Charlie Patterson wins 4-way race for Clark County commission seat
Mar. 20—Former Clark County Health Commissioner Charlie Patterson won by a large margin over three opponents that he then thanked for seeking an open county commissioner seat in the Republican primary election on Tuesday.
According to final, unofficial results, Patterson won 43.26% of the votes, while Dave Marshall, local teacher and former campaign worker, received 22.75%; Matt Quesenberry, local project manager for a construction engineering company, won 23.39%; and William Lindsey, New Carlisle City Council member, had 10.6%.
The candidates ran to fill outgoing commissioner Lowell McGlothin's seat. In November, Patterson will face Democrat Kevin O'Neill, a former longtime Springfield city commissioner who lost his seat in November 2023 to newcomer Tracey Tackett.
Patterson thanked his election committee for its hard work in getting here, and said he was happy to see so many Republican candidates interested in the open commission seat.
"It was great to see so many people step up to fill the open seat, and I'd like to thank the competitors because it does take courage to put yourself and your family out there when you're running for public office, so I appreciate my opponents doing that," Patterson said. "We're hopeful that we'll take this victory into the fall and have a successful campaign."
O'Neill is a Springfield native and Catholic Central graduate who served as a city commissioner from 1992 until this year. His resume includes serving as a real estate developer/builder, restaurant owner and caterer.
He spearheaded the direct election of Springfield's mayor; previously, commission members voted amongst themselves to determine mayor.
Patterson looked ahead to November.
"We want to thank the voters for the confidence they've put into our campaign, and we look forward to the general election in the fall," Patterson said. "We have a formidable opponent in former city commissioner Kevin O'Neill; he's very well known here and has a lot of experience on the city commission and as a local businessman, so we'll be gearing up."
Voter turnout for the primary election was reported at 26.11%.
Patterson has held positions in multiple counties, been involved with the state and testified in front of Congress in his health commissioner role, from which he retired after 23 years in the role in January.
Marshall has worked on state campaigns and been involved in several levels of government, qualities he previously said give him a leg up on other candidates. He said this has given him "some really great contacts" to whom he can reach out and bring opportunities to Clark County.
Quesenberry, a project manager and Kenton Ridge graduate, said previously that while he has never served in office, he has a lot of experience dealing with budgets, contracts, government and people.
Lindsey is a New Carlisle City Council member on his second term, previously serving as the vice mayor for the city.
