WARSAW — Republicans were swept to victory across Kosciusko County and much of northern Indiana Tuesday night, but Democrats scored two big victories in Indiana.

Democrat Beau Bayh won the race for Indiana Secretary of State by defeating Republican Max Engling and two others.

Bayh, the son of former Indiana Governor and US Senator Evan Bayh, won with more than 51 percent of the vote, including 71 percent in Marion County, according to Network Indiana.

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Hoosier voters are unhappy with President Donald Trump and don’t think the state is heading in the right direction, according to a Free Press Indiana Poll conducted by Bellwether Research.

Out of more than 800 likely voters who were surveyed, 54% said they disapprove of the way Trump is handling his job as president, while 44% said they approve. Of those numbers, 48% said they strongly disapprove of Trump, and 28% said they strongly approve.

Trump’s high disapproval rating marks a sharp turn for voters in deep-red Indiana, where the president won the state by nearly 20 percentage points in the 2024 election against Democrat Kamala Harris.

Now, skyrocketing gas prices fueled by the war in Iran and growing inflation have disgruntled many Hoosiers who voted for Trump and expected him to make Indiana more affordable, argued Chad Kinsella, a political scientist at Ball State University.

“His whole thing was bringing down costs,” he said. “Trump’s numbers are underwater, and people are not happy.”

Still, the poll found Republican support for the president remained steady. Only 15% of those surveyed who identified as Republican said they didn’t approve of him. However, 96% of Democrats said they didn’t approve, and 69% of independents also disapproved of Trump.

Democrats’ universal dislike of the president is likely to spur many to turn out and vote against Republicans in Indiana’s midterms, Kinsella said. According to the survey, 58% of Democrats said they are more enthusiastic to vote this year than normal, while just 34% of Republicans feel the same way.

“Democrats realize that the momentum is on their side and they’re excited,” Kinsella said. “(Republicans) are going to have to pay their pound of flesh in this election unless something changes fairly drastically very soon.”

Nationally, the president’s approval rating sits at a near-historic low of around 32%, according to a Reuters/Ispos poll conducted earlier this month. Other reliably red states like Alaska and Texas have also seen Trump’s approval rating fall. Democratic Senate candidates in those states are leading in the polls.

Hoosiers disapprove of Braun

Trump’s approval rating is also dragging down how Hoosiers view Gov. Mike Braun, according to Kinsella.

The poll found 48% of likely voters disapprove of how the first-term governor is doing his job, while 38% approve and 13% said they weren’t sure. That dovetailed with 47% of Hoosiers saying they think Indiana is heading in the wrong direction and just 35% saying it’s on the right track.

Braun received a Trump endorsement in the 2024 election and easily defeated Democrat Jennifer McCormick. His administration has closely aligned itself with the president’s agenda and often touts its relationship with Trump.

“The president is the brand, and if the president’s brand is not doing well, then the whole thing goes down with him,” Kinsella said. “That includes Braun.”

Of those who identified as Republican, 67% said they approved of the governor. Only 9% of Democrats said they approved and 20% of independents said the same.

Braun’s underwater approval rating comes even as he makes affordability a top issue. The poll found cost of living was one of the top two issues concerning Hoosiers, just below government corruption.

Since April, Braun has suspended the state’s gas tax, making Indiana’s fuel prices the lowest in the nation. He’s also put pressure on the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission to find ways to bring down electricity bills for residents.

Kinsella said he expected Braun’s focus on affordability to bolster his approval rating. But in an environment in which national politics often overshadows state issues, most Hoosiers will tether Braun’s performance to Trump, Kinsella said.

“The president is the brand, and the president is not popular,” he said.

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Free Press Indiana commissioned the poll by Bellwether Research. It surveyed 896 registered voters in Indiana from October 8-11 via telephone interviews and online surveys sent by text message. The results are based on responses from 839 likely voters, and the margin of error is plus or minus 3.4 percentage points. Bellwether Research’s clients include former Gov. Mitch Daniels, Eli Lilly and the Nature Conservancy in Indiana.

