Two new Republicans have announced plans to run for West Lafayette City Council seats.
Democrats ran a primary race for the at-large seats earlier this year.
The race was the only competitive primary in Tippecanoe County. Current council member Gerald Thomas lost his place on the ballot after newcomer Iris O'Donnell Bellisario took the most votes.
But former Lafayette Police Chief Patrick Flannelly said when he looked at the ballot, he didn’t see enough options for West Lafayette voters.
“Quite frankly when I looked at the ballot, and it was just D, D, D…that concerns me a little bit,” he said. “...if you do not have a diverse representation on your city council, you run the risk of getting into groupthink. I just think that is not necessarily when communities get represented in the best way.”
Republicans have decided not to run a candidate against Democrat Erin Easter, who will be unopposed in November. Easter is currently West Lafayette’s director of development and has received a strong endorsement from the current mayor, Republican John Dennis.
Tippecanoe County Republican Party chair Tracy Brown did not respond to questions about why they chose not to run anyone against Easter.
Dennis, who described himself as “not a party guy”, said he could guess at the reason.
“If I support her and a party member doesn’t get my support – not that I’m the validator of anything, but I think that might carry some extra weight,” he said. “The other side of it is she’s a damn good candidate. It would be hard for somebody from the outside to get even close to taking her down.”
Flannelly, who retired in 2021, said managing the city’s growth will be a big part of his role if elected -- but he’s also keeping his eye on a proposed pipeline that could move water from Tippecanoe County down to Lebanon for an industrial district.
“I’m not necessarily concerned, but I definitely want to make sure we’ve done everything we can to ensure the long-term security of our water rights here in Tippecanoe County,” he said. “You don’t have water, you don’t have anything.”
Growth was also an important issue for Brian Russell, the other Republican candidate announced for the West Lafayette city council race. Russell is co-owner of Brokerage Brewery in West Lafayette and The Russell Company, a real estate company.
He said as a small business owner, he wants to see the city continue to attract more businesses like Saab and Rolls Royce.
“We have room to grow, room to expand, room to be better and bigger,” he said. “I don’t want progress for the sake of progress either. It needs to be smart.”
Russell said the growth needs to be supported by the city, especially when it comes to housing.
“I don’t know that the council has the levers to pull to fix that, but I do think we can be as helpful to the process as possible,” he said. “I think there’s a little bit of extra red tape – we experienced that when we were building our brewery, that we kept having hoops we had to jump through that seemed onerous.”
Election day is Nov. 7.
