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HOLLIDAYSBURG -- Blair County's incumbent prothonotary had no trouble fending off a Republican challenger in Tuesday's primary, making her the lone candidate for the office in the November election.
"This is a huge sense of relief for me," Prothonotary Robin Patton said Tuesday night at Zach's Sports & Spirits in Altoona where she gathered with family, friends and campaign workers. "We all worked so hard for this."
Unofficial results available Tuesday night from the county elections office showed Patton with 8,319 votes on the Republican ticket while challenger Bill Straesser received 4,904 votes.
Straesser, an Altoona resident who worked for former U.S. Rep. Bill Shuster, R-9th District, campaigned against Patton and criticized her management of the office.
Straesser, who did not return a phone call to the Mirror on Tuesday night, told the voters in his campaign materials that if were elected prothonotary, he would show respect for veterans, the public and the office's employees.
Patton's campaign, in a message to voters on Tuesday, referred to Straesser's "completely negative smear campaign" as being "full of lies and misinformation."
In the weeks leading up to Tuesday's primary, Straesser, regularly posted campaign videos on his Facebook page, making accusations against Patton.
At her campaign victory party Tuesday night, Patton said she chose not to respond to Straesser's videos.
"I didn't think any of it deserved a response because some of what he said was so ridiculous," Patton said.
Instead, her campaign focused on reminding voters that she has worked 20-plus years in the prothonotary's office, including the last 3.5 years as prothonotary.
"I wanted to send a message to the citizens of Blair County that I was running on my experience and my knowledge of the office. I didn't want to go negative on my opponent, like he did on me," Patton said. "I thought the citizens deserved better."
Straesser, during his videos, tried to convince the voters that they deserved better than Patton.
His accusations rang hollow with viewers who faulted him for lack of information or sources to substantiate his claims.
Straesser's campaign also faulted Dave Gorman, a former county district attorney who now works as a state deputy attorney general, for Gorman's support of Patton's campaign.
Gorman, who has been supportive of many candidates and campaigns over the years, described Straesser's campaign against Patton as "the most personal, hurtful, hateful and negative campaign" he has ever seen.
"As far as I'm concerned, Bill Straesser is what gives politics a bad name," Gorman said.
Patton, all smiles at her campaign party where she was repeatedly congratulated, said she's looking forward to the November election.
"I just want to keep working on moving the office forward," Patton said. "The citizens of Blair County deserve that."
Mirror Staff Writer Kay
Stephens is at 814-946-7456.