(INDIANAPOLIS) – Three months after Democrats’ landslide in Indianapolis elections, Republicans are feeling aftershocks in this year’s races.
For the first time ever, Republicans aren’t even fielding candidates in the primary for two Marion County offices: coroner and surveyor. Indianapolis Representative and party chair Cindy Kirchhofer has until July 1 to fill the vacancies, and says she expects she will.
Kirchhofer says she didn’t want to just put a warm body on the ballot. She says she’s looking for an engineer to run against Surveyor Debra Jenkins, and someone with medical expertise to face Coroner Lee Sloan — if not a doctor, then a physician’s assistant or advanced practical nurse. She says she doesn’t want to be in the position of electing someone who in turn would have to hire someone to fulfill the job.
Kirchhofer says it’s been particularly hard to find a candidate for surveyor because engineering firms which do business with the city prefer their employees to steer clear of politics. And she notes she’s still getting her feet under her after becoming party chairman just six months ago.
Republicans haven’t won a county office in Marion County since 2006, although Republican Greg Ballard was elected mayor of Indianapolis in 2007 and 2011. Because of Indy’s combined city-county government, candidates for mayor run countywide. No Republican has carried the county for any office since Ballard’s second win. In November, the party lost six seats on the City-County Council, and Indianapolis Senator Jim Merritt earned barely a quarter of the vote for mayor as Democrat Joe Hogsett coasted to a second term.
Republicans are contesting the race for county treasurer — State Department of Health deputy controller Adam Novotney will face former Indianapolis city controller Barbara Lawrence. Incumbent Claudia Fuentes is term-limited.
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