Democrats keep supermajority on Indy’s City-County Council

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Democrats held on to their supermajority on the Indianapolis City-County Council, with preliminary election results showing them securing 19 of the council’s 25 seats.

The outcome gives the party the same number of council seats it holds today and the ongoing power to conduct business even if Republicans ever decide to walk out of a council meeting in protest.

However, the GOP did manage to pick up one council seat by virtue of independent Ethan Evans deciding not to seek re-election and Republican Derek Cahill winning the newly-drawn District 23, which was expected to tilt red.

With 97% of the vote counted in Marion County, only a handful of council races were relatively close.

Incumbent Democratic councilor Jared Evans beat GOP newcomer Lisa Schmitz by 4 percentage points in the west side’s District 17, which includes Ben Davis and Mars Hill and is often considered a toss-up.

In other contested races, Democrat upstart Nick Roberts held a comfortable 7 percentage point lead over Republican Natalie Goodwin in District 4, which includes Castleton and Geist. Roberts, 23, would become the council’s youngest member.

In District 20, which includes Five Points, a portion of Beech Grove and the Washington Square area, incumbent Republican Michael-Paul Hart held off a strong challenge from Democrat Will Jackson, leading by 6 percentage points.

In District 17, Democrat Jessica McCormick beat Republican Julie Calvert-Watts by 7 percentage points.

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18 thoughts on “Democrats keep supermajority on Indy’s City-County Council

    1. Or, in the real world: excellent candidates, in fairly-drawn districts, who worked hard to portray their platforms to voters.

      In other words: not the Indiana legislature supermajority.

    2. LOL yeah, the party that likes to overrun the Capitol, ring up massive deficits, sell of publicly-owned assets to their buddies, and hang with Nick Fuentes is absolutely the poster child of pragmatism. Good one.

    3. A.R.

      Let’s see! Hmmmm
      Hundreds of very destructive leftwing riots throughout the summer of
      Love verses one rightwing riot. Which is the greater number, hundreds or
      one. My money is on hundreds of leftwing riots is larger ( greater than )
      one rightwing riot.
      It’s simple math.

      President Biden just ran up the largest single year deficit ever. Hmmm

      Racism is far worse within the Dem ranks than it ever has been with the R’s.

      Smart, intelligent, and conscientious people should abandon the ignorant racist Dem Party.

    4. Lol Biden did not just ring up the largest deficit in a single year. According to the CBO, revenues are up under Biden and outlays are down, significantly, when compared to Trump. That claim was easily disprovable.

      And riots over police killings are not the same as trying to overthrow a legal and constitutional process. Sit down.

  1. No, Rick — Keith B has it correct — the Dems will use their super-majority to further wreck Marion Co, and drive out even more GOP-leaning voters, in their march to consolidate power by turning Indy into another Detroit.

    1. While this is largely true, it’s happening in every major city across the country. There’s still enough sanity in Indy right now to keep it from outright legalizing most if not all crimes, the way it’s happening in Chicago, Minneapolis, Portland, Seattle, Los Angeles, etc. Whether or not that sanity will remain in 10 years in Indy remains to be seen. But by that point, pretty much all cities will be as crappy as they were in 1985.

    2. Instead of blaming the populace, you should look inward and start thinking about how you can change your policies and/or put up better candidates. Quit crying, you look like a sore loser.

    3. I’ve got a genuine question Lauren. Would you rather live in Mississippi or California? You’ve got ultra MAGA on one end and ultra liberal on the other.

      I think most people would choose Los Angeles over Boonville, MS (real place), but that’s just my opinion.

      You feed way too much into the left vs right dynamic. Indianapolis isn’t turning into Detroit by electing Democrats. Census data, apartment vacancy rates, and employment data all say otherwise.

      Carmel also isn’t turning into Mississippi by electing Finkham. You can’t nationalize every single election. You also aren’t living in reality if you think every big city in the country is reverting back to 1985.

