Election Results Demonstrate Butler County GOP Has Lost Influence with Voters

The results are in and it appears that the Butler County Republican Party has lost some influence over the voters based on how some of their endorsed candidates fared.

Warren Davidson winning the OH-08 Congressional hit is probably the highest profile seat.  Tim Derickson won the endorsement * [received the blessing of BCGOP after the endorsement] and there was no shortage of candidates to chose from on the ballot, but the Butler County GOP's choice came in third.

Wes Retherford's win over Corky Combs is surprising because Combs is Old Guard and Wes was just finishing up his first term.  Combs got the endorsement and then ran a vicious smear campaign that appears to have turned off the electorate.

Candace Keller's win over Joe Mulligan is another case of establishment power being crushed.  Keller has been a frequent candidate for office before, but finally wins to take Derickson's state House seat (he was term limited).

For me, the biggest victory of the night was Ann Becker winning the State Central Committee seat from the establishment's choice.  Ann has been a strong Tea Party leader and has frequently been a vocal critic of the way things are going with the state party and local issues.

Four races that clearly demonstrate that the Central and Executive Committee endorsement means a whole lot less than it used to in Butler County.  It's a good thing.  New blood is seriously needed as it can now be argued that the current batch are out of touch with the communities they are supposed to represent.

SIDEBAR: Sheriff Spotlight gets dinged too.  Particularly in the Retherford race.  He's usually a behind-the-scenes player in these things, but his fingerprints are hard to miss.

* CORRECTION: A Facebook friend reminded me that nobody got the endorsement. Roger Reynolds received the most votes, but not enough to capture the prize. He subsequently dropped out and support rallied around Derickson after that.