Ribb, Kuntz move forward

DICKINSON - Stark County residents have chosen Stark County Commission candidates Thomas Ribb and Pete Kuntz to move forward to the general election in November.

Ribb, Kuntz and Martin Krank all ran for the District 1 position on the Stark County Commission, which Chet Willer is vacating.

Tuesday’s election results eliminated Krank from the race and all three offered their thoughts on these results.

Ribb, who won an overwhelming 53.47 percent of votes, said he was pleased with the results.

“I would have liked a plurality and I got the majority,” Ribb said. “It is really nice.”

Ribb added he could not be sure what it was that gained him all the votes.

“Maybe it’s my experience; you know I was on the (Dickinson) city commission before and I’d like to think my working career as a CPA has some meaning,” Ribb said.

He hopes to start campaigning around Oct. 1 for the fall race. Until then, he wants to get more comfortable with the county commission’s finances.

“I hope I can have some time between now and then to spend some time learning the financial statements from the county,” Ribb said.

Kuntz received 32.52 percent of the votes. Although he received far less support than Ribb, he too was pleased with the results.

“I think it’s great,” Kuntz said. “I feel good about it.”

Kuntz added he felt Ribb attracted more votes because Kuntz hasn’t done as much campaigning.

“He (Ribb) was doing pretty heavy campaigning and I was pretty lax on it,” Kuntz said. “I really think it did have something to do with it.”

Kuntz intends to do more campaigning in the future.

“I plan on going out and doing about the same thing I’m doing now, only a little better,” Kuntz said.

Krank received 13.87 percent of the votes, but harbored no hard feelings regarding his elimination from the race.

“Throughout this campaign I’ve felt at ease with all my rivals,” Krank said.

He thought the votes seemed fair.

“It certainly was a challenge to me and the people’s choice was definitely fair with me,” Krank said. “I have no regret on the turnout, either.”

Besides Ribb and Kuntz, three other county commission candidates are on the ballot in November.

Bryan Personne and Jay Elkin are running for the District 5 seat which is currently held by Commissioner George Nodland, who is not running for a county post.

Both candidates move on to the ballot in November, but Elkin won over 66.76 percent of the votes during yesterday’s primary election.

Duane “Bucky” Wolf, who is the chair of the county commission, is an incumbent candidate who is running unopposed.

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