Ohio House 67th: Insider Jones (R) Narrowly Defeats Political Scion Nixon (R)

In a three-way primary in the heavily Republican 67th district, the candidate with connections to and support from current party leaders pulled off a close victory over a longtime officeholder's grandson, showing that (in this case anyway) its who you know that counts, not from whom you are descended.

This is the seat vacated by gubernatorial candidate Ken Blackwell's running mate, Rep. Tom Raga (R-Mason). The district covers half of Warren County just northeast of Cincinnati. For more than a decade it was represented by the late Corwin Nixon (R-Lebanon), who retired from the Ohio House of Representatives in 1992. In this year's primary election Corwin's grandson Corwin Keith Nixon, Jr (R-Lebanon), an attorney who as a youngster had served his grandfather as a page, was defeated by party insider Shannon Jones (R-Springsboro), a former legislative aide to Sen. Mike DeWine (R-Cedarville) among others. The margin of victory was only 203 votes, 0.82% of those cast, according to unofficial results from the Secretary of State. Jones received 4,943 votes, Nixon got 4,740, and 1,442 went to conservative activist John Meyer (R-Mason), who led a campaign against Mason school taxes last year.