Westfield reader strongly supports Sweeney for judge

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Dear Fellow Hamilton County Voters,

I am honored to write on behalf of my friend Paul Sweeney.

I am a mother of three Westfield High School graduates, wife to a retired Hamilton County Sheriff’s Deputy, a former Child Protection Investigator for the State of Indiana, a licensed daycare provider, and now a Construction Project Manager. I have also served in various roles with the Westfield GOP Club, including as President and currently as Treasurer, and with the Hamilton County Republican Women’s Club, where I served as a former President.

I share this background because it speaks to the lens through which I know Paul, not casually, but through two decades of real life alongside him.

I have known Paul since 2003. We have leaned on each other through the loss of family members and friends, personal hardships, and life’s many unexpected turns. I consider him a trusted friend and advisor, both legally and personally.

Paul joined the team of volunteer youth ministers at St. Maria Goretti Catholic Church in 2003, and he has continued to serve in that role ever since. (Paul and I worked together as volunteer YMs for almost two decades, I have since “retired” from that work to volunteer in other areas.) We have led talks, managed retreat logistics, and yes, handled the cleanup no one else wants to do.

Paul has a gift for finding the good in every situation and in every person. His memory for people and events is remarkable, and years later he still remembers teenagers from 2003 and the stories that went with them. St. Maria Goretti has a congregation of over 1,600 families, and when Paul’s name appears on your volunteer list, you know the job will be done well.

Paul co-chaired the Hamilton County United Way Campaign in 2011 and 2012. He and his wife Donna have always been open about their family’s story. Their daughter Lizzie is adopted, and they celebrate her “Gotcha Day” every year. Their son Elijah was born on the Fourth of July 2011, named after a friend lost in a car accident in 2003. Paul and Donna call them both miracle children, and that spirit carries through everything Paul does.

He also reached out personally to my daughter Sydney when she was leading Dance Marathon at Westfield High School, offering guidance and sponsoring the program, a connection rooted in the fact that Paul helped start Dance Marathon at IU 25 years ago.

Paul also volunteered for my husband’s Clifford for Sheriff campaign in Hamilton County in 2018. He has always had a way of breaking down complex legal questions into clear, respectful, and straightforward answers, a quality that will serve him well on the bench.

What you see with Paul Sweeney is what you get. I have watched him work as an attorney, a volunteer, a husband, a father, and a friend, and there is no difference between any of those roles. I haven’t always liked what Paul has told me, but I have always known it to be honest. He is a servant leader who can be trusted to administer justice, not for a title or prestige, but because it is who he is.

I am proud to recommend Paul Sweeney to be the first Judge of Hamilton County Superior Court 9.

Sheryl J. Hollensbe-Clifford
Westfield