Senator Robert Gardner (R) foregoes county post to remain in Senate

The Gonger News Service is reporting that (pro-CCW) Senator Robert Gardner (R-Bowling Green) had made the decision not to resign his seat in the Ohio Senate in order to accept the position of Lake County Commissioner.

As OFCC PAC reported last week, Gardner, the Senate's president pro tem, was repotedly weighing his options on whether he would withdraw from consideration for the Lake County post or remain in the Senate.

The prospect of a yet another legislative vacancy sparked by term limits evaporated Friday when he 18th District's Senator, who must leave the chamber in 2004, withdrew his name as a candidate for appointment to an opening on the Lake County Board of Commissioners.

Representative Jamie Callender, who OFCC PAC endorsed in 2002, simultaneously announced his intentions to seek to replace Gardner as Senator for the 18th District, when his term ends in 2004. A Callender election would, of course, ensure continued pro-CCW representation for the 18th Senate District. The move also necessitates the search for a new pro-CCW candidate for 2004 to represent Callender's 62nd House District.