Lebanon mayor loses election to political newcomer

Hamilton County elections didn’t have any mayoral upsets, but Boone County saw a shake up.

Republican Matt Gentry defeated Lebanon mayor Harold “Huck” Lewis in the primary Tuesday with nearly 68 percent of the votes.

Lewis, a Lebanon native, was elected mayor in a special election in 2009. He defeated challenger Deborah Ottinger in 2011 with 54 percent of the votes. During the election, Lewis was accused of breaking election laws and using city resources to help his campaign, but the Boone County Election Board dismissed the complaint.

Gentry currently serves as a Boone County Council member and was appointed to run for that seat in July 2014 after Ken Campbell withdrew from the general election race. Gentry was unopposed last fall.

His mayoral campaign focused on a vision for Lebanon’s future and promised to not accept campaign contributions from contractors, engineers, law firms or consultants that do business with the city.

In the Lebanon at-large council race, Dan Fleming and Jeremy Lamar won with 33 and 25 percent of the votes, respectively. In the district 2 council race, Keith Campbell won with 71 percent. In district 3, Corey Kutz won with 54 percent.

And for those who don’t believe every vote counts, in the Zionsville Town Council district 5 race, Joshua Garrett won by six votes against Bret Brewer. The seat was left vacant by Steve Mundy, who chose not to run for re-election.

In other Zionsville contested races, Amy Lacy won clerk-treasurer against town council member Candace Ulmer with 75 percent of the vote.

In the district 2 town council seat, Kevin Spees won by 18 votes against Brett Ashton and Tim Donnar, who withdrew from the race. Incumbents were successful in the other two Zionsville town council races — Elizabeth Hopper held on to her district 4 seat and Tom Schuler won against David Boggs in district 3.