Strong turnout of incumbents for first day of election filing

In the first day for candidates to file for election this year, 17 Republicans have filed for various Bartholomew County offices.

According to the county clerk’s voter registration office, that included several incumbents who filed before noon yesterday, the first day for election filing this year. Among those filing for re-election were Chris Lane as county sheriff, Shari Lentz as county clerk, Carl Lienhoop as County Commissioner for District 2, Ginny Whipple for county assessor, Greg Patterson for the District 1 seat on County Council and Mark Gorbett for the County Council District 3 seat. Kris Weisner also filed yesterday to run as Columbus Township Trustee.

Long-time local elected official Barb Hackman filed to run for the County Council District 4 seat. She has previously served as Columbus Township assessor, county treasurer and county auditor for two terms each and previously as chairwoman of the county Republican party.

Debra Beck Settle is seeking the county recorder seat, Vickie Michael filed to run as county auditor, and Sandy Beatty filed to run as county treasurer. Mark Bense is running for the District 2 seat on the County Council and Rick Miller is running for County Council District 4.

The rest of the candidates filed for party positions as state convention delegates and one candidate for Wayne Township Advisory Board.

In Bartholomew County you can file to run for office in the voter registration office in the county courthouse.

Candidate filing ends at noon on February 6th. The primary election is coming up May 5th and the fall general election will be Tuesday Nov. 3rd.

Columbus State Senator Greg Walker is changing his mind to not seek another term. The Republican had said last summer he was not going to run in 2026, but he filed for another term yesterday. Walker says “circumstances are different” than they were last summer. Walker was a critic of President Trump’s push to redraw Indiana’s congressional maps. He voted against the plan that failed to be approved by the Republican majority in the Senate.

In other legislative races, Democrat Chris Bowen filed yesterday to run for State Representative in District 69, which includes parts of Bartholomew, Jackson, Jennings and Jefferson counties. That seat is currently held by Republican Jim Lucas of Seymour.

TTWN Media Networks contributed to this report