Heading into the May primary elections, a group of Democratic St. Joe County and state candidates are running together as a “Unity Campaign.”
But rather than unity, it seems to be sparking division.
On Sunday at the Elks Lodge in South Bend, four Democratic candidates will announce the offices they plan to file for in the May 7 primary election. David Niezgodski and Maureen Bauer seek re-election to their state Senate and House seats. County Council Member Rafael Morton will run for county commissioner. And Jason Piontek is running for the county council seat that Morton is leaving.
Council would be a change for Piontek, a political newcomer who initially said he planned to run for commissioner before Morton made it clear that he wants the seat instead.
But not all Democrats will be there Sunday. County Party Chair Diana Hess says the reason is simple.
“We’re not in support of this effort,” Hess said. “Primaries should be open. The party is not going to support or endorse any candidate.”
County Party Vice-Chair Don Westerhausen also says he’ll stay away. He worries some voters will assume the group has been endorsed by the party leadership.
Westerhausen says the effort reads too much like the old-time Democratic Party machine’s tradition of slating groups of candidates together.
“The Democratic Party in the past had slates and people disagreed with that,” Westerhausen said. “I mean, this is back in the ‘60s and ‘70s. Diana and I are of the view that we think primaries are good for democracy. We think that it gives people a choice to hear what the candidates are about and make the best decisions.”
The group’s press release Thursday doesn’t claim any endorsement by the party. But Westerhausen says voters could still be left with that impression. He says they could more clearly express to voters that the party isn’t endorsing them in the primary.
“Actually I would feel great if they clarified that,” Westerhausen said. “If they want to run as a slate, that’s them, and to explain that it’s them doing this on their own, not the party taking a stance one way or the other.”
Democrat Jennifer Shabazz, who on Wednesday announced her candidacy for that same county commissioner seat, is now set to run against Piontek. She says she doesn’t know if she’ll attend Sunday. But she questioned the need for the candidates presenting themselves as one package when the party’s candidates agree on the vast majority of issues.
“It doesn’t look like unity,” Shabazz said. “It looks like four people that are supporting each other, which is absolutely allowed. However there’s many candidates that are running that are not involved in this, so I’m not sure that I’d call it unity. You’ve got (State Rep.) Ryan Dvorak and (County Council Member) Mark Catanzarite.”
In 2008 Shabazz volunteered for the Hillary Clinton campaign in the primary and Barack Obama in the general election. She then served as a paid regional field director for Obama’s Organizing for America.
“People were energized in the state of Indiana because of the primary with Hillary and Obama,” she said. “In the end I actually did the first event in South Bend that brought the volunteers together from the Hillary and Obama campaigns the week after the election, to show unity. And that’s how we showed unity.”
None of the four so-called Unity Campaign candidates replied to WVPE’s interview requests.
Another Democratic candidate who won’t attend Sunday is Democratic County Treasurer Tim Swager. He plans to challenge Niezgodski for his senate seat in the primary.
Swager said he doesn’t think attempts to slate candidates will work in this day and age, when voters are far less likely to be influenced by endorsements from other candidates.
“I think they have a lot more information at hand and I think they’re more than capable of discerning who the right person for the job is,” Swager said.
Candidate filing for the primary starts on Wednesday.
