Eight people are running to fill the at-large Monroe County Council seat left vacant after Councilor Cheryl Munson’s death.
Monroe County Democratic Central Committee Precinct representatives will choose one of them at a caucus Jan. 19 to fill the council vacancy.
The Indiana Daily Student interviewed every candidate. Here’s what to know:
Matt Caldie
Matt Caldie thinks he can be a “bridge” for Monroe County residents.
The IU graduate with political science and philosophy degrees said he’s seen his share of Bloomington’s economic struggles working physically demanding jobs.
Caldie ran for the Democratic nomination for one of the three open county seats in the party primary in the spring, ultimately losing to Munson, Trent Deckard and David Henry. In 2023, he ran for the Bloomington City Council District 5 seat before dropping out to serve on Shruti Rana’s campaign committee.
Caldie has served on the Bloomington Environmental Commission since 2017, where he’s published an air quality report and helped update the city’s Unified Development Ordinance and Climate Action Plan, according to his candidate statement. He previously worked at IU Parking Operations but took a job as business manager for the Maurer School of Law Library last year.
Caldie said his time campaigning for the nomination in the spring allowed him to have hundreds of conversations with Monroe County residents.
Affordability would be his primary focus on the council. Although he said no one person or decision will improve affordability, Caldie wants to work with county and city officials to address it.
“The relentless pursuit of a more affordable Monroe County is going to drive a lot of my decision-making and my work,” Caldie said.
Richard Carter
Richard Carter said he knows how the county government works from behind the scenes. The Stinesville Town Council member and IU Housing Operations supervisor is currently on the Public Safety Local Income Tax Committee, according to his candidate statement. He previously served as a Monroe County Emergency Management Advisory Council member and fire chief for Bean Blossom Township/Stinesville Fire Department.
He said in the past he was secretary, treasurer and chief shop steward of the American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees Local 832 union for IU service and maintenance employees.
Carter said he believes fiscal responsibility to county taxpayers is a top priority, as well as public safety, particularly among the communities outside of Bloomington. Carter also wants to update the county’s comprehensive plan, as the most recent plan was adopted in 2012.
Beyond that, Carter said he wants to represent everyone — not just Democrats.
“You’ve got to listen to everybody that you represent, and as an at-large person, you’d have to listen to pretty much the entire county,” Carter said.
Rob Council
Rob Council sees himself as a “regular guy”: one who wants to see Monroe County move in a positive direction for future generations, including his kids.
Council is a compliance officer at the Bloomington Housing and Neighborhood Development Department. He’s served on the city Commission on Aging since 2023, according to his statement. He assists his wife Stephanie, the Tri-North Middle School Parent Teacher Organization president, with organizing events.
Council said he wants to see more affordable housing and encourage civic engagement in Monroe County.
Working with Bloomington HAND, Council said he’s seen issues in the city and county relationships and wants to improve cooperation between the two.
To do that, he wants department heads from each municipality to meet and collaborate. He said HAND and the county building department have worked to cooperate on inspections to streamline the process and reduce “gray area” relating to building and Indiana residential code, as there are items each one looks for that the other doesn’t.
“We have to realize that Bloomington is the county, and the county is Bloomington,” Council said.
Joe Davis
Joe Davis is running fresh off a write-in candidacy for county council at-large last year and a run for mayor of Bloomington in 2023. The latter effort fell 14 signatures short of the ballot requirement after 200 signatures were disqualified.
“I see much waste in our community,” Davis said. “I see many injustices in our community, and I decided that now was the time to speak up for some of those voices, because I, too have suffered these inequities.”
“And I don't want to be a victim,” he added. “I wish to be powerful.”
He rejects conventional positions on two of the council’s most hot-button issues. He wants to see the convention center expand upward at its own location, up to five or six stories. He also wants the jail to be built at the proposed site for convention center expansion, saying it’s important for the jail to be downtown.
Davis is also concerned about tax abatements in Monroe County and spending directed toward businesses rather than people. That’s his overriding message — he says he wants to see county government listen and learn from people who have become disengaged and disenfranchised from politics.
Liz Feitl
Liz Feitl holds a lengthy history in local labor and said she believes she can bring that experience to the county council. Feitl was the AFL-CIO's community service liaison for the United Way of Monroe County, a community service organization, from 2002 to 2021. In that position, she headed annual food drives and helped workers displaced by layoffs and closures.
“I have an approach that might be different than some labor unions,” Feitl said. “A lot of labor unions do what might be called ‘a lot of grievances’ to resolve issues. I didn't find that worked so well for me. I found that I really enjoyed working with people one-on-one.”
