Tuesday, November 03, 2015

Hogsett Handily Wins Indianapolis Mayor's Race, Democrats Hold Council

Joe Hogsett has handily defeated his Republican candidate Chuck Brewer to become Indianapolis' next mayor. Hogsett has 62% of the vote compared to 38% for his opponent with over 70% of the votes counted. Election turnout in Marion County will be below 25% when all of the votes are counted. Control of the City-County Council is up for grab with a handful of close races yet to be decided.

UPDATE (8:40 p.m.) It now appears the Democrats will control the City-County Council by a 13-12 margin after two incumbent Republicans thought to be safe appear to have been upset. Ben Hunter has been upset by David Ray in District 19 out in Warren Township. Robert Lutz has been narrowly defeated by Democrat Jared Evans in District 22 out in Wayne Township. Colleen Fanning (R) appears to have narrowly defeated Kip Tew (D) in District 2. Christine Scales (R) easily defeated Pam Hickman (D) in District 3. Jeff Miller (R) also survived a strong challenge from Emily Schrock in District 16 in the near South Side district. Frank Mascari (D) easily defeated Anthony Davidson (R) in the hotly-contested District 21 race in Beech Grove. It's worth noting that the Democrats' control of the council was decided by Jared Evans, a candidate the Democratic Party didn't slate and didn't want as its candidate to take on Robert Lutz.

34 comments:

Anonymous said...

The Marion County Republican Party has been long dead but don't expect the state party to notice or figure it out.

Anonymous said...

Not a surprise at all. Thank You Kyle Walker!

Anonymous said...

"Corruption is as Corruption Does."

-The Democrat Machine


P. S. Is Hogsett offering Frank Straub (and mistress, du jure) to join John Layton & Frau Ellen Corcella to rejoin his team as Public Safety Co-Directors?

Anonymous said...

With 64% of the vote in it looks like (D) David Ray upsets (R) Ben Hunter in District 19, traditionally a very conservative Republican district around S. German Church Road.

Anonymous said...

This is what Indianapolis "republicans" call success.

Sir Hailstone said...

Looks like council is going either anywhere from 13-12 D to 14-11 R. Ben Hunter and Bob Lutz are in trouble.

Anonymous said...

Call me just one more "Republican" voter thrilled to death to see Ben Hunter tossed out on his ass. See if David Brooks can help you now.

Sir Hailstone said...

"With 64% of the vote in it looks like (D) David Ray upsets (R) Ben Hunter in District 19, traditionally a very conservative Republican district around S. German Church Road."

Not anymore. Bulk of the votes now comes from north of Washington Street inside 465.

Gary R. Welsh said...

Yeah, it looks like someone got a bit cocky and took his re-election for granted. I don't know what happened to Lutz. He was obviously caught asleep at the switch.

Gary R. Welsh said...

Hunter's constituents must not have felt so good about his Regional Operations Center project.

Sir Hailstone said...

Gary I think it's still too close on Bob Lutz. There's still six precincts out and it's less than 50 votes out of 2000 total cast.

D's - Robinson, Simpson, Gray, Oliver, Lewis, Osili, Johnson, Clay, Jackson, Adamson, Ray, Mascari -12
R's - Fanning, Scales, McQuillen, Coats, McHenry, Pfisterer, Miller, Cordi, Holliday, Kreider, Sandlin, Freeman - 12

Tossup - Lutz or Evans

It's all coming down to the West side to make it 13-12 just depends on which way

Gary R. Welsh said...

I thought I saw where Lutz believes he'll lose by about 200 votes. The party has the totals for all of the precincts before they're inputted into the central database.

Anonymous said...

The Indy G-O-Pee'd itself to promote special rights that appear to have just been repealed in Houston: http://www.chron.com/politics/election/local/article/HERO-results-6608562.php

Gary R. Welsh said...

The irony of Ben Hunter losing under the David Brooks-drawn council map. Hunter is David and Susan's favorite Republican on the council.

Sir Hailstone said...

Yep you're right. Precincts are all in for Wayne and Decatur.

JARED EVANS (DEM). . . . . . . . 1,868 54.11
ROBERT B. LUTZ (REP). . . . . . . 1,584 45.89

Paul K. Ogden said...

Anon 8:24, I don't know where you get that Hunter's district is a "traditionally a very conservative Republican district." That was only about a 52% Republican district and no more conservative than any other district.

Paul K. Ogden said...

Wow, Lutz and Hunter really underperformed. I thought the D's would win the council, but not because Lutz and Hunter lost.

Anonymous said...

If Walker has a job tomorrow they should fire the state chairman.

Anonymous said...

