The Republican Party made some gains in local St. Joseph County races Tuesday, but incumbent Democratic Sheriff Bill Redman cruised to reelection as well.
First elected Sheriff in 2018, Redman began his career with the St. Joseph County Police Department in 1997. His Republican challenger Kevin McGowan also spent his career with the county police, but decisively lost to Redman Tuesday by around 8 percentage points.
In contrast, Republican candidate and former Penn Township Assessor Mike Castellon to pick up the County Auditor’s office over Democrat Ted Booker, who ran to succeed retiring auditor Rosemary Mandrici.
And Republican Amy Rolfes won the County Clerk race, defeating Democratic challenger Lana Cleary. Incumbent Democratic clerk Rita Glenn was term limited, but the race attracted extra scrutiny this year after Republicans raised concerns that Glenn’s office broke Indiana law by how it processed absentee ballots in the May 2022 primary.
Glenn is currently under investigation by the Indiana State Police, but Democrats criticized a separate investigation approved by the all-Republican county commissioners and a GOP lawsuit over her role in the November general election as politically motivated attacks designed to sow distrust in the voting process.
But there was some other positive news Tuesday for Democrats. It appears current Chief Deputy Auditor John Murphy has won a very close race for County Auditor, defeating Republican Desmont Upchurch. As of Wednesday morning, Murphy was ahead by 663 votes — just under one percentage point.
Contact Jakob at jlazzaro@wvpe.org or follow him on Twitter at @JakobLazzaro.
If you appreciate this kind of journalism on your local NPR station, please support it by donating here.
