ELECTION 2025: Dems surge in Magic City

By BOB MOREHEAD

BGNN senior staff writer

It wasn’t a blow-out but the Democrats on the 2025 ballot won most of their races in Barberton.

This is significant because the former Democratic fortress went hard for Donald Trump all three times he was on the ballot. Each of the last two city council races put more Republicans in the seats until the GOP had a supermajority. Democratic Mayor William Judge squeaked out a victory by the narrowest of margins in his bid for a third term.

That trend reversed Nov. 4.

Ward 3 Councilman Shorter Griffin edged out a win over Megann Eberhart, 1,841-1,732 to take the council president’s gavel.

Incumbent at-large Councilwoman Tayler Thompson was defeated in her re-election bid, as was fellow Republican Tina Ludwig.

Thompson took 1,499 and Ludwig 1,275. Victors were Democrats Julie Miller and Chris Stoll, with 1,580 each. Write-in candidate Dallas Moore took 169.

In Ward 2, Democrat Bryan Poorman handily defeated the GOP’s Mike Hoover, 403-245. Chuck Easterling took 40 votes on his write-in bid to retain the seat.

Katie Reed edged by a challenge from Matt Shaughnessy to remain clerk of Barberton Municipal Court.

Municipal Court Judge Diana Stevenson was unopposed in her re-election bid.

With two open seats and two candidates, both Brenda Stevenson Rickenbacker and write-in candidate Jason Slater will sit on the Barberton Board of Education in January.

Barberton’s charter amendments were a mixed bag of passes and failures. Here they are one-by-one:

• Issue 6 would have made it easier for the city to give up municipal-owned property, mirroring provisions in the Ohio Revised Code. Voters rejected the idea 1,722-1,580.

• Issue 7 mandates minimum qualifications for the city safety director, such as a college degree and relevant experience. That passed overwhelmingly, 2,855-570.

• Issue 8 repeats Issue 7 for the service director. It was passed 2,843-575.

• Issue 9 puts the storm water department formally under the service director. This had been existing practice but was never codified. That went through 2,855-544.

• Issue 10 repeats Issue 7 for the finance director and passed 2,693-618.

• Issue 11 repeats issue 7 for the law director and was approved 2,692-601.

• Issue 12 lets the law director, with council approval, make editorial changes to the charter. Voters said yes, 1,981-1,265.

• Issue 13 eliminates the requirement of the council clerk to pin up hard copies of all ordinances and public notices in six places. The internet rendered this obsolete. Voters, however, disliked the idea. It went down 1,763-1,407.

• Issue 14 requires the Planning Commission to review the master plan every five years. Voters liked this one, 2,171-1,086.

• Issue 15 was withdrawn, replaced by Issue 25.

• Issue 16 would have eliminated the Board of Health. As a charter requirement, the city could not dissolve it, even though Barberton joined the county health district, with a Barbertonian appointed to that board, more than a decade ago. The Barberton Board of Health hasn’t had a function in all that time. Nevertheless, voters opted to keep it, 2.037-1,202.

• Issue 17 puts the director of human resources under the Civil Service Commission, ostensibly safeguarding that office from politics. Voters jumped on that one, 2,247-998 in favor.

• Issue 18 frees the mayor up to appoint members as needed to any regional, county and other boards that come along and require Barberton representation but aren’t in the charter. The appointment will still need council ratification. That also passed 2,049-1,143.

• Issue 19 will require all board and commission meetings to be recorded on audio and/or video. The public will be allowed access to all these recordings. It passed 2,749-532.

• Issue 20 would have done away with partisan elections in the Magic City. That failed 1,752-1,471.

• Issue 21 moves the deadline for having the Charter Review Commission appointed from February of that year to January with a report date of April, removes the partisan requirements and mandates a public hearing on proposed amendments. It passed 1,657-1,547.

• Issue 22 makes the city engineer a classified position and moves that official under the service director. It succeeded 1,821-1,349.

• Issue 23 repeats Issue 22 with the superintendent of utilities with similar results, 1,830-1.344.

• Issue 24 repeats Issue 22 with the building commissioner, also approved 1,699-1,475.

• Issue 25 would have abolished the Parks and Recreation Commission. Voters rejected the idea 1,468-1,788.