Tag: Democratic Party

Bender resigns as nominee for Bloomington District 6 city council, Dems will caucus to fill ballot

Nicole Bolden (March 26, 2023) B Square file photo.
Sydney Zulich (May 2, 2023) B Square file photo.
Geoff McKim (Oct. 29, 2019) B Square file photo.
David Henry (May 4, 2023) B Square file photo.
The six precincts of District 6 are outlined in brown. Surrounding districts (clowise 2, 3, and 4) are shown in green red and yellow.
David Wolfe Bender (May 18, 2023) B Square file photo.

David Wolfe Bender has withdrawn as the Democratic Party’s District 6 city council nominee in Bloomington’s Nov. 7 municipal election.

Two weeks ago, on May 18, the county election board had convened a hearing on Bender’s disputed residency in District 6.

The board voted to refer the matter to Monroe County prosecutor Erika Oliphant, to consider possible felony charges, and to the Indiana attorney general Todd Rokita on the question of his eligibility as a candidate.

Since then, there has been no word on Bender’s case from either the prosecutor or the attorney general.

Given Bender’s withdrawal, the question of his eligibility is now academic.

Bender was unopposed in the primary. No Republican filed as a primary candidate.

To place a Democrat on the ballot, the party will now convene a caucus of the five sitting precinct chairs of District 6, according to Monroe County Democratic Party chair David Henry.

The date of the caucus has not yet been determined. But the deadline for filling a ballot vacancy, for either the Democrats or the Republicans, is July 3.

It was on Thursday afternoon when Bender filed the CAN 46 form, resigning his candidacy. Continue reading “Bender resigns as nominee for Bloomington District 6 city council, Dems will caucus to fill ballot” →

Dem candidates for Bloomington mayor talk economic development with head of Cook Group

At a Wednesday morning forum, the three candidates for the Democratic Party’s nomination for Bloomington mayor talked with Cook Group president Pete Yonkman about the job of mayor, jobs in general, and economic development.

The forum was hosted by the Bloomington Economic Development Corporation at the Monroe Convention Center.

Seeking the Democratic Party’s nomination for mayor of Bloomington are: Don Griffin, Susan Sandberg and Kerry Thomson. No Republican has declared a candidacy for mayor this year.

Not much new was revealed about where candidates stand on various policy issues. But the forum was more conversational in character than previous events, even if not exactly a free-for-all. Continue reading “Dem candidates for Bloomington mayor talk economic development with head of Cook Group” →

2023 Bloomington Elections | Primary field for Dems set: 3 for mayor, 5 of 6 council districts contested, 7 candidates for 3 at-large seats, 1 for clerk

Democratic Party candidate names are in blue. Republican Party candidate names are in red. The locations for dots and labels of candidate names correspond to where the candidates live.
Democratic Party candidate names are in blue. Republican Party candidate names are in red. The locations for dots and labels of candidate names correspond to where the candidates live.

On Jan. 4, residents were able start filing official declarations of candidacy in the 2023 Bloomington primary elections.

But at noon on Friday, the time for filing official paperwork expired.

No unexpected declarations for mayor were recorded on the last day of filing. That means voters across the city in Bloomington’s Democratic Party primary on May 2 will have three mayoral candidates to choose from: Kerry Thomson; Susan Sandberg; and Don Griffin.

And Democrats will have a pool of seven at-large city council candidates—from which to choose three.

There’s only one candidate in the Democratic primary for city clerk—incumbent Nicole Bolden.

Republican voters will have no citywide candidates to choose from.

The one independent candidate for mayor who has filed paperwork to establish a committee is Joseph Davis. But he has not yet submitted the 352 signatures that he needs, in order to be placed on the Nov. 7 general election ballot. The deadline for Davis and any other independent candidates to submit signatures is June 30.

Continue reading “2023 Bloomington Elections | Primary field for Dems set: 3 for mayor, 5 of 6 council districts contested, 7 candidates for 3 at-large seats, 1 for clerk” →

Dems ask for recount of 4-vote margin in Benton Township board race

A recount in the Benton Township board race has now been requested by the Monroe County Democratic Party.

In the Benton Township board race, where the top three vote getters win election, Democrat Hans Kelson finished fourth, missing third-place by a 4-vote margin. The third-place finisher was Republican Jake Dodds.

Under state election law, a recount request for a township board race takes the form of a petition filed  with the circuit court. The announcement of the recount petition filing came on Wednesday from Monroe County Democratic chair David Henry.

In the same announcement, Henry wrote that the Democratic party is still weighing a possible recount request in the District 62 state house race.

The District 62 race was won by Republican Dave Hall over Democrat Penny Githens with a post-provisional ballot count margin of 40 votes. The 17-day period for a county chair to ask for a recount translates into next Monday, due to the Thanksgiving Day holiday.

Because Monroe County has the largest population of the three counties covered by District 62, it would fall to the county chair of Monroe County to file for a recount in that race. Continue reading “Dems ask for recount of 4-vote margin in Benton Township board race” →

May 3, 2022: Polls now open in Monroe County

At 6 a.m. sharp on Tuesday, a Monroe County election worker opened the door from inside the blue building at the corner of 3rd and Walnut streets: “The polls are now open! Come on in!” [raw audio of polls opening announcement]

black and white photo of A-frame Vote Here sign in a parking lot in front of a building.
Monroe County election operations (6 a.m. Tuesday May 3, 2022).

