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Ohio State Senate elections, 2012

Majority control •Campaign contributions

Qualifications •Competitiveness analysis

State Legislative Election Results

List of candidatesDistrict 1 •District 2 •District 4 •District 6 •District 8 •District 10 •District 12 •District 14 •District 16 •District 17 •District 18 •District 20 •District 22 •District 24 •District 26 •District 28 •District 30 •District 32

Ohio State Senate •2012 Ohio House Elections

State legislative elections in 2012

Elections for the office ofOhio State Senate were held inOhio onNovember 6, 2012. Atotal of 18 seats were up for election.

The signature filing deadline for candidates wishing to run in these elections was December 7, 2011. The primary was March 6, 2012.

See also:Ohio House of Representatives elections, 2012 andState legislative elections, 2012

Majority control

See also:Partisan composition of state senates

Heading into the November 6 election, the Republican Party held the majority in theOhio State Senate:

Incumbents retiring

A total of 2 incumbents did not run for re-election in 2012. They are:

Name	Party	Current Office
Mark Wagoner	Republican	Senate District 2
Tom Niehaus	Republican	Senate District 14

Term limits

See alsoState legislatures with term limits andImpact of term limits on state senate elections in 2012

TheOhio State Senate has been a term-limited state senate since Ohio voters approvedBallot Issue 4, aninitiated constitutional amendment, in1992. This amendment became part ofSection 2 of Article II of theOhio Constitution and limits the amount of time that anOhio State Senator can stay in office to two 4-year terms, saying, "No person shall hold the office of State Senator for a period longer than two successive terms of four years." Senators can run for office again after being out-of-office for at least a four-year period.

There are 33Ohio State Senators. In 2012, 1 of them who wasa current member, or 3.03% of the total senate seats, was ineligible to run for the senate again in November.

In addition to the 1 state senator who left office because of term limits,6 state representatives were also termed-out.

The 1 current member of the state senate who was ineligible to run in November was:

Democrats (0):

There are no Democratic senators termed-out in 2012.

Republicans (1):

Campaign contributions

See also:State-by-state comparison of donations to state senate campaigns

The expenditures from a candidate's personal funds, or the funds of his or her spouse, parents, children, sons-in-law, daughters-in-law, brothers, sisters, grandparents, mother-in-law, father-in-law, brothers-in-law, sisters-in-law, or grandparents by marriage, in connection with his or her campaign for nomination for election to office may exceed one hundred thousand dollars during a primary election period in the aggregate or one hundred fifty thousand dollars during the general election period in the aggregate, in the case of statewide candidates, and twenty five thousand dollars during a primary election period in the aggregate or twenty-five thousand dollars during the general election period in the aggregate.^[1]

This chart shows how many candidates ran for state senate in Ohio in past years and the cumulative amount of campaign contributions in state senate races, including contributions in both primary and general election contests. All figures come fromFollow The Money.^[2]

During the2012 election, the total contributions to the 36 Senate candidates was $12,648,369. The top 10 contributors were:^[3]

Impact of redistricting

See also:Redistricting in Ohio

The Republican-controlled Ohio Apportionment Board approved new legislative maps by a party-line vote of 4-1 on September 28, 2011. ADayton Daily News report suggested that seven of the state's 33 senate districts would be competitive in the 2012 elections. The analysis also suggested that 17 districts favored Republicans by five points or more and nine districts favored Democrats by the same margin.^[4]

Qualifications

Article 2, Section 3 of theOhio Constitution states: Senators and representatives shall have resided in their respective districts one year next preceding their election, unless they shall have been absent on the public business of the United States, or of this state.

Article 2, Section 5 of theOhio Constitution states: No person hereafter convicted of an embezzlement of the public funds, shall hold any office in this state; nor shall any person, holding public money for disbursement, or otherwise, have a seat in the General Assembly, until he shall have accounted for, and paid such money into the treasury.

List of candidates

District 1

March 6 Democratic primary:

• Ruby Weadock Weadock was included on preliminary candidate lists, but did not appear on the official candidate list.^[5]

March 6 Republican primary:

• Cliff Hite: 38,177a - Incumbent Hite first assumed office in 2011.

November 6 General election candidates:

Cliff Hite 107,472

District 2

Note: IncumbentMark Wagoner (R) did not seek re-election.

March 6 Democratic primary:

• Jeff Bretz: 17,143a

March 6 Republican primary:

• Randy Gardner: 28,626a
• Michelle McCauley: 7,361

November 6 General election candidates:

Jeff Bretz 73,113

Randy Gardner 102,319

District 4

March 6 Democratic primary:

• No Democratic candidates filed

March 6 Republican primary:

• Bill Coley: 24,017a - Incumbent Coley first assumed office in 2011.

November 6 General election candidates:

Bill Coley 104,591

District 6

March 6 Democratic primary:

• Rickey E. McKiddy: 7,402a

March 6 Republican primary:

• Paul R. Isaacs II: 12,699
• Peggy Lehner: 27,352a- Incumbent Lehner first assumed office in 2011.

