Several holes on city ballot as noon Friday filing deadline nears

With less than three days remaining before the noon filing deadline Friday, the ballot for the 2019 Greencastle Municipal Primary Election has more vacancies than candidates.

As of Tuesday afternoon, only six city candidates had filed their intention to seek one of the nine city positions -- mayor, clerk-treasurer and seven City Council members.

The latest additions to the ballot, according to Stacia Hathaway of the Voter Registration Office at the Putnam County Courthouse, are four members of the current city administration.

Filing their paperwork for the May 7 city primary were incumbent Clerk-Treasurer Lynda Dunbar, a Republican seeking re-election, and City Council members Gary Lemon, a Democrat, and Tyler Wade and Mark Hammer, Republicans, all of whom are seeking one of the three at-large seats on the Council.

That's something new for Wade, who currently represents the Fourth Ward, a position he has held since 2014.

They join the two previously announced candidates on the city ballot -- incumbent Stacie Langdon, a Republican seeking re-election to the Second Ward Council seat, and Veronica Pejril, a Democrat running for the Third Ward Council seat currently occupied by Democrat Steve Fields, who has announced that he will not seek re-election.

Thus far, no candidates have filed from either party for mayor or for the First or Fourth Ward City Council seats.

Currently the city administration is composed of Mayor Bill Dory (D), Clerk-Treasurer Dunbar (R), First Ward Councilman Adam Cohen (D), Second Ward Councilor Langdon (R), Third Ward Councilman Fields (D), Fourth Ward Councilor Wade (R) and the three at-large members, Mark Hammer (R), Dave Murray (D) and Lemon (D).

Meanwhile, candidate filings also have been posted in the Cloverdale primary election.

In Second Ward at Cloverdale, a seat currently held by independent Don Sublett, a pair of Republicans have filed -- Rick Dearwester and Cowetta Patton.

Two Republicans are also seeking the clerk-treasurer position at Cloverdale, incumbent Cheryl Galloway and challenger Vanessa Carr.