The first day of candidate filings for the 2019 municipal election is Jan. 9. Feb. 8 will be the last day for a Republican or Democrat to file their declaration of candidacy to run in the primary.
Except in a few small towns or townships, Republicans have dominated local city government since 2010.
Despite that, the Bartholomew County Democratic Central Committee has a goal of recruiting a high-quality candidate to run for every seat on the Columbus City Council this year, party chairman Bob Hyatt said.
But when asked whether his party has a competitor prepared to run against the GOP incumbent Mayor Jim Lienhoop, Hyatt said he’s not optimistic Democrats could find a candidate.
“Generally, Democrats are satisfied with his job performance,” Hyatt said. “But those who are most outspoken against him tend to be his fellow Republicans,” in reference to supporters of former Republican mayor Kristen Brown, who Lienhoop defeated in the last mayoral primary in 2015. Lienhoop may be challenged, but it will likely be in the primary, Hyatt predicted.
Columbus City Council president Frank Miller, a Republican, said the situation shouldn’t surprise anyone.
“In every city, there will always be a faction or group within a party not in step with the administration,” Miller said. “While some in Columbus are happy with the current administration, there are also some who don’t seem to happy with anything.”
If a person does a good job while in office, they deserve to be re-elected regardless of their political party, Miller said.
“And as far as the council goes, we all tend to do what we think is best for the people,” he said.
Currently, there are 29,407 residents of Columbus who are eligible to vote in the 2019 municipal election, according to county elections supervisor Shari Lentz. That’s 58.5 percent of the 50,255 voters who were eligible to vote in the 2018 midterm, Lentz said.
All seven seats on the Columbus City Council are on the ballot. Five of those seats represent different districts, while two are at-large members elected by all Columbus residents.
Besides mayor and city council, voters also will be choosing a clerk-treasurer, a position currently held by Republican Luann Welmer.
“I’ve heard a lot of sitting officials plan to run again,” said Barb Hackman, Bartholomew County Republican Party chairwoman. “But we’ll see what happens when everyone starts filing.”
Council member Frank Jerome, who was elected to represent city’s District 3 on the northeast side, announced earlier this month he is stepping down from the council because he’s moving out of his district. A GOP caucus is scheduled to choose a successor from three candidates to fill out the rest of Jerome’s term at 10 a.m. today.
It was during the last city election in 2015 that two Democrats, Elaine Wagner and Tom Dell, finally broke the GOP stranglehold on local government by being elected to the city council. This year, there might even be some contested Democratic races for city council during the May primary, Hyatt said.
But there are still several potential candidates mulling over a potential candidacy with family and supporters who say they won’t make up their minds about running until after the holidays are over, Hyatt said.
The large number of professionals in Columbus helps make the city more ideologically balanced than the conservative rural areas of Bartholomew County, Hyatt said.
But that doesn’t manifest itself on the ballot because many professionals don’t want to mix part-time politics with their full-time occupations, Hyatt said.
“A lot of people who come into town with Cummins are tied almost exclusively to their job, at least in the initial years. And while there are many activities involved in being on the city council, there isn’t much compensation,” Hyatt said.
Each council member will make $8,057 in 2019, according to the city’s salary ordinance.
Two of the biggest dates of the 2019 election season will be May 7, which is the primary, and Nov. 5, the general election day.
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Jan. 9: First day of candidate filing.
Feb. 8: Last day to file declaration of candidacy to run in the primary election.
Feb. 11: Deadline to withdrawn from the primary election.
Feb. 15: Deadline to open candidate committee, and file candidate challenges.
May 7: Primary Election Day.
June 30: Deadline for Democratic, Libertarian, Republican parties to fill ballot vacancies.
July 3: Deadline for party chairs to file ballot vacancy paperwork.
July 15: Deadline for minor party and independent candidates to file declaration and certified petitions of nomination. Also the deadline for a candidate to withdrawal from the general election.
Nov. 5: General Election Day.
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