In the history of our nation, 16 men have been elected to two terms or more as president of the United States. Now we have the 17th.
Barack Hussein Obama joins the company of Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, Jackson, Lincoln, Grant, Cleveland, McKinley, Wilson, Roosevelt, Eisenhower, Nixon, Reagan, Clinton and George W. Bush as the individuals freely elected at least twice to the highest office of the greatest country in the world.
Ohio, Indiana’s neighboring state that both parties bitterly fought over, fueled by hundreds of millions in ads and hype, was the state that vaulted President Obama to his second term around 11:15 p.m. Indianapolis time Tuesday night.
Unfortunately, despite receiving a 79,326 vote landslide here in Indianapolis/Marion County, President Obama didn’t win Indiana this time. But, fueled by the largest percentage turnout in city/county history, powered by tens of thousands of determined, focused African-Americans who endured lines and polling place location confusion, Democrats won stunning victories statewide and ran the table in Indiana’s largest city and county.
Indianapolis/Marion County was the base that launched Richard Lugar 48 years ago, first as president of the IPS School Board, then mayor, then U.S. senator for 36 years.
Tuesday, the city Lugar served and loved lashed back at the man who defeated him in the primary as they strongly voted for Democrat Joe Donnelly. Donnelly defeated state Treasurer Richard Mourdock statewide by some 134,000 votes; a margin driven by Donnelly’s 126,379 vote landslide delivered by Indianapolis voters.
The South Bend Democrat beat Murdock in Indianapolis 64 percent to 30 percent. Senator-elect Donnelly’s victory helps erase the bad taste in our Black community’s mouth after Sen. Evan Bayh deserted us by not running for re-election two years ago.
Donnelly’s victory was aided by Mourdock’s negative attitude towards those who didn’t agree with him. Senator-elect Donnelly made Mourdock’s “my way or the highway” insensitivity stick with Hoosier voters and helped to keep the U.S. Senate in Democratic hands.
In a conference call two hours after he won, Donnelly told me that Marion County was very important to his victory. And Donnelly told me that he thought there were lessons in the Democrats’ sweeping victory in our city/county that the rest of the party can learn from statewide.
The huge Marion County turnout nearly created John Gregg’s near upset of Governor-elect Mike Pence. For a well-known Indiana Republican politician with a base in Central Indiana, Pence performed poorly, garnering just 36.3 percent of the vote in Indianapolis. That may be the smallest vote percentage a winning Republican governor has received in Marion County in decades.
Gregg beat Pence here by 80,197 votes. Gregg only lost to Pence statewide by nearly 83,000 votes.
Also, African-Americans and Marion County helped create the huge upset victory of teacher Glenda Ritz over Tony Bennett in the superintendent of public instruction race.
Ritz’s underfunded campaign beat the well funded Bennett in Marion County by 81,777 votes. That margin comprised 64 percent of Ritz’s 127,000 vote statewide victory margin.
There had been worry because the newly redrawn 7th Congressional District included all of the city/county’s three southern, predominantly Republican townships. But even with the new geography Rep. André Carson beat Republican Carlos May in a landslide 62.8 percent to 37.1 percent, or 65,901 votes.
Democrats retained control of the three countywide offices that were up this election. Claudia Fuentes becomes the first Latino to be elected to a constitutional office (county treasurer) in the history of the state’s largest county. Fuentes beat her Republican opponent Jason Woodruff by 67,000 votes.
Dr. Frank Lloyd was re-elected as coroner by a 78,000 vote margin and Debra Jenkins was re-elected Marion County surveyor by 79,000 votes.
During a year when Democratic legislative candidates outside of Indianapolis were decimated, Democrats gained legislative seats in Indianapolis. Every Democratic legislator in Marion County was re-elected along with four newcomers.
Representatives-elect Robin Shackleford and Dan Forrestal replace veteran legislators Bill Crawford and John Day respectively. Karlee Macer captured Republican House District 92 on the Westside and Stephanie Hale captured Republican House District 87 on the Northside.
And in a shocker, a Democrat was elected in Republican dominated Perry Township to a Township Board seat for the first time in history.
No surprise in many of the city/county’s school board races.
In the hotly contested races for IPS School Board, as expected former Methodist Hospital executive Sam Odle handily defeated community activist Larry Vaughn by 15,000 votes in the IPS at-large seat. In District 1 on the Eastside Caitlin Hannon bested two other candidates. In the majority-Black IPS District 2, reformer Gayle Cosby soundly defeated three other candidates, including incumbent board member Elizabeth Gore by 9,800 votes.
Hannon and Cosby were supported by a variety of education reform groups in a race marked by large sums of money contributed and spent; especially a blizzard of direct mail pieces.
The result of the IPS elections means a new IPS School Board majority that won’t blindly acquiesce to the whims and wishes of IPS Supt. Eugene White.
While school reform forces will be heartened by the IPS election, Superintendent-elect Glenda Ritz’s upset victory signals severe public discomfort with the rapid change of education reform. And Ritz’s strong victory margin in Marion County, will be a warning to those newly elected IPS board members to be wary of rapid changes in the wake of Bennett’s surprise defeat.
Since most Indianapolis residents don’t live in the IPS district or send their kids to IPS, interest was strong in other school board races.
In Washington Township, incumbent Wanda Spann-Roddy was re-elected, but in Lawrence Township April Adjai fell short in her bid for the board.
In the Pike School Board race Charlisa Richardson won a seat on the board. But incumbent Ricky Hence was defeated. And in Warren Township, despite four Black candidates running, none were elected to the school board.
Despite our community’s exhilaration at the president’s re-election and the Democratic victories here, our community faces some difficult challenges ahead. See ‘ya next week.
