Bad day for incumbents in FC as several went down in defeat; Lindsay Patterson is leading her State Rep. District 55 race after easily defeating Curtis Ward in FC

By John Estridge

Long-time Franklin County Commissioner Tom Linkel was defeated by John Heis in Heis’ first attempt at an elected office. Heis defeated Linkel 1,721-1,129 or 60.3 percent to 39.6 percent in the Tuesday, May 3 primary.

Other incumbents who went down to defeat in county elections were two county councilmen. In District 1, Joe Sizemore lost to Mary Strong as she had 377 votes to Sizemore’s 204. Cody Hollars had 196. The percentage totals are 48.4, 26.2 and 25.4, respectively.

Dean McQueen, after sitting out one term on council, defeated incumbent Scott McDonough in District 2, 312-203 or 60.1 to 39.4 percent.

Bob Evans defeated Dwight Ball, 541-296 or 64.6-35.4 percent in County Council District 4. It was both men’s first attempt at a county council seat. Evans will be against Democrat incumbent Joe Gillespie in the fall.

All of the above are on the Republican ticket. While this is only the primary, the Democrats may be able to field candidates in the fall election against the Republican winners in Tuesday’s primary.

Also on the Republican ticket, in the District 55 State House of Representatives race, FC native Lindsay Patterson trounced all her opponents in Franklin County taking almost 40 percent of the vote. Fellow Franklin County native Curtis Ward almost came in third place in his home county narrowing getting past David Welsh by 12 votes, 617-605. That is 20.92 percent to 20.52 percent. John Moton came in fourth in the county with 557 votes (18.9 percent).

Overall, Patterson is winning the district as of 9 p.m. with Union County left to report totals, according to the Indianapolis Star website.

The overall vote total, according to the Star website, is Patterson, 2,733 (38.7); Ward, 1,641 (23.3); Welsh, 1,459 (20.6); and Moton, 1,225 (17.4).

Ward was beset by problems in his home county as he is Brookville Town Council president and was under an Indiana State Police investigation into possible Conflict of Interest concerning his making Brookville taxpayers purchase Brook Hill Golf Course (Pig in a Poke Golf Course) after he bought several parcels of land adjacent to the golf course.

Financial books concerning how the golf course has done financially in the past few years have never been made public even though the public has asked for access to the books on numerous occasions. For the past year, BTC has apparently placed roadblocks in letting the public speak freely at BTC meetings.

It seemingly showed how the local populace has reacted to the situation seeing how badly Ward did in his home county.

Speaking of Brookville Town Council, Bridget Hayes summarily defeated Benjamin Summey, a relative to Ward, 300-102 or 74.6-25.4 percent in Ward 2.

In Ward 4, Earl Moore defeated John (Rudy) Rudisell 216-169 or 56.1-43.9 percent.