FPI News, a nonprofit newsroom, is funded through grants and donations from individuals, foundations and organizations. Sign up for our free newsletter.

To see the original story, click here.

FPI News reporter Carson Gerber covers healthcare, manufacturing, agriculture, immigration … and just about any other topic that’s shaping how we live in Indiana today. Reach him at 765-204-4250‬ or carson.gerber@fpinews.org.

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WARSAW — Ongoing property tax reforms in Indiana are expected to affect local tax revenues, and as a result, state law now requires counties to assemble a special committee that will consider raising local income tax. 

The special committee is known as MUST, which is short for a Municipal Unit Strategic Task Force, and representatives of all taxing units in the county are expected to gather at 8.30 a.m. Thursday at the courthouse in Warsaw.

Kosciusko County Councilman Joe Irwin, who was chosen to organize the meeting, said the MUST Committee has until 2028 to make a decision.

“The hope is that everybody's in good enough shape that we don't have to do anything. That's at least my hope,” Irwin said Tuesday.

The complicating factor is that the Republican-led General Assembly is expected to consider significant changes to tax policy when they meet in January.

“The county's stance is that there are two more legislative sessions between now and then, and we'd really like to see what the state ends up doing. They've made it pretty clear they're not done tweaking things," he said.

Thursday's MUST meeting is open to the public. Representatives from across the county are expected to attend.

“We all want to know where we're at. So I think it's important that everybody's there and that we have these conversations,” Irwin said.

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WARSAW — The future of Flock Cameras in Kosciusko County appears to be hanging in the balance ahead of tonight's County Council meeting.

Council is expected to hear a presentation from County Prosecutor Brad Voelz defending and explaining details of the program, which has been in use for several years.

Opposition to what some consider to be a surveillance system has grown across parts of the country and has become an issue in Kosciusko County in recent weeks.

Consider the following: 

• Over the past week, more than a dozen communities in Wisconsin have suspended their contracts with Flock Safety, the company behind Flock’s automated license plate readers, according to Wisconsin Public Radio.
• News outlets in Fort Wayne reported Wednesday that Noble County has decided to shut down its Flock cameras, mainly because of vandalism. Noble County officials say six cameras have been damaged recently.
• Earlier this month, Fort Wayne Police announced it would take down its cameras.
• In Warsaw, a change.org petition posted by a resident critical of Flock Cameras has attracted support from more than 1,000 people.

Several Kosciusko County Council members have expressed concerns about the program, marking a rare instance where some of the conservative, all-Republican Council have come out in opposition to a local law enforcement initiative.

Former County Commissioner Brad Jackson said he's been talking to local, state, and federal officials about the issue and said he thinks more regulations may well eventually be set by Congress.

Jackson said policymakers have struggled to keep up with the emerging technology in ways that could rein in some concerns.

In the meantime, he said he thinks efforts to shut down Flock Cameras in Kosciusko County have gained momentum.

“People are just realizing and waking up to that, hey, we live in a free country, and we don't need to be tracked,” Jackson said.

He said it boils down to personal freedom.

“I just don't like them knowing your every movement. It's not the government's business,” he said. “It's very Orwellian. I mean, George Orwell was almost prophetic in what he wrote."

Jackson said he realizes the cameras are a good tool for police but thinks the use of such devices violates privacy rights enshrined in the U.S. Constitution.

“You look at it, and you say, what's the good that comes from it, what's the bad that comes from it? I just feel the bad outweighs the good in the fact that they're tracking vehicles,” Jackson said. “They call them license plate readers, but you can see more than the license plates.”

Tonight’s meeting comes one week after law enforcement and Warsaw Mayor Jeff Grose released 20 pages of documents supporting the use of Flock Cameras.

Travis McConnell, a local attorney who earlier this week questioned details of a 2023 ordinance by the county commission involving a Flock Camera donation fund, said he thinks the release of information last week may have backfired in terms of public opinion. 

