DAZE WORK: City election beyond the numbers

Just like baseball is more than hits, runs and errors, the City of Greencastle election is more than a numbers game.

There were a variety of intriguing circumstances at work Tuesday and leading up to the general election that produced only a disappointing 26.7 percent turnout with 1,561 people casting votes in the city. Straight-party tickets cast were 345 for the GOP and 124 for the Democrats, so in many ways, that was the ball game right there.

Overall, the 2023 election will be remembered as the one in which three incumbents were beaten -- Democrat Russell Harvey in First Ward, Democrat Veronica Pejril in Third Ward and Republican Cody Eckert in Fourth Ward -- and four political newcomers triumphed -- Clerk-Treasurer Mikayla Johnson, Third Ward Councilor Tina Nicholson, Fourth Ward Councilman Vincent Aguirre and At-Large Councilor Katherine Asbell. All the newbies but Aguirre are Republicans.

The near sweep gives the Republicans the largest-ever advantage on the City Council at 6-1 as David Masten, Stacie Langdon, Nicholson, Asbell, Mark Hammer and Darrel Thomas are GOP members with Aguirre the lone Democrat.

Both parties have previously held 4-1 advantages back before the City Council went from five to seven members. At one time or another, Democrat Bob Sedlack was the lone ranger, while Republicans Hammer and Tim Conway were once the lone Republican on the panel.

Presently the Council split is 4-3 Republican with GOP members Hammer, Thomas, Langdon and Eckert serving alongside Democrats Harvey, Pejril and David Murray.

Know your A-B-C’s

So, have you ever wondered if ballot position helps? I think Congressman Jim Baird (R-Greencastle) will tell you it didn’t hurt when he was alphabetically atop a field of 13 Republican 4th District candidates in the primary a few years back.

Tuesday night ballot position was reflected in the at-large Council race. The six at-large candidates finished in exactly the order they were listed on the ballot.

Republicans were listed first with the 1-2-3 Asbell, Hammer, Thomas order earning their respective vote totals of 966, 905 and 752. Democrats Kim Fidler (593) and Gary Lemon (564) were next at fourth and fifth, with independent Derek Jorgensen at the bottom of the list, amassing an admirable independent count of 356 votes.

Here a vote, there a vote

In two of the Council races, the candidates each captured one of the two precincts. While incumbent Pejril won the larger precinct of Third West by a 100-86 count, she lost to Nicholson in Third East by 40 votes, 87-47, ending the tenure of Indiana’s first transgender elected official with a final tally of 173-147.

In the Fourth Ward, incumbent Eckert also captured the larger precinct, Fourth East, by a 130-126 margin. But in winning the slim Fourth West turnout of 11 votes by an 8-3 count, Aguirre earned enough to prevail by one single tally overall, 134-133.

Should Aguirre’s election stand up to any possible challenge, he would be the only elected Democrat official in the City of Greencastle and Putnam County. All elected positions at the courthouse are held by Republicans and have been for a number of years.

Together again

Meanwhile, after 24 years -- or six election cycles -- the election also reunites Hammer and Masten on the Council to which both were initially elected -- “with Mark” as Masten terms it -- in 1995, Mayor Nancy Michael’s first of three terms.

In between, however, Masten departed after one term as his business dealings, including purchase of the old Pool’s property, took precedent. Hammer, of course, stayed on and with his re-election Tuesday only adds to his record as the longest-serving Greencastle City Council member in at least 75 years.

Hammer was already on the ballot as the Second Ward candidate in 1995 when Councilman Jerry Calbert died in August and the party named Hammer to replace him. That puts his reigning tenure at 28 years with 32 years in the offing if he completes his next term.

The newly retired CPA initially served 20 years as Second Ward councilor and has now been elected to a third stint as an at-large representative.

Masten, meanwhile, used a 46-15 cushion in First North and 198-145 verdict overall to oust incumbent Harvey, who was named to replace Adam Cohen on the Council last March after Cohen resigned Feb. 27 due to illness.

Number please

With the new mayor, clerk-treasurer and City Council all due to take office Jan. 1, the next city election number to look forward to is ... 2027.

It may sound like a long way off, but it’ll be here before you know it.