Incumbent David Bush won the Republican nomination for Columbus City Council District 3 in Tuesday’s primary, defeating challenger Russ Poling by a very narrow margin.
Bush, 32, received 329 votes, or nearly 52 percent of the vote, against Poling, 56, who received 304 votes, or 48 percent.
“I’m excited to continue doing good stuff on the city council,” Bush said. “I appreciate everybody coming out and voting, and I’m looking forward to everyone voting again in November.”
It is unclear whether Bush as the winner of the GOP primary for the District 3 seat will run unopposed in November. On April 2, Nancy Hoover, a Democrat who filed for the seat, dropped out of the race for health reasons.
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Bob Hyatt, Bartholomew County Democratic Party chairman, said Democrats will likely hold a caucus to select a replacement for Hoover after the primary.
Bush, a majority stakeholder in Kenny Glass Inc., was appointed by Republican precinct members in December to fill the vacant council seat after former councilman Frank Jerome resigned after moving out of the district.
Precinct committeemen chose Bush over Poling, a Cummins Inc. employee and member of the Columbus City Planning Commission who had also applied for Jerome’s seat.
The other candidate for the seat when Jerome resigned was Jon Padfield, an assistant professor at Purdue Polytechnic Columbus and former District 30 state representative. Bush took office on Jan. 1.
Although Bush was the incumbent, this race was his first attempt to attain the Republican nomination for a full four-year term on the city council. Poling unsuccessfully sought the Republican nomination for the seat in 2015, losing to Jerome.
After the results were announced, Poling came over to Bush’s table at the Republican watch party at Hotel Indigo in downtown Columbus to congratulate Bush on his victory and then thanked his campaign team for their work.
“I just really enjoyed getting out there and talking to people (during the campaign),” Poling said.
If elected in November’s general election, Bush said his areas of focus would be the city’s efforts to stem drug addiction and supporting the Columbus Parks Department.
“I’m happy to represent our district and look forward to four more years and winning in November,” Bush said. “… Just so everybody knows, in November, if contested, I will fight harder than I fought in this primary.”
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Columbus City Council District 3
Republican
David Bush;329
Russ Poling;304
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