November 6 General election candidates:

Rickey E. McKiddy 63,874

Peggy Lehner 106,095

District 8

March 6 Democratic primary:

• Richard G. Luken: 3,765a

March 6 Republican primary:

• Bill Seitz: 24,689a - Incumbent Seitz first assumed office in 2009.

November 6 General election candidates:

Richard G. Luken 65,744

Bill Seitz 104,852

District 10

March 6 Democratic primary:

• Jeff D. Robertson: 8,405a

March 6 Republican primary:

• Chris Widener: 35,833a - Incumbent Widener first assumed office in 2009.

November 6 General election candidates:

Jeff D. Robertson 60,191

Chris Widener 95,440

District 12

March 6 Democratic primary:

• No Democratic candidates filed.

March 6 Republican primary:

• Keith Faber: 40,372a - Incumbent Faber first assumed office in 2009.

March 6 Libertarian primary:

• Paul D. Hinds: 81a

November 6 General election candidates:

Keith Faber 111,694

Paul D. Hinds 29,974

District 14

Note: IncumbentTom Niehaus (R) was ineligible for re-election due toterm limits.

March 6 Democratic primary:

• No Democratic candidates filed.

March 6 Republican primary:

• Tony Adkins: 2,715
• Paul Hall: 17,733
• Steve Purtell: 3,912
• Joe Uecker: 17,912a

November 6 General election candidates:

Joe Uecker 110,109

District 16

March 6 Democratic primary:

• No Democratic candidates filed.

March 6 Republican primary:

• Jim Hughes: 29,594a - Incumbent Hughes first assumed office in 2009.

Note:Nathan Larger was running but withdrew from the race.

November 6 General election candidates:

Jim Hughes 129,136

District 17

March 6 Democratic primary:

• No candidates filed to run for this seat.

March 6 Republican primary:

• No candidates filed to run for this seat.

Note:Bob Peterson first assumed office in the seat in March 2012 following the primary to replaceDavid T. Daniels (R).^[6]

November 6 General election candidates:

Bob Peterson 93,829

District 18

March 6 Democratic primary:

• Jim Mueller: 14,343a

March 6 Republican primary:

• John Eklund: 26,863a - Incumbent Eklund first assumed office in 2011.

November 6 General election candidates:

Jim Mueller 75,354

John Eklund 90,962

District 20

March 6 Democratic primary:

• Teresa M. Scarmack: 10,077a

March 6 Republican primary:

• Troy Balderson: 29,331a - Incumbent Balderson first assumed office in 2011.

November 6 General election candidates:

Teresa M. Scarmack 61,077

Troy Balderson 89,659

District 22

March 6 Democratic primary:

• James E. Riley: 10,447a

Note:Ellen Kay Haring was included on preliminary candidate lists, but did not appear on the official candidate list.^[7]

March 6 Republican primary:

• Larry Obhof Jr.: 29,273a - Incumbent Obhof first assumed office in 2011.

November 6 General election candidates:

James E. Riley 64,700

Larry Obhof Jr. 94,525

District 24

March 6 Democratic primary:

• Jennifer L. Brady: 23,560a

March 6 Republican primary:

• Thomas Patton: 25,675a - Incumbent Patton first assumed office in 2009.

November 6 General election candidates:

Jennifer L. Brady 72,592

Thomas Patton 104,247

District 26

March 6 Democratic primary:

• Tanyce J. Addison: 9,208a

March 6 Republican primary:

• Dave Burke: 29,922a - Incumbent Burke first assumed office in 2011.

November 6 General election candidates:

Tanyce J. Addison 56,741

Dave Burke 86,055

District 28

March 6 Democratic primary:

• Thomas Sawyer: 17,068a - Incumbent Sawyer first assumed office in 2007.

March 6 Republican primary:

• Robert G. Roush: 11,355a

November 6 General election candidates:

Thomas Sawyer 104,697

Robert G. Roush 40,952

District 30

March 6 Democratic primary:

• Lou Gentile: 26,364a - Incumbent Gentile first assumed office in 2011.

March 6 Republican primary:

• Laura D. Groux: 23,185a

November 6 General election candidates:

Lou Gentile 82,403

Shane Thompson 74,884

Note:Laura D. Groux ran in the primary election, but withdrew afterward and was replaced byShane Thompson.^[8]

District 32

March 6 Democratic primary:

• Capri Cafaro: 22,222a - Incumbent Cafaro first assumed office in 2009.

March 6 Republican primary:

• Nancy McArthur: 17,919a

November 6 General election candidates:

Capri Cafaro 99,499

Nancy McArthur 48,681

External links

• Ohio Secretary of State - 2012 Elections Information
• Ohio Department of Elections - 2012 primary results
• Ohio Department of Elections, 2012 General Election State Senate Candidates

See also

• Ohio State Senate
• Ohio State Legislature
• State legislative elections, 2012

Footnotes

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