Does the amount of money a candidate spends in an election guarantee success at the polls? Not always, according to figures from the Lawrence County Board of Elections.

Friday was the filing deadline for candidates and entities with issues on the Nov. 8 ballot to file final finance reports with the Lawrence County Board of Elections. Most candidates and entities with issues on the November ballot were not required to file the itemized statements since they spent less than $1,000 or received less than $1,000 in donations. But three candidates and two issue groups filed the itemized finance reports since their campaign income and outflow were above that amount.

Not surprisingly, the two men running for Ironton Municipal Court judge were the biggest spenders, shelling out more than $150,000 in their battle for the bench. The Committee to Re-Elect Judge (Clark) Collins spent a total of

$69,324.35 to return the incumbent judge to his office at the city center. In the end-of-campaign papers filed Friday with the board of elections, Collins spent $26,660.35 since filing a pre-election finance report in October. One-third of that amount went to the Columbus-based Majority Strategies for campaign mailings.

In comparison, the Committee to Elect (Kevin) Waldo Judge spent a total of $82,125.86 on that campaign. Waldo spent $8,346.86 since he filed a pre-election finance report in October. The bulk of that amount— $5,475, went to various media outlets for advertising.

Did either candidate think the race would be as expensive as it turned out to be? Collins was not available for comment. Waldo said no.

“I thought it would expensive but I didn’t think it would be that expensive. One thing I learned is that there is no way of knowing until you get involved in it but we had a desire to do as well as we possibly could.”

The others filing final finance reports were the Citizens Committee for Ironton City Schools and its counterpart in the election, the Save Our School committee and incumbent Lawrence County School board member Kenny Shafer, who successfully sought re-election.