Republicans have continued to dominate races in Wayne County for township, county and state-level positions, and several incumbents were re-elected to local school board seats.
Milton entrepreneur Beth Leisure won her first elected office to represent District 3 on Wayne County Council, defeating Nick Elder with 62 percent of the 4,608 votes cast.
Political newcomer Dr. Brad Barrett was elected to District 56 of the Indiana House of Representatives, defeating Democrat Jeffrey Locke and Independent Jeremy Why. Barrett earned 65 percent of the 18,341 votes cast, compared to Locke’s 32 percent and Why’s nearly 3 percent.
Barrett will have a fellow Republican colleague in Indianapolis. State Sen. Jeff Raatz was re-elected, earning about 66.5 percent of the vote in Wayne County.
Voters are also returning incumbent Susan Isaacs to serve another term as Wayne Township trustee. Isaacs defeated Democrat C. Yvonne Washington with more than 58 percent of the vote.
In Fountain City, the two Republican candidates won town council seats. Steven Clark and Jesse Yandl defeated Democrats Cecil Mullins and Steven Nester. They had 42, 26, 22 and 10 percent of the vote, respectively.
Hagerstown voters elected Donnie Benedict and Brian Longbons to at-large town council seats over Allan Bullock. Benedict earned 353 votes, Longbons had 327 votes and Bullock had 247 votes. All three are Republicans.
School board
Western Wayne voters returned Dennis Feller to his District C school board seat with more than 76 percent of the vote over challenger Midge Overtoom. Former Indiana Rep. Phillip Pflum won the at-large seat with nearly 31 percent of the vote, defeating incumbent Lucius Pitcock, who had 29 percent of the vote; Brian Klein, who came in third with 22 percent; Barbara Spike with 11 percent; and Donald Fisher had 7 percent.
Centerville-Abington voters re-elected Brad Lambright to the school board, with 60 percent of the vote over challenger Stephen VanWinkle.
Nettle Creek voters could vote for two of six candidates for at-large seats. Shaun Lieberman led the group with nearly 28 percent of the vote, followed by Marcie Houghton with nearly 21 percent of the vote. Shawn Murphy came in third with nearly 20 percent of the vote. Jacob Thalls was fourth, Theresa Berry was fifth and Joe Sorrell was sixth.
Northeastern Wayne voters selected Eric Fields with 47 percent of the vote over Angela Cline and Kristen Lumpkin.
Richmond Community Schools had two school board races. Longtime board member Suzanne Derengowski was elected to represent District 3 with 57 percent of the vote. In the six-candidate at-large race, voters chose incumbent Jeff Slifer with nearly 21 percent of the vote, and newcomer Keith Morey had nearly 23 percent of the vote. Ron Itnyre came in third, followed by Michael Elorreaga, Guy Guthrie and Sayward Salazar.
This story will be updated.
By Millicent Martin Emery