Switch in County Council control seen
Editor’s note: Click here to see a full list of unofficial primary election results for both parties, including presidential and gubernatorial races, Statehouse races, county-level races, and races for precinct committeemen and state convention delegates. Final election results will be published as soon as they are available.
Election returns Tuesday night came in a new location, on a new date with new faces including the promise of a new congresswoman, and locally, a shift to a more progressive majority on the county council.
The final tally of votes in the most unusual election in years may not be known until this evening. Thousands of absentee ballots, perhaps 15,000, are still being counted.
In a contest that has been called, however, Victoria Spartz of Noblesville will be the Republican nominee for Congress in Indiana’s 5th District and will oppose another woman, Christina Hale who won in the Democratic primary. They will compete in the November general election to replace retiring Rep. Susan Brooks.
In the local GOP primary for State Senator District 20 – which Spartz gave up to run for Congress – Scott Baldwin has a seemingly overwhelming 2-to-1 lead over J.R. Gaylor. Both men are from Noblesville. More than half the votes have been counted in the district. The winner faces Democrat Ronald Saunders in November.
Hamilton County Commissioner Steve Dillinger appears a certain winner over challenger Charlie McMillan, Jr. Dillinger is the longest-serving county commissioner in the state, having been first elected in 1988.
In one of most watched races, the contest for three at-large seats on the Hamilton County Council appears to be going to Sue Maki, Carmel; Brad Beaver, Noblesville and either Steve Nation or John Ditslear, both of Noblesville, who are locked in a very tight race with several thousand votes still to be counted.
With wins by Maki and either Nation (who leads by about 500 votes) or Ditslear, control of the seven-member council will likely swing from a very conservative majority to a more progressive one.
Another very close race is the contest for county treasurer between former treasurer Kim Good and Susan Byer. With totals as of 10:20 p.m., Byer leads Good by about 2,500 votes.
Relatively few candidates were seen at the county fairgrounds yesterday evening where the vote count was displayed for the public. Usually, the election night countdown draws a much larger group of candidates and their supporters.
Countywide, the incomplete totals show about 57,000 voters cast ballots: 34,200 in the GOP primary, and 21,800 in the Democratic. Nearly half the absentees are yet to be counted, with official final figures expected late this afternoon.