Fadness leads Hamilton County mayoral candidates in fundraising

Among mayoral candidates facing primary elections in Hamilton County this spring, Fishers Mayor Scott Fadness is leading the pack in fundraising.

As of Dec. 31, Fadness, who hasn’t officially filed to run for re-election but has confirmed he will, had $456,700 on hand, campaign finance reports filed last week show. The Republican raised $256,000 in 2018 but spent $154,000.

Fadness was elected as first mayor of Fishers in 2015 after serving as the town manager. Major individual contributors to his campaign (donating at least $5,000) so far include RQAW Corp. executives Troy Woodruff and Bradley Battin, entrepreneur Steve Cage and local developer Corby Thompson. Businesses making large contributions include DMC Insurance Inc., which donated $10,000 in 2018.

Fadness currently has no challengers, but Logan Day, the former spokesmen for Save the Nickel Plate, has filed paperwork to establish an exploratory committee to run for mayor, which allows him to fundraise. Day previously told IBJ he's researching whether he has enough support across Fishers to run. 

Republican Carmel Mayor Jim Brainard, who is seeking a seventh term, reported he had $142,700 as of Dec. 31. That’s up from the $74,250 he had at the beginning of the year. And Westfield Mayor Andy Cook, also a Republican, reported he has $118,400 to spend, up from $57,400 at the beginning of 2018. No candidates have filed to run against either of the incumbents.

In Noblesville, where there’s a three-way race among Republicans looking to succeed Mayor John Ditslear, Chris Jensen has raised the most. The current city councilor had $113,800 on hand after raising $91,650 and spending $31,970 last year.

Julia Church Kozicki, formerly a Noblesville School Board member, started the year with nothing. She’s raised $22,750, including a $10,000 loan she made to her mayoral campaign. She spent just over $22,000, ending the year with about $700 on hand, her campaign finance report shows.

Meanwhile, Mike Corbett, who unsuccessfully ran twice against Ditslear, started 2018 with $80. He’s raised about $4,200 and spent just over $1,200.

In other Hamilton County election news, the following primary races will be contested (per filings as of Jan. 24. The filing period doesn't close until Feb. 8.):

Carmel City Judge 
Brian G Poindexter (R) 
Angela (Angie) Swenson (R)

Fishers City Clerk
Jackie Bowen (R)
Jennifer L. Kehl (R) 

Fishers City Council, Northwest
Mike Colby (R)
Selina Stoller (R) 

Mayor of Noblesville 
Mike Corbett (R)
Julia Church Kozicki (R)
Christopher Jensen (R)

Noblesville City Council, District 1 
Terry L. Busby (R)
Mike Davis (R)
Mark F. Hall (R)

Noblesville City Council, District 2 
Pete Schwartz (R)
Mark Skipper (R)

Noblesville City Council, District 3
Aaron Smith (R)
Rick L Taylor (R)

Westfield City Council, District 2
Bob Beaudry (R)
Jake Gilbert (R) 

Westfield City Council, District 5 
Jeff Boller (R)
Robert L. (Bob) Horkay (R) 

Arcadia Town Council, District 3
Doug Grishaw (R)
Maurice E. St. Louis (R)

Sheridan Town Council, District 3
Daniel Bragg (R)
David William Kinkead (R)