      Tell me, were new apartment buildings being built all over Downtown Indy in the 80’s and asking record breaking rents from tenants? By the way, that’s also happening in Chicago, Minneapolis, Los Angeles, Seattle, etc.

    4. Wesley–

      Mississippi and California both have one thing in common: both are losing population.

      Another thing they have in common is that they suffer many of the same social ills–corruption, crime, economies that are stretched thinly, where geographically concentrated areas surge but are pitted against large swathes of land that are languishing socioeconomically. This characterizes much of the country–Indiana too some extent–but it’s far worse in places with huge disparities between the rich and poor, like MS and CA. The suburbs of Jackson, MS are quite nice, and the Memphis suburbs in Mississippi represent some of the fastest growing areas in the country. The Mississippi Gulf Cost isn’t bad either.

      None of these will seem the equivalent of the South Bay, or Orange County, or La Jolla, or even the few remaining areas in the cities of LA and SF that aren’t steeped with problems. California is definitely glitzier. But let’s remember that a 2BR home in much of California will start at $950K. So the price tag is skewed toward the glitz even while the squalor is a heartbeat away.

      Glitz (relatively speaking) and squalor (also relatively) are butted up against one another in Mississippi too, but 2BR homes don’t come with the same price tag. Sure, wages are a lot lower, but $950K will buy you an estate in most of Mississippi.

      I never thought I’d say this even 10 years ago, but I’d much rather live in Mississippi.

      I do appreciate being lectured a political binary by….Wesley, whose every single comment is tantamount to “Dems good, GOP bad”. I tried to take a middle-of-the-road approach on the Rokita/Bernard dust-up, and still got reamed for daring to even criticize Bernard in the least. By people who clearly hold binary views.

      I covered the “record-breaking rents” of trendy apartments in another response today, and why it’s a Potemkin village unless social conditions change. I still hold hope that social conditions will change. But they sure aren’t going to change through Hogsett’s leadership. It would happen in spite of him.

    5. Wesley, if you are going to pick a city to compare at least get the spelling correct, it is BoonEville, Mississippi. BTW how is the weather in California today?

    6. Thanks for answering my question Lauren. I appreciate it. I was genuinely curious. It’s funny how you ended your comment the way you did. Every comment you make to me reads “GOP good, Dems evil”, so I guess we see each other exactly the same. I don’t think that way, but I also don’t care if you believe that about me. I personally think both parties are garbage, but the GOP is against everything I stand for on social issues. I can’t vote for that even if it benefits my wallet.

      The social conditions you lament certainly won’t change with the GOP focused on cutting taxes for billionaires/destroying democracy, or Democrats allowing their party to continue to be beholden to corporations. The mayor and city council of Indianapolis certainly aren’t changing the social conditions that plague the entire country.

    7. Rhea, my mistake. How dare I disrespect the great city of Booneville! I’ll never forgive myself!

      And it’s beautiful, thanks for asking! Sunny and 75 today. I’m working with the window open and A/C off!

    8. Wesley,

      The the second great black migration is from the Northe4n states back
      to the southern states. Mississippi included.
      This trend started about 30 years ago.

    9. “ I tried to take a middle-of-the-road approach on the Rokita/Bernard dust-up, and still got reamed for daring to even criticize Bernard in the least. By people who clearly hold binary views.”

      Good use of the word “tried”, since your grasp of the facts of the case was (and remains) lacking and unsupportable by any available evidence.

      But go on telling me a HIPPA violation is the same as failing to report child abuse … in a case in which the abortion was arranged by a child abuse doctor in Ohio multiple days after the crime had been reported to Ohio police.

      I still don’t get why you’re such a fan of the Christian fascist state that you’re after; as supposedly both a female and an atheist, they’d be after folks like you soon enough.

  2. Waiting to hear Lauren regale us with her many trips and time spent in Mississippi.

    I will give Mississippi credit for ( per several educational analysis) improving education in Mississippi to the point it has now passed Indiana. Let me repeat that. The poorest state in the country by a hood margin is now preforming at a higher level than Indiana.
    Go Indiana republicans!

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