WFHB Bloomington Community Radio
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Long-time incumbents faced upsets in Bloomington’s Common Council races, yesterday.
Of the six candidates running for the city’s three At-Large seats, which aren’t tied to representation of a particular district in the city, two incumbents advanced through yesterday’s party primary.
Susan Sandberg and Jim Sims will continue serving as At-Large Council Members, but incumbent Andy Ruff was out-balloted by newcomer Matt Flaherty, in the Democratic Primary.
Flaherty said he attributes his victory in the primary to voters being ready for ‘new blood’ and ‘new ideas.’ He said he’s planning to spend the next six months campaigning the same way he did before yesterday’s primary – by spending the majority of his days knocking on doors.
In another upset during yesterday’s primary race for Bloomington City Council, Kate Rosenbarger defeated long-time incumbent Democratic council member for District 1, Chris Sturbaum.
Rosenbarger garnered the Democratic nomination with over 400 ballots cast during yesterday’s election, whereas Sturbaum received 128 ballots, and fellow challenger Denise Valkyrie received 32. Rosenbarger attributes her victory over a long-time incumbent candidate to knocking on doors.
“I really worked hard on meeting people… getting to know them and getting to hear them really made the difference,” Rosenbarger said.
Rosenbarger highlighted Bloomington’s housing shortage and lack of public transportation options as key issues in her campaign, going forward. District 1, which includes Bloomington’s near-west side, is largely made up of residences. Most of those are single family homes. Sturbaum recently took actions to protect those properties and their owners from a push to increase density.
