Contested Bloomington elections set for fall: None citywide, two of six council districts
Voters in city council Districts 2 and 3 are the only Bloomington residents who will have a choice at the November polls this year.
In Monroe County’s election headquarters, at the intersection of 7th and Madison streets, the deadline for write-in candidates expired Wednesday at noon. By then, no write-in candidates had registered for Bloomington’s fall elections.
It was the final deadline for adding official candidates to the mix. The deadline for independent candidates to submit petitions had already passed on Monday.
Barring any withdrawals, that sets up contested races in two of the six council districts and none for the five citywide positions—mayor, clerk and councilmember at large. No election is held for races that aren’t contested.
That means voters in most of Bloomington, all except for the northern third of the city, won’t have a chance to go to the polls on Nov. 5.
In District 2, Republican Andrew Guenther was unopposed in the Republican Party’s primary for the city council nomination. He’ll appear on the ballot along with Sue Sgambelluri, who won the three-way Democratic Party primary over Daniel Bingham and incumbent Dorothy Granger.
In District 3, Ron Smith won the Democratic Party primary over Jim Blickensdorf. He’ll appear on the ballot with independents Nick Kappas and Marty Spechler. Kappas and Spechler had to collect at least 89 signatures to qualify.
The rest of the races have winners by default.
Incumbent Democrat John Hamilton will serve another four-year term as mayor, starting in 2020, and incumbent Democrat Nicole Bolden would serve another term as city clerk.
The three at-large city council seats would be served by incumbent Susan Sandberg, incumbent Jim Sims, and Matt Flaherty, who were the top three vote getters in the Democratic Party’s primary. That race included Vauhxx Booker, Jean Capler, and incumbent Andy Ruff.
District 1 will be served for the next four years starting in 2020 by Kate Rosenbarger, who won a three-way primary for the Democratic Party’s nomination over Denise Valkyrie and incumbent Chris Sturbaum.
District 4 will be served by incumbent Dave Rollo, who won the Democratic Party primary over Miah Michaelsen.
District 5 will be served by incumbent Isabel Piedmont-Smith, who won the Democratic Party primary over Ryan Maloney.
District 6 will be served by incumbent Steven Volan, who was unopposed in the Democratic Party primary.
Even though neither a candidate name nor a write-in line can now be added to the ballots, there is a way they could still change—through removal of a candidate. The deadline for withdrawal from the race by any candidate is noon on July 15.
