Voters will choose between two born-and-raised Brown Countians when they vote for District 2 county commissioner in November.
Democrat Kyle Birkemeier won his party’s nomination by 432 votes over Jeff Fox. Birkemeier received 781 votes and Fox received 349.
“I am excited and thankful that I got the nomination. I hope that I can help serve the county and bring a new era of transparency, planning, guidance and some vision to the future of our county,” Birkemeier said.
Republican incumbent Diana McDonald Biddle won 52 percent of her party’s vote over two challengers, John Kennard and Ron Sanders. Biddle received 1,154 votes to Kennard’s 406 and Sanders’ 666.
[sc:text-divider text-divider-title=”Story continues below gallery” ]“I’m looking forward to the fall,” Biddle said. I feel like I’ve had a great four years. I have loved almost every minute of my job.”
The Brown County commissioners are a three-member board that acts as the county’s executive body, making and changing laws, dealing with roads and bridges, and setting various policies.
Birkemeier and Biddle both have backgrounds in public service.
Birkemeier has worked in government and in private and not-for-profit organizations doing strategic planning, analytics and technology work. He has a bachelor’s degree in telecommunications from Ball State University and a master’s degree in public recreation administration.
Birkemeier moved his family back to Brown County in 2014 from Arizona. He currently works for Indiana University using data science to create strategic plans for marketing. He plans to use his experience with data science to “bring planning, vision and transparency to the county.”
“I’m not a politician. I never thought I would be in a political role; however, after moving back here I saw a lot of the crises and challenges Brown County faces and knew I could help serve to bring us a better future,” he said.
Biddle served on the Jackson Township Advisory Board and county council before being elected commissioner. She also served on the boards of the Brown County Purdue Extension, Community Corrections and solid waste management. She is one of the co-founders of Mother’s Cupboard Community Kitchen.
Recently, she was selected by the Southeast Indiana District of the Indiana Association of County Commissioners to serve as the district vice president.
“My parents raised me to be a community-minded individual. Everything and every decision I make, I make with ‘What is the ultimate outcome for the community?’” she said.
She added that “There are a lot of things that are kind of getting wrapped up in the next couple of weeks that will bring a lot of good news to the community.”
Between now and the Nov. 6 general election, Birkemeier said he plans to reach out to the parts of the county he hadn’t talked to yet, “find out what people are feeling about what the needs are for the future of the county. I hope to bring that into the November election and find a good path forward for this county’s future,” he said.
“I’m available. Talk to me in person and I’ll probably be coming to you as well, knocking on your door.”
Biddle also thanked voters for their support.
“The support of the local community has been overwhelming. I feel good about some of the projects that we’ve got going, but I’ve never been in it for myself. If you know how much a commissioner makes, you understand that statement,” she said.
Post-election reflections
Fox, Birkemeier’s opponent on the Democrat ticket, also is a lifelong resident of Brown County. He works as a semi-truck driver and used to work for the county highway department. He did not answer a request for comment on the election results by deadline.
Kennard served a previous four-year term as county commissioner. He is currently the environmental health supervisor for the Brown County Health Department. “Am I disappointed I didn’t win? Yes,” he said.
“Am I crushed? No. Am I going to give up? No. I am still going to be an advocate for change,” he said.
He encouraged residents to continue to attend meetings, ask questions and “to stay on top of the people who win.”
“Voice your concerns in a positive manner. … Keep it clean and keep it positive,” he said.
He said everybody should consider running for political office. “I found out more about our county after I became a commissioner,” he said. “The best job I ever had in my entire life was four years as a commissioner.”
Kennard won his last commissioner term by beating Sanders, one of his neighbors, in 2010. Sanders at that time was running as a Democrat, but for this election he ran as a Republican.
Sanders said the switch in parties was motivated by his religious beliefs and the fact that he didn’t have luck winning the last election as a Democrat. “To continue to do things the same way expecting different results is the definition of insanity,” he said.
The fact that Sanders got more votes than him this time wasn’t lost on Kennard. But the fight was friendly, he said.
“I didn’t see a lot of hostility and anger and name-calling in this one, at least for most of the offices. I thought it was a very clean election,” Kennard said.
“Hopefully, that trend will stay when the actual election in November comes,” he said. However, “I will bust Ron’s chops (for getting more votes).”
Both Kennard and Sanders said they would run for office again.
“There’s always a possibility. I think I got a couple more runs in me. I might run for something else someday,” Sanders said.
“I want to thank everybody that voted for me. I’d like to see more people show up and vote.”
