland police. “I’m still kind of shocked. …
“I am looking forward to November.”
Westlake advances to take on former two-term mayor Randy Geesaman, who was uncontested in Tuesday’s primary. He served as mayor from 2012 through 2019.
Boggs said he went into the primary feeling he had support based on the conversations he had in recent weeks, but that didn’t pan out at the ballot box.
He received 101 votes, less than a third of the total pulled in by Westlake.
“Yeah, I’m surprised,” said Boggs when he answered a call shortly after the results were finalized. “I don’t know what to say. I wouldn’t do anything different. I did what I thought was right. And I thought I ran a pretty decent campaign.”
In the rest of 2023, he said he’s looking forward to continuing to work toward completing and/or advancing projects including the Meridian Street storm sewer project, the construction of Wendy’s, the demolition of the Bailey Building and the sale of the former Sheller-Globe south property.
He was also complimentary of the effort Westlake put into his campaign.
“Good luck to him,” added Boggs, who later called Westlake to congratulate him.
Westlake said he appreciated the current mayor reaching out.
He added that he felt his own effort to reach out to Portland residents paid off.
“You have to get out there and listen to them,” he said. “If you don’t do that and you just go out there and they don’t see that you’re engaged … I think they pick up on that. You have to be wholeheartedly engaged, that’s for sure.”
In Dunkirk, Miller got the clear nod over Glessner, who had a career in commercial heating and cooling and now owns various rental properties. With voter turnout barely half of what it was for the 2019 GOP mayoral primary in the city, Miller earned 68.3% of the vote in his 41-19 victory.
“It feels good,” said Miller, who is retired from the U.S. Air Force and as a call center manager. “I’m looking forward to what’s ahead, what I can do for the City of Dunkirk. …
“One of the things I want to do is I want to hear more from the people of Dunkirk, the issues that they’re having.”
He advances to take on incumbent Democrat Jack Robbins, who was uncontested in his primary Tuesday.
In the other contested race in Dunkirk, Randy Murphy knocked off incumbent Kevin Hamilton 34-24. Hamilton is in the midst of his first term representing District 1.
The Democrats currently do not have a candidate for the District 1 seat. (Democrats and Republicans will have until July 3 to fill vacancies on the ballot for November.)
The race for Pennville clerk-treasurer was easily the tightest of the evening, decided by just two votes. Challenger Lindsay Wright knocked off Scholer 27-25.
It didn’t take long to get final results as they were complete just after 7 p.m., about an hour after the polls closed. With so few contested races, precincts were consolidated to Jay Community Center, West Jay Community Center and Pennville Community Center. (Primaries in Redkey, Bryant and Salamonie were canceled because there were no contested races.)
As results came in, election workers at Jay County Courthouse noted the low turnout for the election.
This year’s primary drew significantly fewer voters than years past, garnering 16.9% of registered voters with 897 ballots cast. That’s down from the May 2019 primary, which had a turnout 20.11%, about 1,100 voters. (As of this year, there are 5,314 registered voters in Jay County.)
Those numbers were still higher than in Blackford (12.1%) and Randolph (9.5%) counties.
According to a summary report, 541 residents voted in Jay County on Tuesday, with 324 voting early and 32 submitting paper absentee ballots.
Jack Robbins now has his opponent.
Neither of the races for Republican mayoral nominations turned out to be close Tuesday as Jeff Westlake ran away with the bid in a four-way race in Portland while Jay Miller more than doubled up Alden Glessner in Dunkirk.
It was a rough day for Republican incumbents in general, as Dunkirk City Council member Kevin Hamilton and Pennville clerk-treasurer Krista Scholer also lost in their efforts toward earning another term.
There were no contested races on the Democratic ticket.
Early voting results, which are available shortly after the polls close, showed Westlake running strong as he was about 20 percentage points ahead of Todd Wickey in the race for the Portland mayoral nomination that also included Joel Smitley and Boggs. That margin only increased.
By the end of the evening, Westlake had edged just above 50% with 324 of the of the 647 votes cast in the race. Wickey, former investigator for Portland Police Department, was a distant second with 27.2% of the vote while Boggs came in third with 15.6%. Smitley was last with 7.1%
“It feels like a blessing has been given,” said Westlake, who works as a dispatcher for Portland police. “I’m still kind of shocked. …
“I am looking forward to November.”
Westlake advances to take on former two-term mayor Randy Geesaman, who was uncontested in Tuesday’s primary. He served as mayor from 2012 through 2019.
Boggs said he went into the primary feeling he had support based on the conversations he had in recent weeks, but that didn’t pan out at the ballot box.
He received 101 votes, less than a third of the total pulled in by Westlake.
“Yeah, I’m surprised,” said Boggs when he answered a call shortly after the results were finalized. “I don’t know what to say. I wouldn’t do anything different. I did what I thought was right. And I thought I ran a pretty decent campaign.”
In the rest of 2023, he said he’s looking forward to continuing to work toward completing and/or advancing projects including the Meridian Street storm sewer project, the construction of Wendy’s, the demolition of the Bailey Building and the sale of the former Sheller-Globe south property.
He was also complimentary of the effort Westlake put into his campaign.
“Good luck to him,” added Boggs, who later called Westlake to congratulate him.
Westlake said he appreciated the current mayor reaching out.
He added that he felt his own effort to reach out to Portland residents paid off.
“You have to get out there and listen to them,” he said. “If you don’t do that and you just go out there and they don’t see that you’re engaged … I think they pick up on that. You have to be wholeheartedly engaged, that’s for sure.”
In Dunkirk, Miller got the clear nod over Glessner, who had a career in commercial heating and cooling and now owns various rental properties. With voter turnout barely half of what it was for the 2019 GOP mayoral primary in the city, Miller earned 68.3% of the vote in his 41-19 victory.
“It feels good,” said Miller, who is retired from the U.S. Air Force and as a call center manager. “I’m looking forward to what’s ahead, what I can do for the City of Dunkirk. …
“One of the things I want to do is I want to hear more from the people of Dunkirk, the issues that they’re having.”
He advances to take on incumbent Democrat Jack Robbins, who was uncontested in his primary Tuesday.
In the other contested race in Dunkirk, Randy Murphy knocked off incumbent Kevin Hamilton 34-24. Hamilton is in the midst of his first term representing District 1.
The Democrats currently do not have a candidate for the District 1 seat. (Democrats and Republicans will have until July 3 to fill vacancies on the ballot for November.)
The race for Pennville clerk-treasurer was easily the tightest of the evening, decided by just two votes. Challenger Lindsay Wright knocked off Scholer 27-25.
It didn’t take long to get final results as they were complete just after 7 p.m., about an hour after the polls closed. With so few contested races, precincts were consolidated to Jay Community Center, West Jay Community Center and Pennville Community Center. (Primaries in Redkey, Bryant and Salamonie were canceled because there were no contested races.)
As results came in, election workers at Jay County Courthouse noted the low turnout for the election.
This year’s primary drew significantly fewer voters than years past, garnering 16.9% of registered voters with 897 ballots cast. That’s down from the May 2019 primary, which had a turnout 20.11%, about 1,100 voters. (As of this year, there are 5,314 registered voters in Jay County.)
Those numbers were still higher than in Blackford (12.1%) and Randolph (9.5%) counties.
According to a summary report, 541 residents voted in Jay County on Tuesday, with 324 voting early and 32 submitting paper absentee ballots.
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