Tag: Karen Wrenbeck

9th District Dems: Monroe County chair ‘within his rights’ to preside over Saturday’s Bloomington city council vacancy caucus

Monroe County Democratic Party chair David Henry. (Feb. 10, 2024)
Bloomington 06 precinct chair Natalia Galvan (Feb. 10, 2024)

Still set to preside over Saturday’s (March 2) three-way contested caucus to fill the vacancy in the District 5 Bloomington city council seat is Monroe County Democratic Party chair David Henry.

The vacancy was left when Shruti Rana announced her resignation from the seat in mid-January, effective Feb. 7.  Vying to be selected at the caucus to fill in for Rana for the better part of the next four years are:  Courtney Daily, Jason Moore, and Jenny Stevens.

Indiana state election law says that the county chair or someone they designate is the “chairman of caucus.”

After questions were raised about “conflicts of interest” for Henry, a review of that and several related issues was done by the 9th District Democratic Party. The review was summarized in a report dated Feb. 21, 2024.

The procedural review concluded that “[We] can find no substantial relationship (Ex: Familial relationship, professional relationship, etc) between [David Henry] and the caucus candidates, as currently known, and find no pecuniary interest that he might have in the caucus results.”

The report continues: “Without such conflict, Mr. Henry is within his rights as party chair to preside over the caucuses.”

For the Dems, the District 5 city council caucus is one of four vacancy caucuses since the start of the year, which were all subject of the 9th District review.

In addition to the question about whether Henry can preside over the caucuses, the 9th District report considers an eligibility question about one of the city council District 5 precinct chairs, who moved away from the district.

The 9th District report concludes that the vacation of the Perry 21 precinct chairship, to which Allyson McBride had been elected, was not forced, but rather was a “consenting resignation.”

Reached by email, McBride wrote to The B Square about the pertinent part of the 9th District report: “That is all correct! I have moved every single year I’ve been in Bloomington, and this year I moved out of district.” McBride added, “It was not a forced removal in any sense of the term.” Continue reading “9th District Dems: Monroe County chair ‘within his rights’ to preside over Saturday’s Bloomington city council vacancy caucus” →

Smooth sailing at Dems caucus for county treasurer, Smith picked to fill McClellan’s spot, cascade begins

Cathy (Catherine) Smith addresses Saturday’s Monroe County Democratic caucus. (Jan. 20, 2024)
From left: Monroe County circuit court judge Christine Talley Haseman administers the treasurer’s oath of office to Cathy Smith. Standing next to Smith is Jordan Miller, Monroe County financial coordinator. In the background are Charlotte Zietlow, Pat Williams, Jack Davis and Tree Martin. (Jan. 20, 2024)
Treasurer’s vacancy caucus in the Nat U. Hill Room of the Monroe County courthouse. (Jan. 20, 2024)

Monroe County’s new treasurer is Cathy Smith.

Smith was the easy choice for the roughly five dozen Democratic Party precinct chairs who gathered in the Nat U. Hill room of the Monroe County courthouse on Saturday (Jan. 20).

That’s because she was the only choice to fill the vacancy, which was left when Jessica McClellan resigned the treasurer’s job at the start of the year.

McClellan resigned to accept an appointment as Bloomington’s city controller, in new mayor Kerry Thomson’s administration.

No other caucus candidates filed for the position of county treasurer.

Smith was sworn into office on the spot, by Monroe County circuit court judge Christine Talley Haseman.

That means Smith’s position as elected county auditor is now vacant. And that means the Dems will be holding another caucus in a couple of weeks, to fill the auditor’s vacancy. Continue reading “Smooth sailing at Dems caucus for county treasurer, Smith picked to fill McClellan’s spot, cascade begins” →

Monroe County campaign finance: 4 races, 17 candidates, $115K

Primary Election Day is May 3.

One limited measure of how much support candidates have among voters is the amount and range of financial contributions to their campaigns so far.

text is "pre-primary campaign finance filings" overlaid on top of a bag with a dollar sign on it

For the 2022 election season in the state of Indiana, pre-primary campaign finance forms were due at noon last Monday, April 18. Those forms are supposed to cover donations and expenditures for the period between Jan. 1, 2022 and April 8, 2022.

The B Square took a look at some of the early campaign finance filings by candidates in four Monroe County races— county commissioner; sheriff; circuit court judge; and recorder.

Those are races that have contested primaries this year for the Democratic Party.

The winner of those races will face a Republican Party candidate in the fall. None of the four races are contested in the Republican Party’s primary. The B Square has included Republican candidates in this roundup, which is compiled in a shared Google Sheet, with links to individual filings.

[Shared Goog Sheet 2020 pre-primary]

The 17 candidates in the four races have raised a combined total of around $115,000.

Counting money raised last year, six candidates for sheriff have raised a combined total of $58,000. The five candidates for judge have raised a combined total of around $28,000. The three candidates for county commissioner have raised a combined total of around $22,300. And the three candidates for county recorder have raised a combined total of around $7,000. Continue reading “Monroe County campaign finance: 4 races, 17 candidates, $115K” →

Early in-person voting kicks off for Monroe County

Looking north with the election operations building on the left and the new parking garage in the background.
The hand of Monroe County clerk Nicole Browne, after she voted. She’s running unopposed for re-election.

The trademark blue former NAPA building at 3rd and Walnut streets, just south of the new parking garage and west of the downtown transit center, is the new home to Monroe County’s voting operations.

Tuesday was the first day of in-person early voting for the May 3 primary elections.

At 8 o’clock sharp, Monroe County clerk Nicole Browne emerged from the front door to perform the ritual that marked the start of the voting day.

Browne raised her voice to the overcast sky: “Hear ye, hear ye, the polls are now open!”

In the first half hour of voting, only a handful of voters cast a ballot. By then, light rain was falling on the few candidates and volunteers who had come to canvas the early voters.

By around 4 p.m., the count of early voters had reached just 58. For the general election in 2020, Monroe County averaged more than 1,000 early in-person voters a day. It’s not surprising that  interest in the primary elections, between presidential election years, is comparatively lower.

Browne told The B Square earlier in the morning that she’d heard from other county clerks in the state that the number of requested absentee ballots was down compared to 2020. Continue reading “Early in-person voting kicks off for Monroe County” →