At a Saturday caucus of the Monroe County Democratic Party, Courtney Daily emerged as winner of the contest to fill the District 5 vacancy on the Bloomington city council.
Daily was declared the winner after county chair David Henry broke a 4–4 tie in favor of Daily, over Jenny Stevens, after at total of four rounds of voting by eight precinct chairs for District 5.
Right after Henry announced his decision to break the tie in favor of Daily, she was sworn into office by city clerk Nicole Bolden.
She’ll be seated on the dais next Wednesday for her first city council meeting.
Daily told The B Square after the swearing in ceremony, “There were three strong candidates. And it was really hard.” What Daily meant was that even though she was able to participate in the vote, as the Perry 13 precinct chair, she recognized the merit of the two other candidates—Jenny Stevens and Jason Moore.
“I did not expect it to go down the way that it did,” Daily said.
Here’s the way it went down: In the first round of votes, Daily received just 2 of the 8 votes. But it was enough to get her into a runoff with Jason Moore, who also received 2 first-round votes.
Daily prevailed in the runoff against Moore. The tally in the runoff was: Daily 5; Moore 3.
The third round of voting, which was a potential deciding vote between Daily and Stevens, resulted in a 4–4 tie. Presiding over the caucus, Henry announced before the fourth round, that if the result of that round was still a tie, he would exercise his right under state law to break the tie.
The fourth round of voting, between Daily and Stevens, was also a tie, and Henry announced his decision in favor of Daily.
Asked by the B Square after the caucus why he opted for Daily, Henry said it was just a judgment call about a choice among “really great candidates.” Addressing the choice he had to make in the tie-break, either Daily or Stevens would have served well on the council, Henry said.
“It was a gut decision,” Henry said. He added that Daily would be a good addition to the council, because she reflected a mix of the values of the other candidates who had their case to the group of eight precinct chairs who participated in the vote.
The vacancy was left when Shruti Rana announced her resignation from the seat in mid-January, effective Feb. 7.
Participating in the rounds of voting were chairs for eight of the nine precincts that make up District 5: Jennifer Crossley (Perry 10), Patricia Williams (Perry 11), Manuel Diaz-Campos (Perry 12), Courtney Daily (Perry 13), Iris Kiesling (Perry 18), Sarah Bauerle (Perry 19), Edward Robertson (Perry 26), Matt Flaherty (Perry 28).
District 5 has nine precincts. The remaining precinct chairship was resigned by Allyson Mcbride (Perry 21), because she moved out of the precinct where she had been elected chair. Matt Flaherty, who serves on the city council as an at-large member, does not live in the precinct for which he serves as chair (Perry 28), but that is allowed, because he was previously appointed to the post by the county party chair.
District 5 lies on the southeastern periphery of the city.
The rules of procedure adopted at the start of the caucus included an abbreviated chance for the candidates to present their case, and eliminated the usual asking of questions. That decision was based on the fact that a public forum had been held the previous Saturday at the Monroe County Public Library. The event had been attended by all eight precinct chairs.
A bid was made by Flaherty and Bauerle to amend the standard caucus rules so that the county chair, as presiding officer, was required to allow for some rounds of tied voting before exercising his right to break a tie.
A couple of different versions of the amendment were discussed, before one was put to a vote, which failed with support only from Flaherty and Bauerle. Diaz-Campos abstained from the vote.
As it turns out, Henry executed some of the elements of the amended procedures that had been discussed. Already after the first 4–4 tie vote between Stevens and Daily, Henry could have broken the tie. Still, he asked the precinct chairs to have another try at giving one of the two candidates a majority.
Another feature of the failed amendment that Henry used involved the runoff between just the two tied candidates with the lowest vote totals in the first round.
One wrinkle emerged in the initial round of voting, when all the ballots were thrown out, because one of them was illegible and it could not be discerned who the intended candidate was. The ballots had been blank sheets of paper, on which precinct chairs were supposed to write a name.
In subsequent rounds, ballots were printed off with the choices of candidates so that a voter could just mark one.
The “tellers,” for Saturday’s caucus, who counted the ballots, were Daniel Jenkins and Josh Montagne.
| Candidate | Votes |
| Courtney Daily | 2 |
| Jason Moore | 2 |
| Jenny Stevens | 4 |
| Candidate | Votes |
| Courtney Daily | 5 |
| Jason Moore | 3 |
| Candidate | Votes |
| Courtney Daily | 4 |
| Jenny Stevens | 4 |
| Candidate | Votes |
| Courtney Daily | 4 |
| Jenny Stevens | 4 |
I think it’s alarming the chair’s gut didn’t tell him to go with the candidate that was actually on the ballot in the primary. She put her name out there, fundraised, canvassed and had citizens vote for her. Why would you not support her?
I don’t think losing an election is automatically a qualification. I hope that the selected member attempts to represent at least some of what Shruti Rana campaigned on, since that won the election.
Congratulations Courtney !
Congratulations to Courtney Daily! She is a passionate, articulate, respectful consensus builder who will be an excellent representative of our district. Respect to Jenny Stevens and Jason Moore for their positive, issue-oriented candidacies. Kudos to David Henry for the fair and open process he chaired, respectful and responsive to rules questions and clarifications sought by precinct participants.
John is exactly on point@
From the “young party activist who didn’t live in the campus district district he was running in” debacle to this “connected law school honcho who quit on the first day of the job” train wreck, it’s increasingly obvious we need 1) a better way to select qualified and dedicated elected public servants, and 2) a more democratic way to backfill vacant offices. Regarding the latter, when I read the CVs of the three candidates, I knew immediately who would win – the party activist. Banana republic stuff. And we wonder why no one votes.
So what were the factions among the voting precinct committeepeople? I know it was secret ballot but I’m guessing it was apparent to some who read/write B-Square.
Yes, it was apparent