The field of Democratic candidates for the three Porter County Council at-large seats up for reelection in November unofficially left Susie Talevski behind Tuesday night.
Incumbent Sylvia Graham, Eric Wagner, and Bob DeRuntz will officially advance to compete against Republicans in the November general election after the Porter County Election Board certifies the results on May 17.
Graham, a retired nurse practitioner and former professional bass fisher, will be seeking her fifth term. Preliminary results gave her 29% of the vote. She had announced she would not seek reelection but quickly changed her mind.
“I’ve been elected four times, so I must be doing something right,” she said.
Wagner took 25%. He manages Wagner’s rib restaurant in Porter, which is situated just two miles from the beach, and served on the council for one year in 2022 after the death of Bob Poparad. Prior to that he served in various offices for the town of Porter. He was endorsed by District 7 United Steelworkers.
He would like to see environmental tourism take off in Porter County. “I think we’re losing millions of dollars a year not trying to keep these tourists in the area,” he said. “It’s not just one thing that’s going to make it better.”
“I’m having a good night,” Wagner said after the final preliminary results were posted Tuesday night. Moving forward his goal is to get his party mobilized. “We got to get more Democrats out,” he said “There was a very low Democratic turnout for some reason.”
DeRuntz, a history teacher at Chesterton High School and co-president of the Duneland Teachers Association, launched an aggressive campaign that won 19 endorsements from local labor unions, “because I’m an advocate for organized labor.”
He currently serves on the Porter County Park Board and said that experience makes him uniquely situated to advocate for the advancement of the county’s parks. DeRuntz took 23% beating out Talevski, a Valparaiso attorney, by a slim margin of only half a percent.
Shelley Jones is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
