By Steve Kemme
The Cincinnati Enquirer

After enduring a week-long vote recount and more than a month of uncertainty, Tom Niehaus emerged Friday as the unofficial winner of the Republican nomination for Ohio's 14th Senate seat.

His opponent, Jean Schmidt, needed to pick up 23 votes in Friday's recount in Scioto County to defeat Niehaus.

But she gained no votes, making Niehaus the winner by a scant 22 votes.

"It feels great to have the recount in with me being the winner," said Niehaus, speaking Friday afternoon by telephone from the Scioto County Board of Elections in Portsmouth.

"It's certainly going to be a great weekend."

Schmidt, of Miami Township, said she will decide whether to challenge the outcome after Clermont County certifies the recount results from all five counties.

"Until I get a chance to evaluate the entire process, I'm keeping my options open," she said.

Schmidt and Niehaus are both state representatives who were competing to replace Sen. Doug White. White, a Republican from Manchester, was unable to seek re-election because of the state term-limits law.

Each of the 14th Senate District's five counties - Clermont, Brown, Adams, Lawrence and Scioto - held recounts this week. The final tally was 17,098 for Niehaus, 17,076 for Schmidt.

Niehaus, of New Richmond, is the heavy favorite to defeat Democratic candidate Paul Schwietering, who has never held public office.

In unofficial vote totals on the night of the March primary, Schmidt beat Niehaus, 16,911 to 16,849, a 62-vote margin. But in a reversal, canvass results three weeks later indicated Niehaus defeated Schmidt by 26 votes - 17,092 to 17,066.

Because the margin of victory was less than 0.5 percent of the vote total, state law required a recount.

This was the only recount conducted for an Ohio General Assembly race in the March primary.

The last recount in an Ohio Senate race occurred in 2002, said James Lee, Ohio Secretary of State spokesman. Jeffry Armbruster defeated Susan Morano in the recount of that Republican primary election in the 13th Senate District, west of Cleveland.

With representatives of Niehaus and Schmidt observing, the board of elections employees in each of the 14th District's five counties inspected the ballots by hand and then ran them through scanners to be counted.

The recount began Monday in Clermont County and ended Friday in Scioto County.

E-mail skemme@enquirer.com