Indiana House District 10 incumbent Chuck Moseley, a Democrat, is the only Democrat to win in Porter County’s three main legislative races Tuesday.
Moseley defeated former Porter County Council member Jeff Larson, a Republican, by a vote of 15,394 to 14,141, or 52% to 48%, according to unofficial final results posted Wednesday morning by the Porter County Elections & Registration Office.
Late Tuesday night, Larson had a narrow lead over Moseley, who has served District 10 in the Indiana House of Representatives since 2009.
“I’m glad it’s over,” Moseley said. “I felt pretty confident that we had done all the things that we needed to do, and I’m just grateful that the folks that voted for us supported us.”
“The best way to help your country is to stay active, stay involved and keep showing up,” he said.
“It’s not the result I wanted,” Larson said. “Really the purpose in running those races, because of the way the districts are set up, is just to keep people honest.”
“I would have loved to have won the race, but I think when you have participation like we had and we saw this election, I think that’s really the goal, to get people involved,” he said.
“You just you just go, ‘OK, what can I do to improve the circumstances,’” Larson said.
House District 4
In House District 4, Republican incumbent Ed Soliday defeated Democrat Erika Watkins by a vote of 20,093 to 14,782, or 61% to 39%.
Soliday has held the seat since 2007.
Watkins, a Valparaiso School Board member, stressed women’s reproductive rights during her campaign.
“My celebration last night was truly a celebration, and that’s exactly what I wanted it to be,” she said. “I didn’t want it to be somber in any way. I wanted it to be reflective of how hard we worked.”
“We danced and we danced until I said OK, it’s time to go because we were all so tired,” Watkins said.
“We knocked on almost 12,000 doors. Maybe those were the 5,000 others that I needed,” she said, referring to the vote difference between Soliday and herself. “I knew going into this we needed to knock over 17,000 doors.”
“For this to be my first time ever running and to have done this well, I’m very proud of the work that the team did,” Watkins said.
“I didn’t have a lot of outside-the-district money coming,” she said. “They told me he started with $185,000. Erika started with zero,” she said.
“She was brand new to politics, and she didn’t have a lot of financial support and didn’t have a really good sense of Porter County,” Soliday said.
“I don’t think we did a single negative piece,” he said focusing on a positive campaign.
He got support from outside the district. “When you’re No. 3 in the caucus, they tend to treat you with some deference,” Soliday said.
“She didn’t have a lot of good consulting service, and she was pretty progressive for Porter County, but she worked hard. I won’t take that away from her. But when you’re taking on incumbents, you learn a lot real fast.”
Watkins said she’s not going to focus on losing the race. Instead, she’s celebrating the 14,782 votes she got.
“I’ve already had people call me today and say I’m ready to support you next time,” Watkins said.
The day after the election, the House and Senate winners headed to Indianapolis to elect their party leaders.
Soliday had other meetings lined up as well, focusing on an adequate supply of clean water and electricity generation and transmission capacity for new businesses, “but also to make certain Grandma down the street doesn’t bear the burden of creating new energy sources, that these companies don’t walk away from a project. Make sure they share the risk.”
Soliday also wants to address representation on the Valparaiso School Board to ensure the Center Township Board picks a school board member who lives in unincorporated Center Township, where 40% of the students live, he said.
“I’m going to try to find something that deals with that without starting World War 3,” Soliday said. “We have a fine school system with great teachers and it’s statistically No. 1 in northern Indiana, and I’m committed to their success. We’ve had good school boards and good community support, and we do not need to go off on political tangents for the flavor of the month.”
Senate District 5
In Senate District 5, Republican Ed Charbonneau won against Democrat Leslie Nuss by a vote of 26,931 to 17,214 in Porter County, or 61% to 39%.
The district sprawls across parts of Porter, Jasper, Starke, LaPorte, Marshall, Pulaski and St. Joseph counties. Across the district, the vote was 66% to 34%.
Charbonneau has served the district since 2007, currently serving as chair of the Health and Provider Services Committee.
Nuss expressed her disappointment with the red wave. “It’s a sad day for Indiana, and it’s a sad day for the country,” Nuss said. “We live in an autocratic state where it’s heavily gerrymandered. People want to hold on to power.”
“I think we’re going to be feeling the consequences for a long time,” she said.
“Some people have become calcified in their ideas and their beliefs,” Nuss said.“We have a real problem with propaganda when people think the Democratic Party is evil and they look at me and say you know your party is evil. There’s nothing to say to somebody like that.”
“It’s a David and Goliath thing at this point,” she said. “There are so many people with a lot of money, and they do not care about the average person. They care only about how much taxes they’re going to have to pay, not thinking about this beautiful country and how they were able to earn this much money in the first place.”
Charbonneau said he’s “very pleased” with the results.
“My opponent worked hard, going door to door campaigning, and I saw her at many of the parades and other events around the district,” he said. “I think we both ran campaigns on what we thought were the issues and not on the other person.”
“Now I’m starting to take a look at the Medicaid issue,” Charbonneau said. Healthcare is a major expense for Indiana. He’s also looking at property taxes. “It’s something that is certainly on Gov.-elect Braun’s agenda.”
Doug Ross is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
