Monroe County Dems pick Ujdak as party chair, aim to focus on what they're for, not against

On Saturday, at its quadrennial reorganizational caucus held at Bloomington’s city hall, Monroe County Democrats elected Samuel Ujdak as party chair.

Ujdak is taking over from outgoing chair David Henry, who did not seek to continue in the post.

Other party officers picked on Saturday, also in uncontested elections, were Chrissie Geels (vice chair), Gloria Howell (secretary), and Susan Luther (treasurer). [candidate written statements]

[The B Square intends to provide separate coverage of the Monroe County Republican Party’s reorganizational caucus, which also took place on Saturday, and resulted in the election of Cory Grass as party chair. Other GOP officers elected at the caucus were: Noelle Conyer (vice chair); Elaine Thomsen (secretary); and John Arnold (treasurer).]

At the Democratic Party’s caucus, all the votes, by more than 80 precinct chairs and vice chairs who packed the city council chambers, were taken by unanimous acclamation.

Even if the outcome of the elections was clear in advance, the candidates underwent some quizzing from the caucus attendees. Questions focused on their vision for the Democratic Party, including how to reach diverse communities, support candidates, improve messaging, make the party more inclusive, and generally address the party's challenges.

In reply to Nancy Goswami, Ujdak recalled a conversation with a candidate a couple of years ago, when he cared about the answer to just one of his questions: “Local Democrats, state Democrats, national Democrats—what have we gotten wrong in the last 8, 12, 20 years?”

Ujdak said the candidate gave the right answer, which was: “We have spent the last 20 years telling people what to vote against, instead of offering them something to vote for.”

After the caucus, The B Square asked Ujdak what the Monroe County Democrats are for, especially when it comes to local issues—like zoning, city annexation, the new county jail project, or the convention center expansion. Ujdak responded by acknowledging that the county party has not had a platform with planks on those kinds of local issues.

Ujdak continued by saying, “The chair doesn't really set the platform. I know what I'm for personally, and that's sort of a separate conversation.” But Ujdak indicated that he is up to the task of working with the precinct chairs to hammer together a party platform on local issues.

Ujdak told The B Square that even if the chore of building a party platform on local issues might be difficult, Democrats have to be “willing to disagree with each other, be able to fight, and come out healthy on the other side.”

Those sentiments echoed comments he’d made earlier to the whole caucus when he said, “I've been hollered at before. I don't mind being hollered at again. That's fine.” Ujdak continued, “I think there was a time many years ago, we were more open to sort of having these internal arguments with each other, sometimes these internal fights with each other, coming out on the other side, if not friends, at least continuing to work together.”

Ujdak added, “I think the divisions have gotten a little deeper over the years, and part of the work of the next four—and probably a lot of years after that—is repairing a lot of those divisions.”

Part of outgoing chair David Henry’s response to a B Square question about his advice to the new chair included this, on the development of a platform: “If you decide to take the party into a position…you have to check in with the committee, electeds, and party faithful. This isn’t euchre—you don’t want to go alone every hand.”

Another topic that emerged during question time at Saturday’s caucus was the challenge of including younger members of the party, while still tapping the willingness of older members to continue their work

Former city councilmember and county commissioner Charlotte Zietlow, who has been knocking doors since the 1960s, said she wants to continue to work for her precinct, even if she can't walk around anymore. Zietlow said she would like the party to help her connect with people in other ways.

Jody Madeira, who was first sworn into office as a county commissioner at the start of 2025, asked Ujdak how he planned to address generational turnover by helping to mentor younger members of the party.

Ujdak responded by saying he would in part follow the example of outgoing chair David Henry, who had built a roster of deputy chairs.

Ujdak himself served as deputy chair for party infrastructure. Examples of other deputy chairs who have served in the last few years include: Wes Martin (labor); Sydney Zulich (campus and community outreach); Ryan Still (rural engagement); and Susan Hingle (projects).

Asked what advice he would give the incoming chair, Henry texted The B Square: “Sometimes being chair is more about what you don’t do than what you try to do. For every person that demands you fix their problem, there is another that demands you do nothing.”

Indiana’s election law prescribes that off-cycle vacancies in office or on the ballot are filled by a caucus of the party with which the person who left the vacancy was affiliated.

About that mechanism, Henry’s advice was: “Try not to have so many [vacancy] caucuses. Some are painfully unavoidable, but they should be far more rare overall. That means really working with officials to either retire at election time, encourage people to run, rather than ballot or office vacancy into a spot, or to just be honest about their long term commitment to their term of office and prospects for staying put in the county.”

Henry had stepped up from vice chair of the party in late 2021 to fill the vacancy that was left in the chairship when Jennifer Crossley resigned. Crossley was appointed in a late 2021 caucus to fill the vacancy on the Monroe County council that was left when Eric Spoonmore resigned, to take over as CEO of the Greater Bloomington Chamber of Commerce. [TBC history of MCDP officers]

Photo Gallery: MCDP reorganizational caucus (March 1, 2025)