HAMILTON — With the Butler County Republican Party endorsing no one for the new Common Pleas judge's seat, six candidates filed petitions Thursday to compete for the GOP nomination on the May 7 primary election ballot.

        Andy Nastoff received the most votes in the party's endorsement balloting Wednesday night. But he fell far short of the required 60 percent for the endorsement in each of the three separate votes by 203 members of the executive and central committees.

        Other Republicans who filed petitions for this seat Thursday at the Butler County Board of Elections are: Timothy Evans, Craig Hedric, Gary Kaup, Charles Pater and Daniel Warncke.

        The top four vote-getters in the third and final vote at the GOP endorsement meeting Wednesday were: Mr. Nastoff, 87 votes (43 percent); Mr. Hedric, 40 votes (20 percent); Mr. Warncke, 27 votes (13 percent); and Mr. Pater, 21 votes (10 percent).

        Mr. Evans, Joseph Newlin, Jeffrey Milbauer, Gary Kaup and Bennett Manning each received fewer than 10 votes.

        Mr. Nastoff said he wasn't surprised that no one was able to grab at least 60 percent of the vote.

        “With so many candidates, we knew it was going to be very difficult to receive an endorsement,” he said.

        He came close to receiving the required 45 percent of the vote for a recommendation from the party.

        Farrell J. Goodman is the only Democrat running for the judgeship.

        The deadline for filing had been pushed back to today because the state legislature was late in approving this new judgeship.

        The filing deadline for other public offices on the May ballot was Feb. 21.

        The new judge's seat was created because of Butler County's rapid population growth.

        From 1990 to 2000, Butler County gained more than 41,000 residents, a 14.2 percent increase.

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