Ron Hadsell will be the Democratic candidate for the 89th District State Representative race. Hadsell beat Mike Crabtree in the primary election Tuesday night to become the candidate for state representative of parts of Lawrence, Scioto and Adams counties.

“We’re real happy,” Hadsell said when reached Tuesday night. “This win is a testament to hard work and the hunger of southern Ohio for a state representative with experience creating jobs.”

In Lawrence County, Hadsell won 637 votes to Crabtree’s 418. For Scioto County, Hadsell had 2,459 votes compared to Crabtree’s 1,804. At press time, Crabtree had a 65 to 35 percent lead over Hadsell in Adams County.

Hadsell, of Scioto County, is vice president for business development at Hadsell Development and a project manager and chief estimator for J&H Erectors.

“I congratulate Mike Crabtree and his supporters and I look forward to meeting his supporters,” Hadsell said.

Hadsell will face republican Terry Johnson in the November election.

“We look forward to a vigorous campaign with my opponent,” he said. “I look forward to a serious discussion about how to create jobs. I think anything less than a serious discussion about how to create jobs in Southern Ohio would be a wasted campaign.”

Crabtree blamed a lack of funding and a late campaign start for his loss.

“I think we made a pretty good showing,” he said. “I’m not all that disappointed.”

He spent around $17,000, he said.

The Scioto County Commissioner said he will not support Hadsell in the election because he believes the campaign included some false accusations about Crabtree.

He wished Hadsell luck in the election but added that he would not help him win.

State Senate – 17th

From the first vote totals coming in, State Rep. Clyde Evans of 87th District, took the lead in Lawrence County in his fight to get the Republican nomination for State Senate seat in the 17th District.

But David Daniels edged Evans late and will take on Justin Fallon in November.

“I thank the voters of the 17th District for placing their trust in me,” Daniels said. “(If elected in the fall) I look forward to working with everyone to solve Ohio’s problems.”

Daniels garnered 13,501 votes to Evans’ 12,679.

Both Evans and Daniels, state representative for the neighboring 86th District, are term limited for their House seats. The 17th District takes in parts of Lawrence and Pickaway counties as well as Clinton, Fayette, Highland, Ross, Pike, Jackson, Vinton and Gallia counties.

Evans, the familiar figure to Lawrence County voters, never lost his lead here. Starting at 9 p.m. with just 10 percent of the precincts in, Evans had almost 80 percent of the votes with 207 to Daniels’ 53 votes. By 11 p.m. he had taken the county with about 66 percent of the tally or 861 votes to Daniels’ 436.

Besides Lawrence County, Evans pulled in his home county of Gallia with 83 percent of the vote followed by Jackson with 70 percent. But he only eked out a win in Ross County getting 2,214 votes to Daniels’ 2,127.

The final days of the campaign ended in wrangling from both candidates over radio and mail campaign ads with Daniels, then Evans filing complaints with the Ohio Elections Commission.

A panel of the commission had found probable cause on the allegations and a full commission hearing had been scheduled for Monday. However, at that hearing both parties agreed to a continuance.

If the commission would find that the Ohio Revised Code statute concerning false campaign statements was violated, the offending party could possible face prosecution on the local level.