She was on the Monroe County Women’s Commission from 2013 to 2021 and has worked with the county council before. She said she’s on a first-name basis with all current council members.
Her priorities are built off her background in labor — wanting to see more union members on the county’s boards and commissions — but delve into different areas as well. Feitl wants to scrutinize the county’s tax abatements given to businesses. She wants to see more affordable housing, as well.
But more than anything, she said, she wants to listen.
“I think you need all the information you can and listen all you can to make those good judgment decisions,” she said.
Andrew Guenther
Andrew Guenther is young and still finishing up his law degree at IU but holds nearly a decade of experience in local government. He considers himself a pragmatist, an environmentalist and someone who can help build resilience in Monroe County.
"Progress is both deeply needed and incremental,” he said. “I want to help the council with the education and experience I've gathered while living and working here, achieve progress and achieve the goals that the council wants to see.”
Guenther has chaired both the Bloomington and county environmental commissions. He has vice-chaired the Bloomington Commission on Sustainability and the Bloomington Board of Housing Quality Appeals.
He ran as a Republican for Bloomington City Council in 2019, which he said was a protest against the local Democratic party chair who he said told him to “wait his turn.” At the time, he told the Indiana Daily Student that he switched parties because he believed local governments should hold more power than the federal government.
“My positions have never changed,” Guenther said. “I've always been pro-environment. I've always been pro-density. I've always been pro-limiting urban sprawl.”
He’s worked for state-level Democrats, including as communications director for John Gregg’s 2016 campaign for governor. There, he said he learned the value of pragmatism and brokering agreements where not all parties necessarily leave happy.
If elected to county council, Guenther said his priorities include continuing progress on the new county jail and convention center expansion. He also wants to make sure the county is continually servicing Lake Monroe to ensure the area’s stability.
He also wants Monroe County to ensure it’s prepared for potential property tax cuts under Mike Braun’s governorship. Because the county funds many vital services through property taxes, Guenther said, the council should start looking at contingencies so they don’t need to make painful cuts.
Scott Shackelford
Last summer, a cybercrime syndicate breached and crippled Monroe County’s computers, shutting down operations for a week. That was Scott Shackelford’s tipping point toward deciding he wanted to become more involved with local government. He said the county needs to be more resilient toward these sorts of threats, especially including preparedness for natural disasters.
Shackelford feels he can bring something to the table on these issues — he’s the executive director of the Center for Applied Cybersecurity Research at IU and has served on the Bloomington Environmental Commission. He’s also the executive director of IU’s Ostrom Workshop, which focuses on the study of governance.
“One of the things that attracted me to the Ostrom Workshop to begin with is that it was always very translational and appliable,” he said.
He said the skills he’s taken from the center and the experience he’s gained from leading both organizations sets him apart from the crowd. He wants strict financial responsibility for the county, better job development and a focus on kitchen-table issues like housing costs, schools and safety.
Most of all, he wants to see the county where he’s been a student, a husband and a father thrive. During his career in academia, he was a fellow at Harvard University, the University of Notre Dame, Stanford University and the University of Cambridge.
“We keep coming back to Bloomington time and again,” he said. “I love it here and just want to do whatever I can to make it that much better in the years and decades ahead.”
Ilana Stonebraker
Ilana Stonebraker is the only candidate to have served on a county council before, representing Lafayette in Tippecanoe County. She’s been in Monroe County since 2020, after which she’s taken up numerous volunteer roles and titles at IU.
Those include heading the Business/SPEA Library and IU Libraries’ Sciences & Social Sciences. Stonebraker deals with all sorts of researchers, students and needs, which she compared to what she would be doing on the council.
Stonebraker’s involvement in politics skyrocketed after Donald Trump’s first election.
“You kind of look to your left and look to your right and be like, ‘I want you to do something!’” she said. “And then you realize, ‘oh, shoot, it's my turn.’”
After moving to Monroe County, Stonebraker became heavily involved in local political and volunteer organizations. She’s the chair of the Monroe County Vote Center Study Committee and has worked on the development and fundraising committee for Beacon Inc. and the Democratic Women’s Caucus’ steering committee.
Her priorities if elected include moving forward on the convention center expansion and the new jail.
“We need to find solutions, whether it's in this north side site, or whether other options come up in terms of it,” she said.
Stonebraker said former Councilor Cheryl Munson had encouraged her to jump forward in her political career and run for public office before she died. Losing Munson, she said, was a loss of innumerable experience for the council that cannot be replaced immediately. But she still wants to try, she said.