Watkins to have 1st opponent in 24 years

Bluedorn has been active in the campaigns of Gov. Ted Strickland and Congressman Tim Ryan.

WARREN — Next year, Trumbull County Prosecutor Dennis Watkins will have an Election Day opponent for the first time since being elected to his first term in 1984.

Samuel Bluedorn, 42, of Warren plans to challenge Watkins in next year’s March Democratic primary.

Bluedorn has been in private practice 12 years and was Trumbull County coordinator for the Ted Strickland for Governor campaign last year.

Bluedorn said he has considered running for prosecutor for four to five years but was encouraged to try this year because of an indication that Watkins might not run again.

“To be honest, I thought Dennis was going to retire,” Bluedorn said recently. Specifically, he learned that Watkins had no active campaign account at the county’s board of elections.

But Watkins has since opened a new account.

Bluedorn says he’s in the race, either way.

Bluedorn said he held a fundraiser in March and followed it up with a golf outing in June. He has also promoted his candidacy in parades and at the Trumbull County Fair.

Background

Bluedorn graduated from Warren Western Reserve High School in 1982 and earned his law degree in 1992. He spent nearly six years in the prosecutor’s offices in Canton, Akron and Warren before going into private practice in 1996.

Bluedorn said he has been involved in politics from a young age because of the political involvement of his father, Jerry Bluedorn, retired chief deputy with the Trumbull County Sheriff’s Department. Samuel Bluedorn said he has also been involved with the campaigns of U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan of Niles, D-17th, dating to the beginning of Ryan’s career in the Ohio Senate.

Watkins was appointed prosecutor Feb. 1, 1984, after the resignation of J. Walter Dragelovich. Watkins began his career with the prosecutor’s office in 1971 as a legal intern and became chief counsel in the criminal division in 1979. He earned his law degree in 1970.

His only Election Day opponent was Republican Michael Mogul, who ran against him in the general election of 1984.

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