While next month’s election is all about the cities and towns, several Republicans were talking about the 2020 elections at the Kosciusko GOP fish fry Wednesday.

What could be a first for Kosciusko County is Karin McGrath intends to run for Kosciusko County Superior Court III judge. No woman has ever been elected to the bench before in Kosciusko County.

McGrath worked in the county prosecutor’s office for about seven years before moving to the law firm of Rockhill Pinnick for the last 1-1/2 years.

“I am running for Superior Court III to replace retiring Judge (Joe) Sutton,” she said. “Here’s why I decided to run: When I started my journey of becoming a lawyer, I was a slightly nontraditional student. I mostly raised my children first, and then I went to law school to become a lawyer as I always hoped to be.”

Starting in the prosecutor’s office, she said ultimately her goal was to “just be the best attorney I could be. Because I was in the prosecutor’s office, obviously my goal was to find justice always. Even in the private sector, justice is what we’re after. So having the perspective in the prosecutor’s office and the perspective on the private side – not only with criminal defendants, but in civil cases and family law cases – I’m deeply interested and intrigued with the system and the search for justice in every matter. Whatever matter comes before the court.”

She said her experience prosecuting and “on the other side,” and the nature of Superior Court III, are perfectly suited for her.

“I’ve prosecuted in that court, I’ve successfully sent people to prison ... The nature of the court fits with my skill set. The timing is great to be the tail end of my career to sit in a position like that, seeking justice. I love everything surrounding that notion,” McGrath said.

District 18

State Rep. Dave Wolkins won’t decide until December whether or not he’ll run for re-election in 2020, but there’s at least one other Republican who will be seeking to unseat him in the May primary.

In 2018, retired Pastor Russ Reahard ran against Wolkins in the GOP primary and was defeated 61.7% to 38.3%. Reahard said he’s going to try again next year.

Reahard said the reason he was running was because, “We need to pass Life At Conception in the state of Indiana. I’m a firm believer we’ve got to uphold that value of life. Even if we’re the only state in the union, there should not be any abortions in Indiana.”

He said it’s a “Biblical mandate” to stand up for “God’s laws” above man’s laws. Reahard said 30% of the Constitution comes from scripture and it needs to be upheld for the country to receive God’s blessing.

“We’ve lost that sanctity of life. And we used to honor and respect that for hundreds of years. They wouldn’t even consider abortion. And we know scientifically that life begins at conception, and it’s our duty as citizens and as Christians to uphold that life and protect the voiceless and those who are weak and powerless and can not speak for themselves,” he said.

Reahard said Wolkins hasn’t done enough on the abortion issue.

“They’ve had three years of bills being introduced to protect life at conception, and there isn’t any other Republican in our legislature that’s even given a second to uphold that. (State Rep.) Curt Nisly (22nd District) has introduced that bill for three years and he needs a second to get it out of committee and get a vote on the House floor,” he said.

In response, Wolkins, who was at the fish fry, said he’s been endorsed by Indiana Right To Life every year and has voted for everything Indiana Right To Life has supported.

“Russ wants to ignore the U.S. Supreme Court and the national (law). He just wants us to go ahead and defy federal government, and we’re not ready to do that. Russ is a very strong supporter of Curt Nisly, who wants to do that,” Wolkins said.

“Everything we do now on abortion issues gets overturned and it costs us tons of money. So we pretty much have decided to sit back and wait. When the Supreme Court actually has changed and actually makes something (possible), then we’ll step in and do something.”

He said he thinks Right To Life’s endorsement of him will not change.

“The abolitionists – which is what Curt and Russ are – they simply want to ignore federal law, and we can’t do that. It actually is doing more harm than good toward the cause, so I wish them luck, I wish it could happen, that’s the end result of all of it, but it’s not going to happen until certain things change,” Wolkins said.

At the fish fry, Nisly also was present and confirmed he’ll seek re-election for District 22.

He said the top issues he’ll run on include, “It’s very clear from the voters that the issues that are biggest in the district are protection of life, the right to bear arms and lower taxes. So, I’m about individual liberty – that’s the overarching theme for everything I do.”

Over the weekend, Bill Dixon, of Syracuse, announced he will seek to unseat Nisly and that Nisly was a one-issue politician. The only comment Nisly offered in response was, “Let’s put it this way: I just want to welcome him to the race.”

U.S. 30

A future U.S. 30 freeway is an issue the city and county has been looking at for some time and one they hope the Indiana Department of Transportation will get on board with as the final decisions on it rest with the state.

The city and county held a public meeting Sept. 18 at Lincoln Elementary School on the U.S. 30 freeway project. The meeting was to show the public different proposed routes for a possible future limited-access freeway.

At Wednesday’s fish fry, Wolkins said, “We’re still trying to get something done on U.S. 30 out here. I’m having a big battle with INDOT right now.”

He said down at Lagro, which is in his district, INDOT wants to put in a J-turn.

“They’ve got a crossing down there that they consider a dangerous crossing. They’ve had nine accidents in five years and only one fatality in 10 years. Yet, if you look at the stats out here, the safest intersection we’ve got had 16 accidents last year – the safest!” Wolkins said. “Their priorities, it’s pretty frustrating why we’ve not been able to get them to do this.”

He acknowledged U.S. 30 was going to take long-term planning, but the environmental study needs done. It takes three years to get the environmental study done.

“The state has been reluctant to do it because once you do the environmental, it’s only good for three years. And they still claim that we don’t know that we’re going to have the money in six years to do this. It’s going to be expensive whatever they do,” he said.

There’s three different preliminary proposed routes. The first route would go around the northeast part of the city and would reconnect at Ind. 15. The second route would go around the southern part of the city, with the third option using the current U.S. 30 route but with very limited access points.

Wolkins said he thought he heard the preferred route, the one using the current route, was estimated to cost $270 million; with the north one about $240 million; and the southern route around $235-$240 million. “It’s a lot of money,” he said.

City Council

Two city council candidates who face opposition in the Nov. 5 election talked briefly at the fish fry about the upcoming election.

Incumbent City Council President Diane Quance will face Democrat Jack Brunetto in the District 5 race; while Josh Finch, who won the GOP primary in May, will go up against Independent Chris Plack for District 2.

Quance said she was feeling really confident about the November election.

“I’ve had a great time walking around meeting people in my district. It’s always a good time to get to talk to them, but it’s really fun to go door to door and meet them and find out what their concerns are,” she said.

“I’m happy to report that everything so far they’ve brought up we’re already working on, so that’s a good thing.”

Those included more walkability in the city (more pedestrian right of ways), conservation things (making sure the lakes are staying viable and clean), safety for school children and “just the idea of letting Warsaw grow while still keeping our neighborhood flavor,” she said.

Finch also said he felt great about the race coming up.

“I’ve been knocking on a lot of doors, canvassing and I’ve gotten a lot of positive feedback. I think that a lot of the things that I’m passionate about and that I think a lot of the constituents in District 2 are passionate about we align on,” he said.

Those issues include being able to retain some of the talent that comes here by providing more amenities such as continuing the bike trail.

He agreed that housing and child care were important issues for the city to look at.