Next year, all of the seats on the Brown County Council will be filled by Republicans.
The only Democrat incumbent, Debra Guffey, was defeated by Bill Hamilton by 303 votes in the District 1 race.
“I’m pleased with the results and very pleased the Republican Party did as well as it did,” Hamilton said, standing outside party headquarters on election night.
Hamilton retired from AT&T after 30 years of service in southern Indiana, where he managed a $4.4 million annual budget. He is also retired from the U.S. Air Force.
[sc:text-divider text-divider-title=”Story continues below gallery” ]“My plans, as what I stated originally when I first started running, was I wanted to be their voice for District 1 for the betterment of Brown County,” he said.
Guffey was elected in 2014. She and her husband have owned Brown County Tire for 28 years. She could not be reached for comment by deadline.
“She did a good job and ran a good race. I look forward to trying to do as well a job as you did,” Hamilton said when asked if he wanted to say anything to his opponent.
“I just appreciate everyone’s support and I hope to not disappoint anyone.”
District 4 county council incumbent Art Knight was smiling as he left party headquarters upon learning he’d won another term. “I’m excited about it. There’s a lot of projects going on in the county and I want to be part of it,” he said.
This is his 18th year serving as the District 4 representative. “Twenty-two years and I’ll retire,” he said with another smile.
Knight and his son started a trash service in 2003. In 2009, he closed Knights Corner and went into the trash business full time. He has been a business owner in Brown County for over 35 years.
In fact, Knight was so busy with work he didn’t campaign at all. “I’ve been here a lot of years,” he said.
His opponent, Democrat Diana Wright, has worked at the Brown County Public Library as a library assistant for 20 years.
Knight defeated Wright by 309 votes.
“She really campaigned and worked hard. She got a lot of votes and I’m happy (for her),” Knight said of his opponent.
District 2 incumbent Darren Byrd was “elated” after finding out he was elected to serve another term over Democrat challenger Sherrie Mitchell. Byrd won by more than 500 votes.
Byrd said he wants to “just follow the path forward that is best for the county, best for the taxpayers and try to keep us from shrinking — try to keep us from continuing in the negative trend that has been happening in the last decade or so.”
Byrd said he wanted to thank Mitchell for “the good opposition.”
“I’d like to thank all of the voters for the support and thank you for the trust and the confidence shown by the results. I will do everything I can to not let you down,” he said.
The District 3 seat did not have an incumbent vying for it after current council President Keith Baker decided not to run again.
Former county council member Dave Redding and resident Roger Kelso faced off for that seat. Redding beat Kelso by a little more than 100 votes.
“I was very impressed with Mr. Kelso,” Redding said. “I think Brown County needs to have Roger Kelso involved tomorrow, today and next week in a capacity. … He has an extremely large experience base. He has the academic credentials and he has the passion for Brown County. I want to make sure that I help him get engaged and bring some of that to help us out through our journey.”
Redding and Kelso met at the League of Women Voters candidate forum last month.
“I was very impressed with him and I enjoyed being up there and meeting with him. I thought he had great answers,” Redding said.
Kelso was born and raised in Brown County. He is self-employed engineering and management consultant. He previously worked as the utility manager for Nashville, town manager of Nashville, was Nashville Town Council president and on the Nashville Redevelopment Commission.
Redding was a member of the council in 2014 and 2015 after being appointed to fill an empty seat. He served as president of the council in 2015, but lost his reelection bid. He also served on the Brown County Redevelopment Commission and volunteered with the Brown County Sheriff’s Office. He has worked for Cummins for 25 tears as a control system engineer and product development leader.
Redding said he was surprised by the win. “I think the first thing that goes through my mind is to show my appreciation and thanks for all the people that were working hard. My name is not a known name in Brown County, and there was a long list of people that were out personally vouching for me and talking about me. I wish I could say thanks to all of them and I’m trying to,” he said.
The second thought that went through his mind was that he more responsibility on his shoulders now.
“Just like a good engineer, you want to get smart, because I represent everyone, not just the small group of people advocating for me. I am now responsible for the entire population of collective interest. I have a lot of homework to do here to make sure I understand that and I am connected to that,” he said.
Redding said he wants the community to participate in the political process.
“I want to make sure people are comfortable contacting me. I’ll make time for them. It may not be this exact minute, but if someone reaches out to me and wants to speak to me, I will definitely find a time,” he said.
Working at Cummins, Redding said he learned to “bring the chaos early” when making decisions.
“Don’t try and force something, or a direction or a proposal, and then hope people get on board with it. Bring the ideas in early, bring the different competing thoughts early, and work through that sooner rather than it pop up at the inopportune time down the way,” he said.
“We’re Brown County. Everybody on the outside looking in wishes they were us. Brown County is a special place and a lot of people around this state wishes they were us. Let’s take advantage of that.”
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District 1 county council
Republican Bill Hamilton: 943
Democrat Debra Guffey: 640
District 2 county council
Republican Darren Byrd: 1116
Democrat Sherrie Mitchell: 562
District 3 county council
Republican Dave Redding: 1019
Democrat Roger D. Kelso: 908
District 4 county council
Republican Arthur “Art” Knight: 1100
Democrat Diana H. Wright: 791
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