Decisive wins defined primary election

Democrats and former President Donald Trump rarely want the same thing. Yet both were probably pleased Tuesday when Westlake businessman Bernie Moreno won the Republican primary, pitting him against U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Cleveland, in November. Of course, Trump and the Democratic super PAC that waded into the contentious GOP primary last week wanted Moreno to prevail for different reasons. Trump endorsed Moreno because he wanted someone loyal to him, and Moreno has promised not to disappoint. Democrats wanted Moreno to win because they viewed him as the weakest opponent for Brown in the general election, which explains why Duty and Country, the Democratic super PAC, reserved around $2.7 million in ads in the waning days of the campaign in a bid to boost Moreno. Although framed as an attack ad — it called Moreno "too conservative for Ohio" — the piece was clearly aimed at pushing him across the finish line ahead of state Sen. Matt Dolan, R-Chagrin Falls, and Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose. (Polls routinely showed Dolan, widely viewed as the most moderate of the three conservative candidates, outperforming his GOP rivals in a head-to-head matchup against Brown.) "Moreno would lead the charge to enact Trump's MAGA agenda to repeal Obamacare and institute a national ban on abortion," the ad's narrator warned. That's exactly the sort of message many GOP primary voters wanted to hear. Although Trump's endorsement was the key factor in Moreno's win Tuesday, Duty and Country's ads probably helped. Unofficial election results showed Moreno winning almost 51 percent of the vote statewide compared to Dolan's nearly 33 percent and LaRose's almost 17 percent. The results were roughly similar in Lorain County, where Moreno took almost 52 percent of the vote, while Dolan received nearly 35 percent. LaRose trailed with a little more than 13 percent. It also bears noting that President Joe Biden, a Democrat, outperformed Trump on Tuesday in their respective primaries. Biden took just over 87 percent of the vote statewide and 86.3 percent in the county against Dean Phillips, a little-known congressman from Minnesota. Trump, meanwhile, won both statewide and in the county. He picked up nearly 78.5 percent of the vote in the contest for at-large delegates in the county and nearly 75 percent in the district delegate contest. Statewide, he won the at-large delegate contest with 79.2 percent. For the district that includes Lorain County, he won with almost 76.8 percent of the vote. (Republicans, unlike Democrats, vote for both at-large and congressional district-level delegates to their party's convention.) This showed that while there are still pockets of party voters unhappy with both Biden and Trump, the problem, such as it is, is more pronounced on the GOP side. Anyway, Ohio's Senate race wasn't the first time Democrats have meddled in a GOP primary with an eye toward pushing a candidate they perceived as weaker into the general election. For instance, in the race for Pennsylvania governor two years ago, they helped elevate GOP candidate Doug Mastriano, who went on to lose the general election to now-Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat. Yes, the tactic has worked in battleground states such as Pennsylvania, but that doesn't mean it will work in Ohio, which has morphed from a swing state into a reliably Republican one. Brown is one of the most vulnerable Democrats seeking reelection this year. If he loses, Democrats will rue helping Moreno. It also wouldn't surprise us if some local Democrats had been rooting for Lorain County Commissioner Michelle Hung to prevail against Avon Lake businessman Marty Gallagher, her opponent in the GOP primary. Hung was vulnerable thanks in large part to having been caught having an affair with a subordinate in 2021. She also was involved in a long-running feud with her fellow Republican commissioner, Dave Moore. Gallagher crushed Hung, winning nearly 69.2 percent of the vote compared to Hung's roughly 30.8 percent. Moore, who had come in for attacks because of his handling of a new public-safety radio system, won his own primary with around 60.6 percent of the vote. His opponent, Hung's administrative assistant, Matthew Spears, received around 39.4 percent. Spears was a relatively unknown candidate, but he outperformed Hung, highlighting just how much political damage, much of it self-inflicted, she had sustained. Moore will face Democrat Brian Baker, who was unopposed in his primary in November, while Gallagher will square off with Lorain City Councilman Tony Dimacchia, D-at large. Dimacchia won just shy of 39.9 percent of the vote in a four-way Democratic primary. He performed especially well in Lorain, the county's largest city and a Democratic stronghold. In his hometown, he received more votes than all three of the other candidates combined. Former Sheffield Village Councilwoman Carolyn White, who finished second with almost 32.6 percent of the vote, won in a handful of communities, including Sheffield. In the race to replace retiring county Sheriff Phil Stammitti, a Democrat, Rich Resendez handily won the Democratic primary against Sheriff's Capt. Rick Thomas, a former North Ridgeville police chief. Resendez won about 59.7 percent of the vote compared to Thomas' roughly 40.3 percent. In the fall he'll face Republican Jack Hall, who ran unopposed in the GOP primary. Resendez went into the race with a solid base in Lorain, where he was once a police officer, and he had wider county name recognition from his years working for Stammitti, often serving as his spokesman. Name recognition also helped Dawn Walther, who is married to county Probate Judge James Walther, win the Democratic primary for county recorder against Jeff Bearer. It likely didn't help Bearer that, as chief deputy recorder, he was effectively campaigning to run against his boss, incumbent Mike Doran, a Republican seeking a second term who was unopposed in the GOP primary. Walther carried every community in the county, beating Bearer 65.7 percent to 34.3 percent.