Indiana primary results: 5 takeaways in Tippecanoe County races

LAFAYETTE – How did Tuesday’s primary election go in Tippecanoe County?

On Wednesday, county election officials finished processing close to 600 mail-in ballots delivered to vote centers before the noon Tuesday deadline — a move that delayed final results until Wednesday afternoon.   

Here were five takeaways, based on the 22,252 ballots cast, as Republicans and Democrats set November ballots.

LIVE TIPPECANOE COUNTY RESULTS FROM THE JUNE 2 PRIMARY ELECTION

FOR MORE: Scroll to the bottom of this page for more results

Out of crowded Tippecanoe County Council races

The fields on both sides of Tuesday’s ballot were stacked for three at-large seats on the Tippecanoe County Council, with six Republicans and Democrats looking for spots on a board that oversees the county’s budget and finances.

Republicans: A month after Tippecanoe County Republicans passed him over to fill a vacancy on the county council, Barry Richard – who lost a re-election bid for a second term as county sheriff in the 2018 primary – made his comeback Tuesday. Richard finished third, behind incumbents John Basham and Kevin Underwood, for a spot on the November ballot. He edged out council member Jody Hamilton, director of business development for Tipmont REMC and former vice president of economic development for Greater Lafayette Commerce, who won a caucus runoff among GOP precinct committee members in May to replace Bryan Metzger, who died shortly earlier this year after filing to run for another term.

“I think it goes back to my lifelong commitment and service to our community,” Richard, a retired Lafayette police officer and executive director of the Lyn Treece Boys & Girls Club, said. “We had a lot of great candidates looking to serve, and I felt fortunate to be among them (during the caucus) and again in the election.”

Basham, who finished more than 3 percentage points better than the nearest challenger, said he was ready for his fourth run the way he was ready for the previous three: “We’ll let come what may.”

Democrats: In 2018, Lisa Dullum and Ilana Stonebraker – later replaced by Ben Murray – were the first from their party elected to the seven-member council in two dozen years. Those wins came in district races. This year, Democrats sorted six candidates for the countywide, at-large seats. The winners: Monica Casanova, Margaret Hass and Susan Schechter.

“There was an amazing group of Democrats in the race, and I am thankful to all of them for putting themselves out there,” Casanova said. “The county will have a real choice come November. Will they stay with the status quo or will they choose a new direction? I am excited to find out.”

Hass said: “I think the numbers tonight tell us that people are hungry for some change in the county, and we're ready to work hard to make county government more accessible to all so that it truly reflects the priorities of people who live here.”

For U.S. House District 4

Democrat Joe Mackey has been saying for two years that the right sort of campaign can challenge a Republican in U.S. House District 4, where U.S. Rep. Jim Baird, a Greencastle farmer, is running for a second term. This year, Mackey will get his chance to make that case in November.

More:Widespread use of mail-in ballots created more work, possibly disenfranchised voters

On Tuesday, Mackey won more than half the vote in a four-person race, two years after finishing third in a seven-way Democratic primary to 2018 nominee Tobi Beck. In the 2018 general election, Baird won with 64 percent of the vote in a 4th District that includes Tippecanoe County and surrounding counties and that leans heavy red. Example: 4th District voters went with Donald Trump by more than 30 percentage points.

“Now is the time for us to roll up our sleeves and get to work for the November election,” said Mackey, who is retired from Caterpillar and is founder of the Claire E. and Patrick G. Mackey Children’s Cancer Foundation. “We’re going to reach out to voters across the 4th district and have the conversations the district and the country must have.”

Baird wasn’t immediately available for comment Wednesday.

General Assembly seats

House District 25: During the spring campaign, Alex Sabol, a Tippecanoe County Democrat, didn’t meet or hear from Maurice Oakel Fuller, his Democratic opponent in the Indiana House District 25 primary. That put him in good company in recent years, as several Democratic challengers lost primaries to Fuller. As a candidate, Fuller’s pattern has been to file to run but otherwise refuse to surface during campaigns against state Rep. Don Lehe, a Republican from Brookston first elected to the Indiana House in 2002.

On Tuesday, Sabol, a management consultant, dispatched Fuller with 69 percent of the vote in a district that includes parts of Tippecanoe, White, Carroll, Clinton and Cass counties.

“This was a great vote of confidence from the people in our district and community,” Sabol said Tuesday night. “My goal wasn't to just win a primary. The goal is a new vision for Indiana, especially when it comes to health care and education with a big future available for everyone. We're just getting started.”

Senate District 7: State Sen. Brian Buchanan, a Lebanon Republican, held off two challengers in Tuesday’s primary, getting 68 percent of the vote in Indiana Senate District 7. Tuesday was the first time Buchanan appeared on the District 7 ballot. He was appointed to fill the seat when former Sen. Brandt Hershman resigned in early 2018 to take a job outside Indiana. Buchanan will face Democrat Tabitha Bartley in November in a district that includes parts of Tippecanoe, Jasper, White, Carroll, Clinton and Boone counties. The district cuts into parts of downtown Lafayette.

In other General Assembly districts that include parts of Tippecanoe County: Sheila Klinker, a Lafayette Democrat, faces Jim Hass, a Lafayette Republican, in her bid for a 20th term in House District 27. Chris Campbell, a West Lafayette Democrat, is unopposed in House District 26. Same goes for Rep. Sharon Negele, an Attica Republican, in District 13. Tim Brown, a Crawfordsville Republican, will face Democrat Greg Woods.

County judge races

Tippecanoe Superior Court 4: Republican Matt Sandy wound up sunburned from time outside the polls in Tuesday’s 90-degree sun and bit sore from pulling up campaign signs when polls closed at 6 p.m.

“I’m going to have to use them, again,” Sandy said, after taking roughly half the vote in a Republican primary against Kimberly Wright and Jonathan Dean for the Tippecanoe Superior Court 4 seat. “That’s a good thing.”

Sandy will face Democrat Matthew Boulac in November to replace Judge Laura Zeman, who is retiring after this term.

In other judicial races: Judge Randy Williams, a Republican, will face Bryan Coulter in Superior Court 1. Judge Steve Meyer, a Democrat, is unopposed in Superior Court 2. So is Kristen McVey, a Republican in Superior Court 5. And Democrat Jacque Chosnek and Republican Dan Moore are looking to be the first judge in Superior Court 7, set to open in 2021.

About the turnout

More than 9,000 voters – roughly 40 percent of those who took part in Tuesday’s primary in Tippecanoe County – used mail-in absentee ballots. In the most recent presidential-year primary in 2016, when mail-in votes had to come with an approved reason for voting that way, fewer than 500 ballots came to the county that way. This primary, Indiana allowed voters to request mail-in ballots, no questions asked, to encourage voting, while maintaining social distancing during the coronavirus pandemic.

Here’s how the 22,252 votes counted – an 19.4 percent turnout – compared to previous vote totals in recent presidential election years:

• 2016: 38,945 (In that election, Donald Trump wrapped up the nomination over Ted Cruz in Indiana’s primary, and Bernie Sanders was still challenging Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination.)
• 2012: 16,245 (The stakes were lower in the presidential race. President Barack Obama and GOP nominee Mitt Romney had things in hand by the time Indiana’s May primary rolled around.)
• 2008: 39,774 (Indiana was among the final battlegrounds for Obama and Clinton.)

For results

For a running total from Tuesday's races in Tippecanoe County, go to jconline.com and click on the link to this story.

Reach Dave Bangert at 765-420-5258 or at dbangert@jconline.com. Follow on Twitter: @davebangert.