Opponents of the devices, he said, find it an "odd hill to die on" for the sake of “defending mass surveillance of Americans.”

More than 30 cameras have been installed in Kosciusko County.

Officials said nearly one-third of those have been damaged.

Tonight's meeting starts at 6 p.m. at the county courthouse.

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WARSAW — Nobody likes property taxes, but one Republican state lawmaker is proposing replacing it with a 7% sales tax on services.

[caption id="attachment_134087" align="alignright" width="120"] Prescott[/caption]

State Rep. J.D. Prescott, who represents parts of East Central Indiana, will hold a town hall meeting Friday night in Warsaw about his plan. 

News of the meeting, which starts at 5.30 p.m. Friday at the Kosciusko Chamber of Commerce office on South Buffalo Street, spread quickly online Wednesday after an online promotion began to circulate.

Prescott talked with News Now Warsaw Wednesday afternoon.

“The idea of sales tax on services has been discussed in the past and shot down quite frequently,” he said, adding that what makes his plan different is that it offers a replacement tax.

He said he believes the transition to a sales tax is workable in terms of covering expenses and he is inviting the public to learn more. 

Prescott said he’s hosted about a half dozen meetings already and plans for more are in the works.

One issue that some people at the meetings have expressed concern over is the need for a larger reserve fund, which he said is necessary because sales tax revenues tend to fluctuate more compared to property taxes.

Prescott said property taxes currently generate about $11.6 billion while a 7 percent sales tax would provide about $13 million to $15 million for the state coffers.

He said some exemptions, including one for health care, would be part of the plan.

Prescott was asked whether he has the support from Republican leaders.

“I've had a lot of good discussions with my colleagues in the state house and the governor's office on this,” he said. “I've still got a long way to go to get the votes to get this thing across the finish line.”

“I think members of the General Assembly think it's at least worthy of discussion, he said.

The online promotion did not credit anyone directly for organizing the local meeting.

Prescott said the meeting was arranged in part by two state lawmakers — Reps. Craig Snow and David Abbott, but clarified that neither have expressed support for the plan.

Discontinuing the use of property taxes has been discussed on the fringes of mainstream political talk over the years, but has never gained any traction.

But Republican delegates at this summer's state GOP convention added language supporting property tax elimination to the party’s policy platform, according to Indiana Capital Chronicle.

Prescott said he hopes the Republican platform plank will lead General Assembly members to take up his proposal to eliminate property taxes.

Prescott said that the current ant-tax sentiment seen across the country has created an opportunity for such a bill to gain attention.

Brian Smith, the Democrat Party's chairman for Indiana’s 2nd Congressional District, shared a post about Friday’s meeting on Facebook that was created by a Kosciusko County Council member. 

Smith called the proposal a “crazy” and “terrible” idea.

He urged people to attend and speak out.  

Below is a copy of the promo circulating online.

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By Tom Davies
Indiana Capital Chronicle

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WARSAW — Don Wiesehan won his Republican primary race against five-term incumbent Bob Conley for the Kosciusko County Commissioner's Southern District seat in what turned out to be the most anticipated contest in the county. 

Wiesehan claimed nearly 3,000 votes and a 56-percent margin against Conley, who was first elected 19 years ago.

Wiesehan campaigned against the proposed city-county parking garage, which faces a possible vote later this year.

He also pledged to serve no more than two terms in office and has proposed that one of the commissioner's monthly meetings be held at night to make it more accessible to the public. 

“I think the voice of the people really did speak tonight,” Wiesehann said at a Republican gathering at Matt Anthony's in downtown Warsaw after results were finalized.

He said he thinks the parking garage became a defining factor.

"A lot of the people out in the community don't want it,” he said. “I think some of it was how it may have been presented or not presented. I think that has to be educated across the people," he said.

"I still say it's not something that we need to venture out into because there's a lot of stress on our community people now," he said.

