Saturday, January 28, 2012

Marion County GOP Slating

Judge Carole Orbison Loses Out In Slating
Marion County Republicans held their slating convention for this year's May primary election this morning at Ben Davis High School. The only contested race was for the ten spots on the Marion Superior Court. Only eleven candidates competed for the ten positions. The losing candidate at today's slating was incumbent Judge Carole Orbison, a criminal court judge on the bench for the past twelve years. Judge Orbison, who was not recommended for re-slating by the party's leadership, pleaded with precinct committeepersons to cast their votes independently and support her re-election. She made no attempt to hide her displeasure with the party leadership's decision not to back her for re-slating. There have been indications Judge Orbison will run in the primary for re-election without the party's backing, as any qualified candidate is eligible to do.

The judicial candidates were each given one minute to address the convention prior to the vote, a time limit that was strictly enforced. Judge Lisa Borges was the only candidate absent for the slating convention. She broke her leg in an automobile accident this past week and was not able to attend. The PCs cast their votes by paper ballot. According to the rules, each ballot had to contain votes for ten of the eleven candidates on the ballot or it would be disregarded. The ten winning candidates won on the first ballot with fewer than 20 votes separating the highest vote-getter from the lowest vote-getter of the winning candidates. The actual number of votes cast for the losing candidate, Judge Orbison, was not announced.

The slated candidates include four new-comers: Helen Marchal, James Joven, Clayton Graham and Amy Jones. The full list of slated candidates include:

Judge Sheila Carlisle
Judge Robert Altice, Jr.
Judge Lisa Borges
Judge Michael Keele
Judge Clark Rogers
Judge William Nelson
Helen Marchal
James Joven
Clayton Graham
Amy Jones

The candidates slated uncontested in other races are as follows:

State Senator:

Sen. Scott Schneider, District 30
Sen. Pat Miller, District 32
Sen. Mike Young, District 35
Sen. Brent Waltz, District 36 

State Representative:

Luke Bosso, District 86
Rep. Cindy Noe, District 87
Speaker Brian Bosma, District 88
Rep. Cynthia Kirchhofer, District 89
Rep. Mike Speedy, District 90
Rep. Robert Behning, District 91
Tim Motsinger, District 92
Rep. Dave Frizzell, District 93
AJ Feeney-Ruiz, District 97
Scott Keller, District 100
Marion County Coroner:
Ed Eppler, M.D.
Marion County Treasurer:
Jason Woodruff
Marion County Surveyor:
Jeff Kondy

3 comments:

Paul K. Ogden said...

In 2008, did we have a rule that we had to vote for the maximum candidates possible in slating? I know we had multiple ballots in that slating.

Gary R. Welsh said...

I wasn't present for that slating convention, Paul. There were at least three more running than were elected and it took multiple ballots. People may have been allowed to vote for fewer than the number to be elected, which is why it may have taken multiple ballots.

JudgeNot said...

no, in 2008 the voters could "bullet vote". there was no rule that required voters to cast the maximum number of votes.