Filing season ends with murmur in Region
NWI Times
Feb 5, 2016
nwitimes.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/filing-season-ends-with-murmur-in-region/article_8ac9c948-87c7-57fd-b9dc-10becab0020d.html
CROWN POINT — "Is there blood in the water around here?" Lake County Recorder Mike B. Brown joked Friday as a parade of candidates filed to unseat him.
Brown was among the political observers shooting the breeze outside the county elections board as the 2016 filing season came to an end.
"It's going to be a stacked house," David Uzelac, a former Merrillville town councilman, said of the five Democrats and two Republicans running for an office that acts as an archive for public and private records.
Gregory Sanchez made it just under the noon wire to close out the 2016 filing season. He also filed against Brown, who was philosophical. "I had four opponents last time."
In Porter County, last-minute filing brought out several Republican candidates for commissioner and council.
Longtime county official John Evans, who currently serves as commissioner, and previously served as coroner, announced Friday he would not seek re-election for his north county seat. Vying for that seat are Republicans John Cannon, Jeff Trout and former Commissioner Jim Biggs. Jeff Chidester is the lone Democrat seeking that office. He will not have a Democratic opponent in the May primary.
Republicans running for three county council at-large seats are Travis Gearhart, Jeff Larson, Ralph Levi, Howard O’Connor and Rich Parks. The top three vote-getters will face Democrats Sylvia Graham, Bob Poparad and Dan Whitten in November’s general election.
In Lake County, dozens trooped through the elections office Friday morning. Observers called out the names of each new candidate for a major office as they were posted Friday as part of a traditional past time of guessing who was behind these new names.
Robert Cantrell's appearance during the final minutes did nothing to dispel his reputation for being a brilliant but mischievous political strategist. He supplied inactive candidates, whose primary value is their names, to attract the so-called "dumb vote" from serious candidates on the ballot.
When someone warned him of media interest in his presence, Cantrell shrugged, "I don't know of any law I'm breaking." He recently finished a federal prison sentence for tax fraud and a kickback scheme involving government contracts.
Not everyone made the final rush. A Winfield man wanting to run for county coroner withdrew after being warned by elections staff he could be challenged for failing to establish his residency and party affiliation by voting in earlier elections. A woman failed to turn in a statement of economic interest form.
The race for 3rd District seat of the Lake County Board of Commissioners drew several 11th-hour opponents to incumbent Commissioner Mike Repay.
They included County councilwoman Christine Cid, D-East Chicago, who apparently bypassed the crowd through an alternate hallway to deliver her candidate paperwork. "Cid came in like a ghost. She knows the building real well," laughed Brown.
Four Democrats are challenging Lake County Coroner Merrilee Frey.
It is unclear whether everyone posted on the elections board Friday will still be there noon Monday, the deadline for withdrawing their name.
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