Democratic headquarters held a raucous crowd Tuesday night as Democrats regained control of the Indiana House. "We're pretty darn upbeat," Dennis Tyler, who won state representative for District 34, said. "I think what people saw from Republicans is that they didn't talk about the issues until right before the election and Democrats focused more on the issues."
Tyler beat Republican Adrian Leavell and Libertarian Carrie Dillard-Trammell, and had 62 percent of the vote.
The big issues in this election, Tyler said, were jobs, health care and public schools.
District 26 State Senator-elect Sue Errington agreed with Tyler's evaluation of the important issues of this election. Voters don't really like the direction of the county, state and nation and are now acting on it, she said.
"I'm going to put out my legislative agenda and I want to get started as soon as I can and not wait until January," Errington said. "I want to start on raising the minimum wage, having full-day kindergarten and working on an initiative to make health care affordable for all Hoosiers."
Errington won District 26 state senator with 53 percent of the vote.
Expectations were high at Slater Hawkins, where the Republicans gathered to hear the election results. However, as precinct results were finalized and the numbers were not favoring the Republicans, the group dissipated.
State and national issues influenced the outcome of local elections, Kaye Whitehead, chair of the Delaware County Republican party, said. The Democratic campaign focused more on national and state issues such as gas prices, the leasing of the toll road and the war in Iraq, she said.
"I thought voters would differentiate between national and local issues," Whitehead said.
Democrat Larry Bledsoe beat incumbent Larry Crouch in the race for co-commissioner of District 3, and had 53 percent of the vote.
"I think it's surprising," Crouch said.
This gives the Democrats the majority in the three-seat Delaware County Board of Commissioners, which could help pass Democratic policies.
The race for County Sheriff was close, with Republican incumbent George Sheridan winning with 57 percent of the vote. His opponent, Jack Grey, supported increasing jail capacity, while Sheridan opposed it.
Mark McKinney, who won District 46 prosecuting attorney, said he felt the key difference between him and his opponent was the level of experience with the legislative system. McKinney has approximately 15 years of experience as a lawyer and has tried over 100 cases while his opponent has only one year of experience and has yet to try a case.
McKinney was elected with 62 percent of the vote.
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