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It took six ballots for the Republican caucus Tuesday night to decide on the next Kosciusko County Council at-large member, but slightly before 8 p.m. they chose Will Stockdale for the position.
“I think all of the other candidates would have done an excellent job as a county councilman. I think we were blessed with an excellent field. I don’t have a bad thing to say about any one of them,” Stockdale said afterward.
He stated he was “surprised but confident” in his win. “I had a good indication that if I did my best that I had a good shot.”
He said he felt he ran a good and clean campaign, he doesn’t have anything negative to say about anybody and he thought that resonated with the caucus.
According to the rules of the caucus adopted, if no candidate receives a majority of the votes cast for a candidate on the first ballot, then there’s a second ballot. If no candidate receives a majority of the votes cast for the candidate on the second ballot, the candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated beginning with the third ballot, down each following ballot thereafter until a majority is reached.
On the first and second ballot Tuesday, none of the six candidates received a majority of the votes. A majority is 50% of the voters plus one. There were 59 precinct committee persons, or their proxies, voting in the caucus.
Candidate Thaddeus Du Bois was removed from the ballot after the second ballot. Du Bois also has filed for the local May primary for the council District 1 seat currently held by incumbent Kimberly Cates.
Chris Bammerlin was removed after the third ballot; Rob Parker, fourth ballot; and Travis Trump was removed after the fifth ballot. For the sixth ballot, it was Stockdale and Kyle Tom, with Stockdale receiving 31 votes and Tom receiving 28.
The at-large council seat became open Jan. 12 after attorney John Barrett’s resignation due to the number of conflicts of interest he would have as a public defender. Barrett was elected by a Republican caucus Jan. 6 to serve on the council after the resignation of DeLynn Geiger, effective Dec. 12, due to his desire to spend more time with family.
Each candidate was given three minutes Tuesday to address the precinct committeemen and committeewomen before the first vote.
In his comments, Stockdale, 32, a Warsaw-based attorney and business owner who was the first to file for the seat, said, “Ladies and gentlemen, my name is Will Stockdale. I am a Christian, I am a husband, I am a father to four wonderful little boys. They are homeschooled, my wife is home with them right now. I am a United States Army veteran. I am an elder law attorney, and I am a lifelong Kosciusko County conservative.”
He said Kosciusko County is in good financial shape.
“Relative to other counties, we’ve got low property taxes. We’ve got little debt. But people are still hurting in this county. Over the last five years, property tax rates have gone down 22%, but assessed valuation of properties in our county have gone up 50%,” Stockdale stated. “People are paying more taxes than they ever have, and that’s how we ended up with (Senate Bill) 1. It’s not local to Kosciusko County, it’s all across the state, but taxpayers are hurting. They’re feeling the squeeze, and that’s why every local government around is worried about ‘hey, what are we going to do going past next year to be able to fund ourselves, continue the programs and keep on going with the status quo hopefully with our long-term strategic plans.’”
If elected to the council, he said he has three priorities.
One, he wants responsible governments. “The county is charged with things like public safety, infrastructure and our statutorily mandated functions. I want the county to do those jobs and do them well,” he said.
Second, he wants to focus on the county employees. “It’s not something that can happen overnight, but I want to get to a point in this county where we don’t have county employees having to work night shifts, second jobs, moonlights to make ends meet. I don’t want to have a revolving door of we hire county employees, we get them trained and then they leave for greener pastures as soon as the next job opportunity comes around,” he continued.
Finally, he said he wants to leave some room for investing in the long-term financial security of the county.
“I hate taxes as much as anybody does. Nobody wants taxes, but we owe it to ourselves and future generations that when opportunities come forward, then we do our due diligence, we use independence and our best judgment to make the best possible decision we can for the county moving forward now and in the future,” he stated.
Asked after the caucus what he thought helped me win, he said, “Just a willingness to work hard, be independent and do the best I can for the citizens of this county.”
He said his speech was from the heart. He had notes prepared but he didn’t look at them once.
The first county council meeting for Stockdale is at 6 p.m. Thursday. He said he was getting his council packet Tuesday night and will do his due diligence to be as prepared as he can be for the meeting.
“Obviously, there’s going to be a learning curve, but I’m looking forward to putting in the work necessary to be a great county councilman,” he said.
There’s three years left in the term, which Stockdale said presents him with a very good opportunity of learning the ropes before he has to run for re-election.
As for any potential for conflicts of interest with him being an attorney and sitting on the county council, Stockdale said he talked with the State Disciplinary Commission about that.
“They recommended but did not require that I would recuse myself from any current cases. My background as an elder law attorney, I’ve got basically uncontested estates and guardianships in the county. It’s a small percentage of my practice, and because I want to be able to vote on as many things as possible and not have the appearance of any sort of conflict, I’m going to withdrawal from those cases and find other counsel to help out with those families,” Stockdale explained.
