LORAIN — Pat Riley cruised to victory over Republican challenger Michael Scherach in the Lorain law director’s race.

Riley, a Democrat, was named interim law director in April to replace former Law Director Mark Provenza, who resigned in March after being sent to jail for violating the conditions of his probation in his latest DUI case.

“I’m looking forward to returning to work tomorrow and trying to do the best job I can,” Riley said.

Riley took 9,310 votes, or 73.28 percent of the vote, according to unofficial returns from the Lorain County Board of Elections. Scherach garnered 3,394 votes, or 26.72 percent of the vote.

Scherach, a former law director himself, did not return a call seeking comment Tuesday night.

Although he easily defeated Scherach at the polls Tuesday, Riley almost didn’t stay on the ballot.

Scherach, 64, challenged Riley’s candidacy after a form naming him the Democratic candidate couldn’t be found at the elections board after the Aug. 19 deadline. Scherach filed less than an hour before the deadline to run in the race to serve the remaining two years of Provenza’s term.

Without the form, which Democrats said was completed and signed at the same April 30 meeting where Riley was named interim law director, Scherach argued Riley wasn’t a legitimate candidate.

Democrats countered that Riley, 56, was officially the candidate as soon as the document was given to elections board Director Jose Candelario, a Democrat, the night of the meeting.

Candelario said he gave the form to a Republican elections board worker the next day, but didn’t realize it wasn’t where it was supposed to be until after the deadline when Republicans told him it was missing.

The Republican elections board worker, Allyson Hurst, said she tried to tell Candelario she didn’t have all of Riley’s paperwork in June, but he told her she had everything she needed and walked away.

After his concerns about Riley’s candidacy were rejected in party-line votes by the elections board, Scherach took his complaints to the Ohio Supreme Court, which refused to intervene.

Riley said he was surprised at his lopsided victory.

“I think it makes a statement that the public doesn’t want gamesmanship in the political process,” he said.

Contact Brad Dicken at 329-7147 or bdicken@chroniclet.com.

---

Print this story
Report an inappropriate comment

---

In order to comment, you must agree to our user agreement and discussion guidelines.

Need help? Email Us.

---