Elections & Politics

Tippecanoe County's 2018 Election Day featured the best turnout in years and saw some surprises, including an incumbent State Representative going down to defeat and a heavily-favored sheriff candidate losing.

It also featured some aspects that have become all too common, including long waits for votes to be tabulated and snafus with the county's aging voting equipment. WBAA's Miyu Sumimoto shot some photos at the Tippecanoe County Building Tuesday night to document the goings-on.

Longtime sheriff’s department employee Bob Goldsmith shocked many by defeating West Lafayette Police Chief Jason Dombkowski in Tuesday’s Tippecanoe County Sheriff’s race.

Goldsmith, a Democrat, entered the race after the May primary, and faced an uphill battle against Dombkowski’s significant name recognition advantage and backing from the county’s Republican establishment.  

Had Goldsmith lost, he’d have had to work for the man who beat him in the race. Now, he says he hopes to join forces with Dombkowski, who will go back to being police chief.

Indiana’s 29th District was one of the few Indiana districts that turned blue. Republican state Sen. Mike Delph was defeated by Democratic challenger J.D. Ford.

Audiologist Chris Campbell has unseated Republican incumbent Sally Siegrist in the race to represent West Lafayette in the Indiana House of Representatives. Campbell beat the incumbent by a 13-percent margin Tuesday night.

Campbell says her base identified with her ideas about funding public education.

“We really need to start addressing the funding of the public education,” Campbell says. “The funds that have been diverted away from our schools to vouchers and charter schools have been very damaging to our schools throughout the state.”

Incumbent State Sen. Ron Alting (R-Lafayette) easily won his bid for the Indiana Senate’s District 22 seat Tuesday, topping Democratic opponent Sherry Shipley, who’d entered the race late last year.

By 11 p.m., with nearly 40,000 ballots counted, Alting had secured more than 55 percent of the vote, compared to Shipley’s 45 percent.

Republican Tera Klutz has won her re-election campaign for state auditor.

Republican incumbent Kelly Mitchell will remain in office, after being Democrat challenger John Aguilera.

Republican Mike Braun defeated incumbent U.S. Sen. Joe Donnelly Tuesday – shutting Indiana Democrats out of all statewide elected office.

Republican incumbent Connie Lawson will remain Indiana’s Secretary of State another four years. Republicans have held the seat for the last 24 years.

Despite issues that kept voters at many Tippecanoe County polling places from voting at 6 a.m. today, the county’s election board has voted not to extend the hours the polls will be open.

“The county election board met this morning and reviewed the information regarding issues at the startup of the day and agreed it was not significant enough that it merited extending voting hours at all locations,” Clerk Christa Coffey says.