Of the seven Monroe County Councilors, four, all Democrats, began their tenure by being appointed to the council through a party vacancy caucus.
One retired IU political science professor told the Indiana Daily Student that the caucuses reduce political competition, a “vitally important” piece of the democratic system.
Trent Deckard won reelection to the county council in November. In January, he posted on Facebook that he changed his campaign committee to an exploratory one for Monroe County commissioner District 1. If he were to run and win election in 2026, this would trigger another vacancy caucus under state law since it would end his council term early.
Since Deckard was one of the councilors to join the council via vacancy, the number would stay at four.
He was first caucused to the council via vacancy in 2019. He won a contested general reelection in 2020. Last year, three Democrats appeared on the ballot to fill three at-large seats. No Republicans ran, but independent Joe Davis ran as a write-in candidate. Deckard’s two primary elections were contested.
He filled an at-large vacancy left by Lee Jones — who won election to the board of commissioners' District 1 seat, the same one Deckard is now considering a run for.
Deckard running for and winning the commissioner seat in 2026 would prompt yet another vacancy caucus following a slew in recent council history. Monroe County Democratic Party Central Committee precinct representatives filled the most recent vacancy when they chose Liz Feitl in January after councilor Cheryl Munson’s death. Munson had just been reelected in November.
Jennifer Crossley was picked in 2021 for the District 4 seat after Eric Spoonmore resigned. In the 2022 primary, she faced no Democratic competition. In that year’s general election, she faced no Republican challenger.
The party picked — by a one-vote margin — Peter Iversen to serve as the District 1 councilor in 2019 after Shelli Yoder resigned, later winning Indiana Senate seat 40 the next year. Iversen won reelection in 2022 in a contested general election race but saw no Democratic primary contest.
The other three councilors, Kate Wiltz, Marty Hawk and David Henry, started their council tenure after being elected in a general election. Though according to Bloomingpedia, Hawk, the board’s lone Republican, was first appointed to the council in 1988 as a replacement for another councilor. She later lost an election in 1992 but successfully ran and won again in 1998.
The Bloomington City Council saw a similar situation play out last year. Shruti Rana, who was elected in 2023, announced she’d be relocating her family out of state less than a month after she was sworn in during January last year. After a vacancy caucus, Courtney Daily won the district 5 seat. Henry, who is also the current Monroe County Democratic Party Chair, broke a tie to select her.
Henry said the precinct representatives at vacancy caucuses approach the vote differently: some see themselves as a “conduit to their neighborhoods,” while others vote as a superdelegate of the party. But there’s no guidance or code to determine how they should vote.
Otherwise, it’s up to the candidate elected at a vacancy caucus to reflect the views of who they’re replacing — or not. At the vacancy caucus to fill Munson’s seat in January, several candidates promoted their connection to Munson or positions they shared. Feitl told the IDS she plans to continue to review Munson’s positions since she was who Monroe County voters elected.
Henry called the vacancy caucus requirement an antiquated system. Indiana Code does not allow for a special election in the case of a vacancy, which would allow voters to elect a new official directly.
Indiana’s vacancy caucus procedure goes like this: when a local office vacancy opens, the chair of the party that person was affiliated with must call a caucus. The precinct committee people from that party who represent voters from the precincts served by the vacant office are eligible to cast a ballot. A candidate needs a majority of those votes to win; in the case of a tie, the party chair or someone they designate can break it.
The caucus, though, establishes its rules of procedure.
“I think that we can all agree in the 21st century that caucuses, while representative of voters, are not the same as actual voters voting at the ballot box” to fill a vacancy, Henry said.
Marjorie Hershey, the retired IU political science professor, compared the caucus process to “putting a thumb on the scale” of an election. The appointees gain an incumbency advantage in subsequent elections, Hershey said, because voters tend to pick names they’re familiar with.
That increases the chances of creating one-party control in local government, which Hershey said is increasingly common across the United States.
"I think that it’s a bad idea for people to withdraw before the end of their terms and therefore permit appointments to be made,” Hershey said.
One-party status can also lead to increased polarization, Hershey said. She said historically, political parties have been less tied to identities than they seem to be now.
“Now, what we’ve got is that there is a very strong stacking of party identification on top of other identifications, including not necessarily denomination, but religiosity, just how fervent you are about your religious beliefs,” she said. “We’ve certainly seen it stacked on top of race.”
William Ellis, current chair of the Monroe County Republican Party, described the county as a “blue incubator” for higher office in a red state.
“Democrats don’t really hold a majority of positions in the state of Indiana,” Ellis said, “so when you’re looking for your bench, you look at them from Bloomington and Monroe County.”
Current Bloomington Controller and former Monroe County Treasurer Jessica McClellan, for example, ran for state treasurer in 2022, losing to Republican Daniel Elliott.
Similarly, Ellis said a lot of the Monroe County Republicans’ candidates come from Ellettsville because it’s a redder area. The Republicans have had their own share of vacancies, he said. But he called the Democrats’ vacancy caucus process transparent; they invited him to sit in and ask any questions he had.
"I don't agree necessarily with their policies and positions, but I do think it’s the best, most effective way when someone steps down to reflect what the voters want of the majority party here,” Ellis said.
He said because they’re reelected, it’s a sign that voters agree.
Ellis also blamed pay for high turnover in local government. He said one former Ellettsville town councilor who also worked for FedEx resigned from his government position because it wasn’t worth the trouble to travel for it.
Ellis said, though, candidates considering runs for other jobs should be clear the public is voting for the party, not the person.
“I think if they know, they need to communicate that, that they’re not going to be able to finish the full term,” Ellis said.