To the courageous voters of District 19, I applaud you. As a reminder of Ben Hunters (and David Brooks) legacy, you only have to look no farther than that bomb shelter call the ROC (IMPD Regional Operations Center) on Shadeland Ave. And reflect, that could have been the site of the new Community East Hospital.

Anonymous said...

Incumbents usually get defeated when they act more towards the interests of their party instead of their community, not because of re-drawn districts, Ben.

Anonymous said...

They will keep Walker and the state chairman of the GOP! The GOP needs to abandon Marion County they are irrelevant now there!

Anonymous said...

A number of far east folks were upset at Hunter about the church they felt he turned his back on them.
http://www.ibj.com/articles/53537-council-declines-to-rehear-cumberland-church-proposal

Anonymous said...

Gary Welsh @ 9:12: Exactly. Beyond Ironic.
Anon 9:23- Regardless of Kyle Walker having a job tomorrow [which he certainly should not), Jeff Cardwell should still be fired.

Sir Hailstone said...

"If Walker has a job tomorrow they should fire the state chairman"

State chair can't do bumpkus about any county party official. Only thing that could remove a sitting chairman is a PC/WC uprising which won't happen due to the number of chairman's appointees. Now if the big money donors (McAllister, Hubbard, et al) were to threaten to withhold donations until certain officials resigned that would bring about change.
Now some might say with the transition from TJ to KW the MCGOP jumped out of the frying pan and into the fire.

Anonymous said...

Hey, City-County workers,

Start packing up your desks. Hogsett can't leave anything form this dirty Barnes & Thornburg administration around to do him harm.

Bye-bye!

Anonymous said...

Thank God that piece of **** Hunter lost.

Anonymous said...

Does this election make Abdul irrelevant in Marion County?

Melyssa Hubbard said...

We have the perfect impending catalyst to bring forth an election upset in just four years that will make what we did in 2007 look super boring.

Mark my words.

--Melyssa Hubbard
#CulturalActivism
#LibertariansRising

Anonymous said...

I live in 19. Ben Hunter has represented us for years. David Ray really moved us with his flyers. He showed us pictures of vacant east side strip malls and reminded us how bad we feel about that. The old eastgate mall/Regional Operations Center does bug us. And now our church at Mitthoefer is boarded up. What has Hunter done to help us with the downward spiral of the property? This Ray guy is new, but he's a Scecina/Lady of Lourdes eastsider and seems to really care about this part of town. Hunter seems like he's all about downtown now, and out here we are really sick of this attention and tax dollars spent downtown. We want our neighborhood fixed. Not Meridian Kessler. Not a new westside justice center. And definitely not any more building projects/cheap apartment buildings for downtown. And Mr. Hogsett, if you just become another cog in some big law firm's plans like our current mayor, you will be one term. We want our utility bills brought under control. Our streets made safe. Big law firms and developers put in their place. Get rid of the damn TIF that sucks our tax dollars into downtown. And bring some business to the eastside factories and strip malls that are vacant. Ray just said the right things.

Anonymous said...

Anon 8:49 testifies to reasons the Marion County GOP lost the people... When you come right down to it, it is Kyle Walker, Greg Ballard, and GOP operatives like Jen Hallowell (Mrs. Kyle) Walker who gave Indianapolis its new Democrat Mayor and the Democrat City County Council majority.

But I caution 8:49... while it was and is time for a change from the GOP sponsored corruption... remember that IT IS ALL STILL THERE! Vision Fleet, Blue Indy, those awful parking meters we are chained to for yet another five decades, a mishmash of downtown junky housing and faux modernistic crap, the give away of IUPUI sports venues to multimillionaire immigrant Ersal Ozdemir ... and wait til you see what the favored GOPO donor-developer will do with the corner at College and Mass Av... something you will probably be paying for as well...

Stay vigilant, 8:49, but keep in mind... it really does not matter who won these seat... or was retained... no matter how they crow about their personal/political "vindication". Those who claim to have fought have been totally ineffective in creating consensus to root out the corruption- so where is the glory in being "right" but in being ineffective in leading for a change?.... so it could be that Indianapolis will get more of the same corruption but in different forms under different names.

Time will tell but with the past being prologue to the future with so many our our CC Councilors, I will keep the jaundiced eye wide open.

MikeC said...

Looks like Brooks outsmarted himself again

Anonymous said...

MikeC: when one is usually plied full of brew and chew...

Anonymous said...

I voted for Jared Evans. Lutz was an incumbent. Those that were members of the worst council in America needed to go. The entire county is rotting away while the downtown mafia keep demanding AND RECEIVING more monies and TIF districts for their Potemkin village DT.

Anonymous said...

How many votes did Melyssa Hubbard get for Mayor?