Last Tuesday, the local elections for Mayor and City Council were held. The results were pretty interesting. From mayors to city council members, most of the votes were either clear winners or were off by a mere 5-10%.  We even saw some shocking results where neither major party won out.

Across the board for South Bend, Democrats won out, but in Mishawaka, Republicans found the occasional success, most significantly Dave Wood won the Mayoral vote. In addition, Osceola had only Republicans elected and there was a pretty even split in Walkerton. Meanwhile, in Roseland, neither major party won as the newly emerged Indiana Redemption Party stole the show, taking all three seats that were up for elections.

As for specifically South Bend, the current Mayor James Mueller was re-elected. In addition, the trend of the City Council leaning towards the Democrat side continues, with the last Republican seat, Eli Wax, being beaten out by Sherry Bolden-Simpson by only .7% of the vote. This is significant because it is the first time in decades that the 5th district seat has been a Democrat, with the most likely cause behind the switch being the quickly diversifying and urbanizing population leaning toward liberalism.

Overall, it was a successful voting season for citizens in Saint Joseph County with many close votes that may constitute recounts down the line, especially with Wax and Bolden-Simpson, as there was only a 37-vote difference between the two. For now, though, you can rest assured that our civic workers will do the best they can to serve us.