Four years ago, local Democrats made a statement by winning two Columbus City Council seats. Tuesday, they reshaped the council in a way it hasn’t been in more than 30 years.
Four Democrats won seven of the city council seats up for grabs in the municipal election — the most the party has held at one time since 1983.
Jerone Wood (District 1) and Grace Kestler (at-large) unseated Republican incumbents. Elaine Wagner (District 2) and Tom Dell (at-large) were re-elected to second terms.
“I think it’s the voter’s will that these people got elected, and a fair amount of hard work,” Bartholomew County Democratic Party chairman Bob Hyatt said.
Democratic candidates talked to a lot of potential voters, he noted.
“They got a lot of Democratic votes, but also a lot of Republican votes,” Hyatt said.
Hyatt said that even late in the day, Democrats were calling voters they knew who had not voted and urging them to vote, because they the elections would be close.
A good recruiting process of candidates helped, too, he said.
“We … had young Democrats step up and say they wanted to make a difference, and we got them to run for office,” Hyatt said.
For more on this story, see Wednesday’s Republic.
