Assembly man Gordon Johnson, D-Bergen, approached Mikos and praised his work in the campaign.
Johnson asked Mikos when his internship with Five Corner Strategies — a group that helped run his campaign in New?Jersey — would be over.
Mikos was surprised by the question.
“What are you talking about?” he replied to the assemblyman.
Johnson asked again when Mikos’ internship with the consulting group ended. The assemblyman was shocked to hear Mikos was working for Five Corners full-time, when all along he was convinced Mikos was in high school.
Mikos was the last candidate to file for mayor of Bloomington, only to drop out 72 hours later, a decision he said he still wonders about.
After a few conversations with Monroe County Democratic Party chair Mark Fraley, the political-consultant-turned-mayoral-candidate was convinced to withdraw from the Democratic primary after only three days.
Mikos filed just before the noon deadline Feb. 6, but by noon Feb. 9, Mikos told the ?Indiana Daily Student he was out of the race.
“Mr. Mikos had filed around the same time that there were four other people who filed for office,” Fraley said. “And so it originally aroused my suspicion because five people filed on the very, very last day at the very last moment, and I didn’t know who any of them were — which is actually very odd.”
Fraley said as chair, he’s had many prospective Democratic candidates come to him to consult about any possible decisions to run. Fraley said he spoke with mayoral candidates John Hamilton and Darryl Neher prior to their filing for mayor and John Linnemeier after he returned from Mumbai, India. When he checked into it further, Fraley said at least three of the Democratic candidates that filed on deadline day were ineligible to run for office in Bloomington, possibly including Mikos.
“Being ineligible to run — I wanted to give them the option of withdrawing, because I don’t really want to see them go through the embarrassment of any sort of disqualification,” Fraley said.
Fraley raised questions about whether Mikos was registered to vote in Monroe County, though according to Mikos’ filing record, he is a registered voter in Perry Township in Bloomington.
In addition, Fraley was concerned Mikos had not been involved with the party locally.
Both Fraley and Mikos said their conversations with one another were positive and constructive and agreed it was best for the party if he withdrew.
It had to be an immediate decision for Mikos, a decision he said he has second thoughts about. The withdrawal deadline was that Monday, and his discussion with Fraley began Saturday. He had less than 48 hours to decide to bow out.
“Probably two weeks after I did it, I kind of regretted withdrawing to some degree,” Mikos said.
However, he said he is not fully out yet, as he is still in the process of considering a run for mayor as an independent candidate.
“My personal beliefs are maybe more center-democratic, and so independent is nothing out of the ballpark for me,” he said.
Though Mikos was by far the youngest candidate to file for the Bloomington mayoral race, he is well-versed in political campaigns, having worked on many across the United States for more than a ?decade.
Dressed in a dark gray suit with U.S. and Indiana flags pinned on his jacket’s left lapel — looking the part of politician — Mikos said he was attracted to politics because each day it is something new. Coming out of the Kelley School of Business, a corporate job did not appeal to Mikos’ wanderlust.
“While I was examining the thought of that (business), I had kind of fallen into politics while at my time at IU and while I was working for (Rep. Pete) Visclosky,” Mikos said. “And realized the one thing I really like about politics is it’s always something different.”
With politics, Mikos has had the opportunity to travel and live in several states and work on national campaigns for New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker and Massachusetts Sen. Edward Markey.
Though his career has taken him all over the country, Mikos’ life in politics began in his home district in northwest Indiana.
He began his political career in the offices of Visclosky, in 2001. In the fall of 2006 while he was at IU, Visclosky’s campaign asked Mikos to come back to the first district and help re-elect the 11-time congressman. Mikos took the semester off and helped the congressman win his 12th election.
Since his adolescence, much of Mikos’ time has been entrenched in the minutiae of political campaigns. His quick withdrawal has caused an odd juxtaposition: the months-long campaigns he ran against his weekend-long bid for mayor.
At Wednesday night’s Bloomington City Council meeting, Mikos sat in the center back row at city hall — taking Fraley’s advice to be more involved in local politics. To his left was Linnemeier and in front of him was Neher, both former opponents of his.
After the meeting, Mikos stood up and introduced himself to both of them and wished them luck on their campaigns for mayor.
Maybe he’ll see one of them again in the general election.
