After a close primary and a general election upended in the 11th hour by emails leaked to county officials, the media and his opponent, Republican Weston Wamp defeated Democrat Matt Adams on Thursday in the race for Hamilton County mayor.
Wamp, 35, will succeed the outgoing mayor, Jim Coppinger, who was appointed to the role in 2011 before being elected to two subsequent terms.
“The most important thing we can do is just bring an attitude that county government exists to serve everybody across the county,” Wamp said as results showed him winning the race. “Wide open transparency, working hard every day. And I think from that, you’ll see a lot opportunities to serve, from the school system, which we talked about at length, even to rethinking the way that we recruit great companies here.”
Wamp said his general election campaign was about setting priorities.
“I think county government frankly has all its priorities out of whack,” he said. “County government is state government at the local level. It’s the essential services. It’s the most important stuff. It’s public safety.”