Incumbent Bill Theisen defeated paralegal Debbie Williams in yesterday's Athens County Commissioner Democratic primary race by 2.16 percent of the vote.
Theisen, with a vote count of 3,942 for all of Athens County, won 51.08 percent of the votes. He could not be reached last night for comment on the election. But Theisen's opponent said she thought of the results as a vote of confidence, not a defeat.
I don't feel that I really lost this election as it was only by a 166 vote difference
Williams said.
Williams received 48.92 percent of the votes with a total of 3,776 votes.
Athens County Democratic Chairman Susan Gwinn said she thought it was a very spirited race.
We have those frequently in Democratic primaries she said.
While Gwinn said that there are still some provisional ballots that need to be counted, she did not think Theisen's victory would change.
I stand behind him and hope he is elected another term Gwinn said.
I will congratulate Mr. Theisen; he was very gracious and gentlemanly in his campaign and I do appreciate that
Williams said. There is another commissioner seat coming up in two years
and I will be running for that seat
she said.
Williams said she plans to keep all her same positions when she runs in the next election.
Theisen will face Republican Steven McVey in the November general election, along with Independents Fred Weber and Kenneth Willie.
At the Athens County Public Library candidate forum Feb. 20, Theisen said that he plans to continue to be an advocate for veterans next term, and bring more jobs to Athens County to continue to improve economic development.
The government is allowing a lot of jobs to go overseas
Theisen said. The key to a healthy
happy county is to having jobs.
