Little competition, no partisan labels at local school board election deadline
WL school board draws 4 candidates for 3 seats. In LSC and TSC, only single – or zero – candidates at filing deadline. Plus, Deery continues to lead after recount in 3 of 6 Senate Dist. 23 counties.
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LITTLE COMPETITION, NO PARTISAN ‘R’ OR ‘D’ IN LOCAL SCHOOL BOARD RACES
A new Indiana law meant to push candidates to run partisan campaigns in school board elections didn’t find traction in Greater Lafayette’s three school districts by Thursday’s deadline to file to be on the November 2026 ballot.
The noon Thursday deadline showed candidates for Lafayette, West Lafayette and Tippecanoe school board all filing as non-partisan, when given the choice of running under Republican, Democratic or Libertarian labels.
One district will wind up with a vacancy on the ballot for one of its school board seats.
Here’s how things stack up.
Lafayette School Corp.
The school board will have no contested races and one vacancy after the November election, with three candidates filing for four seats. They are:
District A: Gary Mueller.
District B: Incumbent Brent Clemenz.
District D: Incumbent Oscar Trujillo.
District C: No candidate filed in District C, which covers much of the southern portion of LSC. Bob Stwalley, a longtime school board member, said it had been his intention to step down after this term. “However, no one else ran, either,” Stalley said Thursday. “Under Indiana law, I hold the position. I will do so for one year or so while we look for a suitable replacement.”
The LSC school board faced a similar issue in 2022, when then-board member Allison McKay fell short of the signatures required to get on the ballot. Her seat appeared with no candidate in that election. The school board, which under state law is responsible for filling vacancies, selected her to remain in the seat after the election. The school board would be charged with filling the District C seat after the 2026 general election.
Not filing for re-election in LSC: Current school board member Steve Bultinck, who lost a re-election bid in 2022 before being brought back to the board after McKay stepped down when she left the district. “At 70 years of age,” Bultinck said, “I feel it’s time for a younger generation to step in and am riding into the sunset.”
Tippecanoe School Corp.
Incumbents filed for re-election in the three seats on the November ballot. Each will face no challengers.
District 1: Holly Keckler. District 1 includes Wabash Township and a portion of Shelby Township.
District 2: Josh Loggins. District 2 includes Tippecanoe Township.
District 3: William Sondgerath. District 3 includes Washington and Perry townships.
West Lafayette Community School Corp.
As the district looks to renew a property tax referendum in the general election, four candidates filed for three at-large seats on the ballot. They include: Incumbents Dacia Mumford and Laurence Wang, along with John Robinson and Maria Koliantz. The West Lafayette school board also is in the process of picking a replacement for Rachel Witt, who announced last week that she planned to step down July 31 because she’s moving from the district.
The Indiana election calendar gives the parties until noon July 3 to select candidates to fill vacancies on the general election ballot if there are any left from the primary. But that doesn’t apply to party vacancies for school board seats, according to Angie Nussmeyer, co-director of the Indiana Election Division.
Nussmeyer said the change in state law allows a party to fill an elected office vacancy should a Democratic or Republican school board member resign after taking office in 2027. She said that beside running as a write-in candidate, the school board filing period is closed.
INDIANA SENATE DISTRICT 23 RECOUNT UPDATE
Vote tallies did not change in Indiana Senate District 23 as a State Board of Accounts finished a review of ballots in two more counties Wednesday, according to candidates and precinct documents compiled by the recount director.
State Sen. Spencer Deery’s three-vote margin stands in the May 5 Republican primary against challenger Paula Copenhaver after the recount finished in Vermillion and Parke counties Wednesday. A recount in Tippecanoe County, the first of six counties in Senate District 23 done in the process, showed no changes to final numbers Tuesday, either.
The recount process went quickly enough Wednesday morning in Vermillion County that the team moved to Parke County to do work that day, rather than on Thursday, as previously scheduled.
Next up: Montgomery County on June 22; Warren County on June 23; and Fountain County on June 25 and 26.
Deery won the race by a count of 6,337-6,334. The winner of the race will face Democrat David Sanders and independent candidate Joshua Brant.
Copenhaver requested the recount. She also has challenged the results in precincts where her lawyers contend they’ve found evidence of left-leaning voters crossing over to pull a Republican ballot to sabotage her President Trump-backed campaign. Copenhaver’s challenge filed with the Indiana Recount Commission called it “tampering,” subverting a little-known state election law, asking to subpoena up to 14 voters to testify under oath about their votes. Deery’s campaign has called the demand egregious. Voters targeted for potential subpoenas have told Based in Lafayette they’re weighing their options if they are called to testify.
Earlier this week, Evan Norris, a Zionsville attorney appointed recount director in Senate District 23 and two other races across the state, said he plans to assemble a report of the recount results, along with any disputes, and present that to the three-member Indiana Recount Commission. That hearing date hasn’t been set. Norris said it likely would come after two other recounts are finished by July 1, too.
The three-member Indiana Recount Commission would decide what do about Copenhaver’s ballot disputes stemming from the recount.
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