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When the sun rose the day after this year’s municipal primary election, three Democratic candidates who took on incumbent members of the Indianapolis City-County Council found themselves one step closer to public service.
If they win in November, those three challengers will have accomplished something that likely never would have happened had Democrats not ended the controversial practice of political slating.
For decades, the party picked its winners and losers long before Election Day.
Local leaders would gather in the first few weeks of the year for what was called a “pre-primary convention,” where they would select the person they believed had the best chance of winning each race. Candidates were required to pay a percentage of the salary of the office they were seeking to participate in the process.
In theory, slating existed to prevent primary battles that showcased fissures within the party and spread already-thin resources across multiple campaigns.
In practice, it preserved incumbency and boxed out up-and-comers seeking a seat at the table—or at the very least the right to run for one.
Following last May’s primary, Mayor Joe Hogsett decried the process after some candidates refused to participate and ran without the party’s blessing. One succeeded in “beating the slate.”
“I am calling on the Marion County Democratic Party to commit itself to an open primary process in next year’s municipal elections and to strongly consider abandoning the practice altogether moving forward,” Hogsett said at the time. “In so doing, I am confident the Marion County Democratic Party of today will find strength in ensuring that every voter has an equal voice in determining our future.”
Fast forward one year, and we not only saw many more contested primaries, but there was a 45% increase in voter turnout, though the overall turnout percentage still barely cracked single digits.
In the top-of-the-ticket mayoral race, Hogsett faced five primary challengers and prevailed with around 60% of the total vote. Republican mayoral candidate Jefferson Shreve fended off three opponents and wound up with 65% of the vote. Both men faced at least one credible opponent, and the debates and town halls leading up to the primary focused on big issues our city currently faces. That’s always a good thing.
Further down the ballot, I can’t definitively speak to the reasons three incumbent Democratic councilors are on their way out the door. It could be changing demographics in newly drawn districts, though one would assume incumbents would have approved maps favoring their own re-election chances.
Maybe the contested mayoral races on both sides made it hard to get the word out about council campaigns. Perhaps the newbies just hustled harder. Most council races brought out fewer than 3,000 voters; knocking on a couple of hundred more doors than your opponent could have been a difference-maker.
The slating process ultimately ended because a handful of aspiring candidates grew weary of being told to wait their turn, decided to go it alone and beat the system.
Competition is a good thing, and their unwillingness to play by rules they had no part in setting has opened the door to a truly democratic process in Marion County.•
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Chartier is a lifelong Indianapolis resident and owner of Mass Ave Public Relations. Send comments to ibjedit@ibj.com.
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