By Ann Craig-Cinnamon
Hamilton County Democratic party chairman Keith Clock has announced that democrats will not run a candidate against Republican mayoral candidate Scott Fadness in the November General Election.
State law mandates that there be another municipal election in November of 2015 in order to get the new city of Fishers on the same election cycle as the rest of the state. Clock says there was no interest from a credible candidate that would want to run two years in a row.
Clock says they will wait until next year to make a run at it.
“There’s someone in particular that I’m trying to recruit. There was so much disappointment after the primary that there wasn’t a Democrat on the ballot that I think there will be a lot more interest next election,” he said. “I think it caught people off guard. I think you saw that with the really low voter turnout. It’s unfortunate that there was just a 12 percent turnout and that 12 percent gets to elect officials.”
There are four democrats running for municipal office in the November election which Clock says he believes is the most democrats who have ever run for office in Fishers.
And he says he thinks it’s just the beginning.
“It’s important to give people a choice, whether they win or not. It’s important that people feel that this is some sort of a functioning democracy in action here where people have a choice when they go to vote in November rather than everyone just getting a rubber stamp into office. It’s a shame that happens sometimes. But I think over time that is very less likely to happen,” Clock said.
Since there will be no one opposing him on the November ballot, that makes Fishers Town Manager Scott Fadness the presumptive winner and first mayor of Fishers.
Fadness says he is preparing to take over the office.
“I am excited and humbled at the opportunity to serve this community in the capacity of Mayor. I really have three goals for this fall and next spring: Making sure that we have a smooth transition to our new form of government, working hard to engage residents around a common vision for our community and identifying those common values that unite us and jobs. Our team is currently focused on bringing companies to Fishers and growing companies in Fishers so that we can provide new work opportunities for our residents right here in our own community,” Fadness said.
