Three incumbent Republicans on the Bartholomew County Council survived primary challenges at the polls Tuesday with comfortable victories.
In District 2, Laura DeDomenic won by nearly a two-to-one margin over challenger Glenn Petri. That’s about the same margin of victory that council president and District 3 council member Mark Gorbett garnered in his win over David Jones.
Neither DeDomenic nor Gorbett currently have a challenger for the general election in November. However, the Democratic Party has until the end of June to fill vacant slots on the ballot.
Meanwhile, incumbent Jorge Morales, who represents District 4 on the council, earned a comfortable victory over challenger Tom Owens. Morales will be challenged by Democrat Lynne Fleming on the November ballot.
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In the only county council race where there was no incumbent, Republican voters chose Scott Bonnell as their candidate for the seat currently held by Chris Ogle, who did not seek re-election.
Bonnell survived a challenge from Marcus Speer during the primary, and will go on to face Democrat Hanna Omar during the general election.
When Gorbett arrived at Hamilton Community Center on Tuesday to watch the election returns come in during a GOP party, he said he had no idea whether he had the support of the voters.
“I actually carried a loser’s speech, as well as a winning one,” Gorbett said. “But they were really the same speech. Both stated I did what I felt was right.”
Gorbett is referring to the 4-3 vote last October to raise the county’s local income tax rate from 1.25 percent of a worker’s gross pay to 1.75 percent, a 40 percent increase.
Gorbett, DeDomenic, Morales and Ogle all supported the tax increase. Three at-large council members opposed the increase: Bill Lentz, Evelyn Pence and Matt Miller.
Jones, who focused almost exclusively on Gorbett’s support of the tax during the campaign, said he will continue to speak out for fiscal conservatism.
“I’ll be happy to be the community’s champion out in the audience,” Jones said.
DeDomenic said she believed the incumbents won because “we have some great voters out there who did their homework, looked at the candidates, and made educated decisions.”
Petri said he’s glad he kept his campaign against DeDomenic focused on the tax increase.
“But the voters apparently wanted to go a different direction,” Petri said. “They might have won the election, but they’ve got to remember they are spending the taxpayer’s money.”
Morales said he believed voters realized that he, as well as others who voted for the tax, were simply doing what they thought was best for the county.
“I had sought out my constituents to get their opinions before I voted for the increase”, Morales said. “Now, it’s important to make sure the money we raise is spent on the right purposes.”
Morales identified his priorities as public safety and addressing the county’s opoid crisis.
Owens said he’s glad he ran against Morales because competition at the primary level is “what keeps quality going forward” in the Republican party.
In the quietest county council race, both Bonnell and Speer voiced support for one another.
“Marcus and I are good friends,” Bonnell said. “We both felt either one of us would be a fine candidate.”
While Speer agreed, he did say Bonnell will have to become more serious about fundraising, because his Democratic opponent had already raised $2,220 by mid-April.
A report filed by Bonnell at the same time showed no contributors, no expenditures and no money for his campaign.
“We have to recognize what Hanna has already raised,” Speer said. “But a lot of Republican donors want to wait until we get past the primary stage. I think fundraising will likely get a little bit now.”
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Bartholomew County Council
District 1
Scott Bonnell (R); 1,127
Marcus Spear (R); 908
District 2
Laura DeDomenic (R); 1,455
Glenn Petri (R); 870
District 3
Mark Gorbett (R); 981
David Jones (R); 485
District 4
Jorge Morales (R); 1,411
Tom Owens (R); 1,086
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