Warsaw leaders and the Kosciusko Chamber of Commerce have been strong proponents of constructing a parking garage, which would be funded in part with $5 million from the Orthopedic Industry Retention Initiative.

The county has already acquired land for the project north of the Z Hotel.

This year's contest for commissioner marked the second time Wiesehan challenged Conley for the seat.

Four years ago, Wiesehan collected 26% of the vote in a four-way contest in which Conley won 50.5 percent of the vote.

Wiesehan worked for 25 years with the sheriff’s office and now works with Parkview Health, providing security.

Conley owns a barber shop on South Buffalo in Warsaw and has been a reserve officer with the sheriff’s office for some 50 years.

Meanwhile, in another contested county race, incumbent Kimberly Cates won 56% of the vote against challenger Thaddeus Du Bois for the county council District 1 seat.

Du Bois' campaign was complicated a few weeks ago after he announced he plans to soon move out of the district from his home in North Webster to a residence south of Warsaw.

His decision to move was prompted by opposition to a sewer district.

Two Congressional races also came into focus Tuesday.

Jamee Decio will be the Democratic nominee in the general election for Indiana’s 2nd Congressional District by capturing 72 percent of the vote against North Manchester resident Shaun Maeyens.

Kelly Thompson is the primary winner for the Democratic Party in the 3rd District Congressional race. She was unopposed and will face incumbent Republican Congressman Marlin Stutzman in the general election

Stutzman won 72 percent of the vote against Jon Kenworthy.

Voter turnout in Kosciusko County for the election was just 12 percent.

Comparatively, the 2022 primary saw a 21 percent turnout.

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The drive for political retribution against Republican state senators who didn’t support Indiana congressional redistricting has taken a blow with a candidate endorsed by President Donald Trump ending his campaign.

Trump last month backed Bluffton City Councilman Blake Fiechter’s challenge to high-ranking state Sen. Travis Holdman — even before Fiechter got in the race.

But he cited trouble organizing a campaign ahead of the May 5 primary for the District 19 seat in northeastern Indiana, covering all of Adams, Blackford, Jay and Wells counties and part of Allen County.

“If it had just been a Wells County district, it would have felt much easier,” Fiechter told WANE 15 of Fort Wayne on Friday. “But with it being spread out and not having anyone day-to-day helping me, fending all these calls and making connections. It came down to a lot of those little details just creeping up.”

Fiechter did not return a message Monday from the Capital Chronicle seeking comment. He filed his candidacy last month nearly a week after Trump’s social media endorsement was posted, with the president calling Holdman a “RINO” — for Republican in name only — and “an America Last politician” for opposing the redistricting bill.

Trump’s social media posts have used similar wording in endorsing primary challengers to four other Republican senators who voted against his demand for redistricting aimed at helping the GOP win all nine of Indiana’s U.S. House seats.

Holdman, who has been a senator since 2008, is the Senate’s third-ranking member as majority caucus chair and his chair of the influential Tax and Fiscal Policy Committee.

Marty Obst, an Indiana Republican operative and former Trump campaign staffer who leads the pro-redistricting group Fair Maps Indiana, has said his organization and others would “spend seven figures” in support of the GOP  primary challengers.

Obst did not immediately reply Monday to a message seeking comment about Fiechter’s decision.

Fiechter’s name will still be listed on the primary ballot because the deadline for withdrawing has passed.

WANE reported that Fiechter said he received advice from some Republican leaders, but not enough help with campaign workers and money.

“I felt like I was on a raft alone trying to navigate,” he said.

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The Indiana Capital Chronicle is an independent, nonprofit news organization dedicated to giving Hoosiers a comprehensive look inside state government, policy and elections. The site combines daily coverage with in-depth scrutiny, political awareness and insightful commentary.

You can read the original version of the story here.

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* * *

The Indiana Capital Chronicle is an independent, nonprofit news organization dedicated to giving Hoosiers a comprehensive look inside state government, policy and elections. The site combines daily coverage with in-depth scrutiny, political awareness and insightful commentary.

You can read the original version of the story here.

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