Political Parties Select Candidates
The race for the fall’s Indiana US Senate race was never in doubt incumbent Republican Senator Todd Young and Democrat Thomas McDermott were unopposed in their party’s races.
But both Democrats and Republicans had races for the 9th Congressional seat. The GOP selected Erin Hounchin of nearby Salem with 21,364 votes over second place finisher and former congressman Mike Sodrel with 14,710. In Scott County Houchin gathered 621 votes to 296 for Sodrel. In Jackson County Houchin polled 1,538 votes to Sodrel’s 851.
Houchins will face Democrat Matthew Fyfe of Bloomington who defeated Isak Asare11,989 to 6,244 in the district.
In Jackson County, Fyfe gathered 467 votes to 123 for Asare and 110 for D. Liam Dorris. Scott County gave Fyfe 481 votes to Dorris 161 and Asare’s 141,
In a state representative party races in Jackson and Scott Counties, Dave Hall of Medora received the GOP nomination for District 62 race with 2,880 votes. He received 301 votes from the western three townships –Owen, Pershing and Salt Creek— that he represents in Jackson County. He bested Greg (No Bull) Knott who claimed 2,202 votes in the district and 61 votes in Jackson County.
Hall will face Bloomington Democrat Penny Githens who received 2,891 votes in the district to Brad Swain’s 1,349. In Jackson County Githens received 30 votes to Swain’s 23.
In the race for District 65 representative, incumbent Chris May easily won re-nomination over John Lee 5,961 to 1,786. In Carr Township the only township in Jackson County in District 65, May won 73-24.
In the GOP race for sheriff in Jackson County, incumbent Rick Meyer received 2,703 votes to Shawn Isaacs Minton’s 1,104.
In the race for Brownstown Township Trustee, Melanie Pottschmidt won the nomination with 309 votes to 192 for Daniel K. Banks and 161 to Nicki Hudson Downs.
In Jackson Township Trustee race Jeff Joray received the nomination with 953 votes to 406 for Curt Staley.
For Jackson Township Board Kathy Mears Hohenstreiter (1,019) Janet Davidson (873) and Skylar Early (839) won the nomination over Jessica Payne with 723 votes.
In the race for Owen Township Trustee, incumbent Frank Fisher was defeated by Dirk Smith, 98-72 for the Republican nomination.
There were no party races in Jackson County on the Democratic ticket.
In Scott County, there were two Republican races for county council. In the District 2 race, John Miller Jr. received 214 votes to Philip Shepherd’s 100. In the District 3 county council race, John M. Collins received 213 votes to defeat incumbent Rachel Hardin who gathered 163.
In Democrat party races in Scott County Democrat David Brunner was the party’s nominee for County Council District 4 with 126 votes to 93 for James Coomer.
In a contested race for Jennings Township Board, the top three Democrat vote getters were Mahala (Haley) Baker (242), Iva Gasaway (199) and Ismael White (161) who was three votes better than Melissa Smith’s 158.