STEUBENVILLE — Incumbent Tony Morelli cruised to an easy victory Tuesday in his bid for a second term as a Jefferson County commissioner, with political newcomer Jake Kleineke claiming the second seat that was up for grabs.
Both are Republicans.
Unofficial tallies show Morelli, 67, snared nearly 69 percent of the 29,590 votes cast in the race for the Jan. 3 commission seat. The Jefferson County Board of Elections showed Morelli, a Wintersville resident, pulled 20,361 votes to 9,229 for his Democratic challenger, 51-year-old Todd Mazzaferro.
In the race for the Jan. 2 seat, Kleineke, 63, won nearly 20,309 votes compared to 9,111 votes for his Democratic rival Charlie Newburn.
Morelli said he was pleased to pull 79 percent of the votes cast in his race.
“I’m really excited,” he said. “I’m looking forward to continuing some of the projects we started in my first term. I feel like we have momentum going, I want to keep going with it.”
Morelli said he’s looking forward to working with Kleineke as well as Commissioner Eric Timmons, who wasn’t up for election this year, adding, “I’ll miss Dave (Commissioner Dave Maple, who chose not to run for re-election.)”
He said it took work, “a lot of hard work.”
“I think people see me out there, I’m pretty high profile – it’s what I like to do, to be out in the county and try to solve problems. I think people see me working and I think the results show we did it the right way.”
Kleineke said he was “excited, relieved” with the outcome.
“But I’m happy — I’m happy for the citizens of Jefferson County, I think everybody wins on this one.”
He said he brings “new ideas, new energy” to the office, and said he looks forward to working with Morelli and Timmons.
“I think people know I’m a hard worker, I’m honest and my name carries some integrity that I’ll do what I say I’ll do,” he said. “I just think a lot of people in the community have a lot of faith that I can make some change in county, good change. And when you have people that like to work together, who work together good, we’ll get a lot accomplished, instead of being in stagnant water.”
Kleineke said he’s proud to have “run a clean race, all the way through.”
“I definitely want to make sure the citizens of Jefferson County are represented; I will work with them all — it doesn’t matter what their affiliation is. I’ll do my best to give them an honest answer and honest results.”
Kleineke also thanked “my family, my wife and friends and the citizens of Jefferson County who voted for me and had faith in me to get through this, getting me to the point I’m at now.”