By Nathan Pilling
XENIA — Ohio Sen. Bob Hackett (R-London) looked well on his way to beating his Republican challenger in the primary election for the Ohio Senate’s 10th District seat. With 63 percent of precincts reporting, Hackett was leading Brian Walton with 57.35 percent of the vote (a lead of about 6,500 votes).
Hackett will likely face Yellow Springs Democrat Matthew Kirk in the November general election. Kirk was defeating Springfield candidate Michael Sergio Gilbert with 66.68 percent of the vote (a lead of about 5,900 votes) as of press time.
Hackett highlighted education funding as one of his top priorities prior to the election.
“Funding our future leaders should be a top priority for our state, thus I think education funding for Ohio’s children should be a major part of our state budget,” he wrote prior to the election. “Over several years we have passed legislation to increase resources for education, giving parents more choices and to remove certain mandatory testing under common core.
“As far as how I personally would try to change the state’s budget, I will continue to focus on developing, supporting and co-sponsoring legislation which would be fiscally sound for Ohio and cut state spending.”
Kirk highlighted several priorities before the election: “It is time to stop leaving people and places to waste and bring the pride back,” he wrote. “We will need to break down the silos that exist between law enforcement and social services to get people back on track. We need to create local jobs by improving access to opportunity through education and innovative approaches to our agricultural and Main Street economies.”
