BLOOMINGTON — Through seven other candidates and 59 voters, Liz Feitl has been elected at-large Monroe County Councilor.
There was one goal for Monroe County Democrats and that was to fill the role left by the late Cherly Munson, who died in December.
With 59 of the 68 eligible voters present at the caucus, each of the eight candidates had to stand out with their case about how they would best serve the city of Bloomington while in the position.
After a brief period of public motions, all the candidates; Matt Caldie, Richard Carter, Rob Council, Joe Davis, Liz Feitl, Andrew Guenther, Scott Shackleford and Ilana Stonebreaker, made their opening statements to the crowd.
Multiple topics were brought up, with issues such as the new Monroe County Jail project, homelessness and housing affordability being the consensus issues among the group.
Candidate Scott Shackleford, Stanford Law graduate and Executive Director of the Ostrom Workshop for Cybersecurity, raised the issue of recent cybersecurity attacks.
He said the attacks were “costly, debilitating and could easily happen again” to the county and would be an issue he would focus on if elected due to his experience with cybersecurity matters.
After opening statements, a 60-minute Q&A period allowed for voters to ask more personal questions to the candidates, with questions like “How would you support current state officials in office” and “Which three departments would you work the most with?”
Candidate Rob Council, whose specialties lie within housing and community outreach, said he would work with the public planning department to help bring affordable housing back to Bloomington.
Then came the first round of voting, with all eight candidates eligible. There were 59 voters present at the caucus, and to win the council seat you needed a majority of 30 votes.
That didn’t happen, but the initial round eliminated candidates Guenther, Davis, Carter and Council. Feitl won the initial round with 25 votes.
In a brief interview with Davis after his elimination from the eligible pool, he said “I wasn’t expecting that I was going to fare very well, but I needed to honor my constituents” and that “more or less [the caucus voters] knew who they were voting for before they got here.”
Davis also said he wanted the message on the promotion of independent voices in a partisanship government to be heard by the district and believes that his voice was heard.
A second round of voting eliminated another candidate, Shackleford.
Shackleford said he hoped that his message of “being successful and resilient against new risks, specifically climate and cybersecurity” resonated with the voters even though he did not win.
“Even though I wasn’t elected, I know and plan to get more involved locally, especially with cyber security and local party politics,” Shackleford said.
Feitl was two votes shy of winning the election with 28 votes, so a 30-minute Q&A period started, (created by a motion that was passed at the start of the caucus) with the remaining candidates Feitl, Stonebreaker and Caldie.
More creative questions were asked at the Q&A session, with one voter asking, “How well can you detect bullcrap” and another asking how the candidates would handle Transgender support in the city. Feitl joked with the crowd “My bullcrap detector comes from the fact that I have 12 grandkids” which resonated with the older crowd.
In the final round of voting, there were three candidates: Feitl, Stonebreaker and Caldie. Feitl swept the last two rounds. As the votes were tallied, the final count of the election came out to be Caldie with 7, Stonebreaker with 22, and Feitl with 30, winning the election for council person. The process took approx. four hours.
Ilana Stonebreaker, who campaigned on being experienced in both the community and the fiscal operations of local government, said she plans to step back and reflect before stepping into another election but plans to continue working as the chair of the Monroe County Vote Center Committee helping voters with accessible voting options.
“It hit me hard when Cheryl passed, as she was a powerful advocate for women and wanted to see me in my previously elected role” Stonebreaker said, “I think Liz will be really great as she brings a much-needed personnel background that will strengthen the board.”
Feitl was sworn in as councilwoman moments after winning the election and congratulated the other candidates.
When asked about her first move after the election, Feitl expressed a need to listen to departments and figure out what she can help with, along with getting oriented to her new workplace.
“I’m thrilled to be here, and I want to meet with the departments and see where they’re at, what I might be able to offer my help with anything. I don’t know what they need, I have no idea, so I need to talk to them.” Feitl said.
