Mike Wolanin | The Republic John Foster, second right, moderates a forum between Democratic candidates for Columbus City Council District 3 Jerone Wood, left, Michael Kinder, second left, and Tony Hayden, far right, during a Columbus Rotary Club meeting at Donner Center in Columbus, Ind., Monday, March 27, 2023.
All three Democratic candidates vying for the District 3 seat on the Columbus City Council have raised and spent modest amounts of money during the primary campaign.
The District 3 race is the only race with multiple Democratic candidates in the Tuesday primary.
This is the first time that Columbus is holding a municipal election reflecting the community’s upcoming change from being classified as a third-class moving to a second-class city. Effective next year, Columbus will have a nine-member city council, instead of the current seven. New boundary lines explain why Democrat Jerone Wood, who currently represents District 1, is running in the newly-designated District 3.
The Democrat council candidate reporting the most money in the new district is Tony Hayden, who stated he received $1,658 from Jan. 1 to April 7. Hayden received six direct contributions, include over $700 from a single donor last February.
Hayden, a local therapist, also reported smaller contributions totaling $437. Donations of less than $100 do not have to be itemized nor reported to the Federal Election Commission.
During the primary season, Hayden spent $589. his report states. If he wins the nomination in the primary, Hayden will still have $1,070 left as the general election campaign gets underway, according to the report.
Wood, who won the District 1 council seat by a single vote over the late Dascal Bunch in the fall of 2019, has collected $1,255 in financial contributions from Jan. 1 to April 7.
An employee of the Bartholomew Consolidated School Corp., Wood lists only one itemized donation of $200. The bulk of his campaign money is $1,055 coming from individual donations of less than $100, the report states. The financial statement lists campaign expenses of $1,129, leaving Wood with $126 cash-on-hand.
During the election of 2019, a third candidate ran as an independent in the District 1 race. Michael Kinder now is running as a Democrat for the District 3 seat. His campaign finance report lists no donors except for himself. Contributions and expenditures show three expenses for campaign materials that total $590. Kinder, an engineer with Cummins, Inc., currently has no cash-in-hand.
Tuesday’s nominee from the primary will face Republican Sue Norman-Chapple in the general election. Norman-Chapple is running unopposed in the GOP primary.
The 4,597 registered voters who reside in the newly-drawn district can cast a ballot for one of the three Democrats.
Money is often seen as a key factor in winning offices at the state and federal levels. But city council member Tom Dell says he believes financing is secondary in the minds of most Columbus residents when it comes to many local races.
“In the third district, most of those candidates are going door-to-door to meet people,” Dell said. “You get more votes by meeting a lot more people, getting more involved and showing you are most interested in serving others. When you step forward, you don’t have issues. The community has issues. You respond to your community’s needs, not your own.”
Seeking a third consecutive term, Dell and fellow Democrat Grace Kestler are unopposed in the primary and will be on the November ballot running for one of three at-large council seats. They will be competing against Republicans Josh Burnett, Alex Engelbert and Christopher W. Rutan this fall.
Tony Hayden
Contributions
$100-$199 – Ross Thomas, Columbus; Jamal Moore, Columbus; Myra Bryant, Columbus
$200-$299 – David Spear, Columbus
$700-$799 – Blake Fields, Columbus
Expenditures
Fast Signs, Columbus (yard signs) $588.64.
Michael Kinder
Contributions and expenditures
Kinder is funding his own campaign with contributions marked as in-kind contributions. That includes $171 invested into door hangers on March 12; $74 spent on stickers on March 19, and $346 to distribute mailers on April 2.
The door hangers and mailer were obtained through Vista Print of Waltham, Massachusetts, while the stickers were bought from Sticker Mule of Amsterdam, New York.
Jerone Wood
Contributions
$200 – Paulette Roberts, Columbus.
Wood’s filing states he has received $1,055 in unitemized contributions since the first of the year through April 7. Often dubbed small-dollar donations, unitemized contributions do not have to be listed on Federal Election Commission reports and donors do not have to be identified.
Expenditures
Two purchases from Vista Print totaling $1,129; $177 paid to the Foundation for Youth, Columbus. The filing does not outline what was purchased.