No voters were standing in line at the time.

It’s the former NAPA building, which now serves as Monroe County’s voting operations facility.

Although during early voting, voters countywide could cast a ballot at the voting operations building, only voters from seven different precincts can vote there on Election Day: Bloomington 03, Bloomington 07, Bloomington 22, and Perry 06, Perry 08, Perry 15, and Perry  31.

Voters who are trying to sort out where to vote can start at the secretary of state’s voter portal. On that web page, the link for “Voting Location” is in the row of blue boxes.

Voting ends at 6 p.m.

The B Square will file any reports through the day from different polling sites as updates to this article. Continue reading “May 3, 2022: Polls now open in Monroe County” →

Monroe County in final stages of primary election prep, poll workers get thanks

Election operations building at 3rd and Walnut streets. (May 2, 2022)
Map of all 28 polling locations in Monroe County.

 

At Election Central on Monday evening, Monroe County’s three-member election board re-convened from its recessed meeting on Thursday, to be on hand for any last-minute board decisions that might have been needed.

Election Central is housed in the old Johnson’s Hardware building at 7th and Madison streets.

Deputy county clerk Tressia Martin was fielding calls from polling locations to confirm that the polls were set up for Tuesday morning’s 6 a.m. start. While the B Square was there, no board decisions needed to be made.

As of around 6 p.m. on Monday evening, 11 of the 28 polling locations had reported in as ready to go. Continue reading “Monroe County in final stages of primary election prep, poll workers get thanks” →

Political notebook: 19 contested precinct “committeeman” races for Monroe Democrats

Among the recent filings for the 2022 elections were 84 declarations by local Democrats for a position that is called “precinct committeeman” in the Hoosier state’s election law.

A precinct is the smallest geographic political boundary area. Generally, other areas—from congressional districts to city council districts—use precincts as their basic building blocks. There are 82 precincts in Monroe County.

No Republicans filed for the position of precinct committeeman this year.

That’s not a scandal. Republicans elect their committeemen on a different four-year cycle. The selection of Republican committeemen will come in 2024.

This year’s Democratic Party filings for precinct committeeman cover 59 out of the county’s 82 precincts. These positions are known as “precinct chairs” for the Dems.

That translates into several contested races—19 of them, in fact. One of the races for precinct chair includes four candidates.

The deadline for withdrawal from a race passed last Friday at noon, so the ballots should reflect all those contested races, when they’re made available for public inspection by the election division on Feb. 18.

Is the sheer number of 19 contested races for Democratic Party precinct chairs remarkable? If so, what, if anything, explains it? Continue reading “Political notebook: 19 contested precinct “committeeman” races for Monroe Democrats” →

Opinion: Bloomington city council should appoint a youth advisor, if it wants to keep pace with the GOP

A week before Christmas, both major political parties made local news with their caucuses.

Republicans elected 18-year-old Taylor Bryant as Monroe County Republican Party chair. Bryant became the youngest county chair ever for Monroe County and probably the state of Indiana.

At their caucus, Democrats chose Jennifer Crossley as a county councilor to replace Eric Spoonmore, who resigned. That made Crossley the first Black woman to serve on the county’s fiscal body.

Crossley’s age was not mentioned in any story that I saw reported by local news outlets. And why would it be? Even if Crossley is more than twice Bryant’s age (only by a smidgen), that’s true of most, if not all, elected officials in Monroe County.

Still, Crossley fits into a story about the age of local elected Democrats. Continue reading “Opinion: Bloomington city council should appoint a youth advisor, if it wants to keep pace with the GOP” →

Indiana’s election commission de-certifies write-in Green Party candidate for Monroe County judge after Democratic Party challenge

On Friday morning, Indiana’s four-member bi-partisan election commission voted unanimously to take Al Manns off November’s general election list of certified candidates for Monroe County circuit court judge.

cropped crossley paul manns IMG_3953
From left: Jennifer Crossley, chair of the Monroe County Democratic Party; Al Manns, currently a write-in Green Party candidate for the Division 1 circuit court race; Randy Paul, co-chair of the Monroe County Greens.

Manns had filed as a Green Party write-in candidate for the Division 1 seat, after losing the Democratic Party’s June 2 primary to Geoff Bradley.

It was his loss in the Democratic Primary that led the party to challenge Manns as a certified write-in candidate, because he had failed to win the party’s nomination for that same seat in June.

For its challenge, the Democratic Party was relying on a state law commonly known as the “sore loser” law. [IC-3-8-1-5.5]  The statute says that if someone loses a primary election, they’re not able to be a candidate for the same office in the next general election.

So a week ago, Monroe County Democratic Party chair Jennifer Crossley challenged the write-in candidacy that Manns wanted to mount. Continue reading “Indiana’s election commission de-certifies write-in Green Party candidate for Monroe County judge after Democratic Party challenge” →