Franklin County voters swept the Democratic incumbents from the county administration, punishing Sheriff Zach Scott and two office holders who supported him in the race for mayor last year. Retired Columbus Police Lt. Dallas Baldwin will become the next county sheriff after defeating Zach Scott, 52 percent to 48 percent with most precincts reporting. State Rep. Kevin Boyce beat Commissioner Paula Brooks, 58 percent to 42 percent. Local attorney Danny O'Connor ousted Recorder Terry "TJ" Brown, 56 percent to 44 percent.

Franklin County voters swept the Democratic incumbents from the county administration, punishing Sheriff Zach Scott and two office holders who supported him in the race for mayor last year.

Retired Columbus Police Lt. Dallas Baldwin will become the next county sheriff after defeating Zach Scott, 52 percent to 48 percent in unofficial results with all precincts reporting. State Rep. Kevin Boyce beat Commissioner Paula Brooks, 58 percent to 42 percent. Local attorney Danny O�Connor ousted Recorder Terry �TJ� Brown, 56 percent to 44 percent.

The Franklin County Democratic Party endorsed all three of those primary opponents as part of their �Unity Ticket,� which also included incumbent Treasurer Ed Leonard. In unofficial results, Leonard also lost a tight race to Realtor Cheryl Brooks Sullivan, who led 50.9 percent to 49.1 percent with all precincts reporting.

�This is the last race we thought would be close,� Leonard said.

Scott, Brooks and Brown did not return calls seeking comment.

>>> Primary 2016: Full results

Baldwin scored the night�s biggest upset by unseating Scott, who went from mayoral hopeful to lame duck officeholder in less than six months.

Scott held a large fundraising advantage after raising more than $1 million in his failed bid for Columbus mayor last year. Baldwin was running in his first election but, like Boyce and O'Connor, received the party�s endorsement and appeared on its sample ballot. Baldwin has no general-election opponent.

�There's a new sheriff in town,� Baldwin said. �We�re gonna work hard to make this a safer and better county."

Boyce now will focus on the November general election, where he will face Republican Terry Boyd in the race for Franklin County commissioner. Boyd narrowly missed a second-place finish in last year�s Columbus mayoral primary that would have set him up for a campaign against Andrew J. Ginther, who easily won the election.

�We�re going to be such a dynamic team in central Ohio that it�s going to be something special,� Boyce said.

O�Connor also will have an opponent in the general election. Republican Daphne Hawk, who Brown unseated in 2012, is running to regain her old job.

Locally, Tuesday�s election was to settle an ugly and deep rift within the county�s Democratic party.

Conflicts have been brewing under the surface for years, but they boiled over last year when Brooks and Brown supported Scott�s bid to succeed former Mayor Michael B. Coleman.

Democrats endorsed Ginther who then engaged in a nasty, negative campaign with Scott that featured mudslinging up until November.

Democrats who supported Ginther united behind him after his November victory and approached Baldwin about challenging Scott in Tuesday�s primary.

Ginther and fellow Democrats also united behind Boyce, who mulled an appointment to Columbus City Council last year.

Boyce, a term-limited state representative, was talked into running against Brooks for commissioner.

Scott, Brooks and Brown, along with fundraiser Melissa Barnhart, formed a pact to try to beat back Ginther and the rest of the party establishment.

That crew, led by Barnhart, also attempted to take over the Franklin County Democratic Party.

Barnhart and others recruited dozens of people into races for the party�s central committee, which appoints members to its executive committee and ultimately controls who becomes party chair.

Controlling the central committee also means dictating endorsements that appear on the party�s powerful sample ballot.

As of Tuesday night, it was unclear how many central-committee races had gone back to the party establishment, Barnhart's group or some other splinter factions. But the party endorsed a slate of its own candidates who appeared in sample ballots.

�We kicked butt. We got a lot of winning candidates," said William A. Anthony Jr., chairman of the county party.

O�Connor�s win over Brown in the recorder�s race comes though he has never held political office and for a few months was running his own campaign without much support from the party.

Two years ago O�Connor, a lawyer, was knocking on doors and handing out literature for suburban politicos.

�This might be the shortest speech an Irishman has ever given," O�Connor said. �We are on to November and we will fight for every vote."

rrouan@dispatch.com

@RickRouan

lsullivan@dispatch.com

@DispatchSully