Democrat Warsaw attorney David Kolbe is seeking the 3rd district U.S. congress seat currently held by Marlin Stutzman. The 3rd district represents Adams, Allen, DeKalb, Huntington, Jay, LaGrange, Noble, Steuben, Wells and Whitley counties, as well as Blackford and Kosciusko counties. Stutzman has filed for a second two-year term. He is so far unopposed for the Republican nomination. The primary is May 8, and the general election is Nov. 6. The deadline for congressional candidates to file for the primary is Feb. 10. Kolbe served as Kosciusko County prosecutor from 1995 to 1998. He has been an attorney and president of David Kolbe Attorney At Law since 1986. He has also served as an adjunct instructor in American politics at IPFW for the past 15 years. Kolbe, 57, is the third Democrat to file for the seat. John Forrest Roberson, 62, and Tommy A. Schrader, 49, both of Fort Wayne, also have filed for the seat. Kolbe said for many years he has served clients and constituents in Kosciusko County as an attorney and prosecutor. “I now look forward to serving the whole third district at a time of crisis,” Kolbe said. “We are faced with an ever-shrinking middle and working class, a health care crisis, immigration dilemmas, foreclosures, job losses, returning veterans in need of honor and care, agricultural issues, federal deficits and many other challenges.” He said he stands ready to use his best skills to address the problems on behalf of all the people of the 3rd district. Kolbe is a 1977 graduate of Indiana University with a bachelor’s degree in modern European history.In 1981 he earned a juris doctorate from Valparaiso University. Since 2008 he has taught American criminal law in Ukraine, Latvia, Poland and Hungary with the Center for International Legal Studies. The Center assigns attorneys from western nations to assist former communist countries in the development of rule of law. In October, he delivered an address on recent developments in American criminal law to a European institute at Miskolc University, Republic of Hungary. In 2002 he participated in a legal/diplomatic mission to the Republic of Cuba and also traveled to Russia and Estonia with Josh McDowell Ministries in 1992. Kolbe is the former president of the Kosciusko County YMCA Board of Directors, a former Warsaw Housing Authority commissioner and a former member of the Kosciusko County Juvenile Justice Task Force. He currently serves as a board member with the City-County Athletic Complex near Warsaw. Kolbe and his wife, Kathy, and their children reside in Warsaw.
