While Athens County Board of Elections employees were diligently counting ballots cast toward open Athens City Council seats, candidate Troy Gregorino was playing soccer with a few friends at Ohio University.
A text message from a friend alerted him that he had lost his chance at an at-large seat on city council, a position he began to campaign for in May. He had received about 10 percent of the vote in the November general election and lost to three Democrats.
Gregorino, who is also the booking manager at Donkey Coffee & Espresso, 17 1/2 W. Washington St., wasn’t one to worry.
He said he had made the decision to run largely based on the fact that the at-large seats weren’t challenged. Gregorino ran as an Independent, hoping to give voice to what he considers a prominent party in Athens.
“We were facing a ballot of all uncontested races, and it drove me nuts,” Gregorino said.
Gregorino said he knew his chances of winning were slim because he had a short amount of time to campaign.
“It was a lot of real on-the-ground grassroots effort (with campaigning), not a lot of conventional roots or resources like door-to-door, things that you typically see,” Gregorino said. “It was a lot of individual conversation. There wasn’t a lot of time for those things to unfold when I made the decision to run.”
Yet Gregorino had a pretty good chance at winning—if he had run a more traditional campaign, said Council President Jim Sands.
“Having garnered 10 percent of the vote, with a little more effort he could have kicked someone off council,” Sands said. “Especially if he didn’t campaign much, that’s a lot. I went to the candidate forum, and I thought he didn’t put a lot of effort into answering his questions. I think he had an audience he could have engaged, maybe he didn’t really want to do this.”
Gregorino campaigned for green issues and a more stable arts and music scene in the community, something some students feel strongly about. Having targeted students, Sands said, he could have helped Gregorino secure votes.
“The fact that he works with Donkey definitely would have made me look into him more, but I didn’t hear anything,” said Luke Kubacki, a sophomore studying African Studies. “So I didn’t vote.”
Incumbents Chris Knisley and Steve Patterson, as well as interim Councilwoman Jennifer Cochran, who was appointed after the early departure of Elahu Gosney, were elected earlier this month.
Gregorino said he’s still committed to fostering music and art communities in Athens and to helping the needy.
“Now that the election’s finally over, I can invest creative energy that doesn’t rely on Election Day,” Gregorino said. “I’m no conventional politician, but this isn’t a conventional town.”
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This article appeared in print under the headline "Former candidate Gregorino looks forward to future without council"
