By VICKI URBANIK

Indiana voters will go to the polls Tuesday in a critical primary election, the first time in 40 years that Hoosier voters could make a difference in a primary presidential contest.

But while the rest of the country will be watching Indiana to see if Barack Obama will solidify his lead or if Hillary Clinton will significantly strengthen her recent upswing in the polls, there are plenty of other races on Tuesday’s ballot -- in both parties -- drawing interest.

In addition to U.S. president, Indiana Democrats will select former congresswoman Jill Long Thompson or Indianapolis architect Jim Schellinger to take on Republican incumbent Mitch Daniels in November in the race for governor.

In addition, Democrat voters have contested races for 3rd and 10th district state representative, while Republicans have a primary battle in the 4th state district and in the 1st and 2nd congressional districts. Both parties have contested races for Porter County Council, while Republicans will also have primary battles for South Porter County Commissioner and Porter County Treasurer.

Porter County election officials are bracing themselves for an unusually busy Tuesday.

“We are expecting an extremely large turnout,” said Porter County Clerk and Election Board member Pam Fish. “We are geared up for this. We are ready.”

Fish noted that in the last presidential election in 2004, Porter County had the highest voter turnout in the state. She said she wouldn’t be surprised if Porter County holds onto that distinction Tuesday, citing others’ speculation that turnout could be as high as 75 percent.

Porter County now has about 107,000 registered voters, up from approximately 80,000 four years ago. Absentee, or early, voting has already turned out about 3,000 votes, which Fish said is an amazingly high number.

Already, the Porter County Voter Registration Office has 300 new registrations pending for the fall from people who didn’t register to vote in time for Tuesday’s primary.

In anticipation of the high turnout, the election board has been holding more pre-election meetings than usual, including one on Saturday at which they dealt with requests from the Clinton and Obama campaigns for poll watchers. Both requests were essentially rejected, on the grounds that neither went through the typical process of first securing approval from the party chairman.

The election board meeting Saturday morning was just one of the pre-primary events taking place at the bustling Porter County Administration Center. Down one hall from the election board meeting, absentee voting was underway, while down another hall, poll workers were getting sworn in and picking up their election material. Upstairs, a training session for the poll workers was underway.

One problem that has delayed the final vote tally in recent years has involved election workers being unable to reconcile the number of ballots cast with the numbers shown on their paperwork. Fish said poll workers have been instructed to take counts all day long, rather than waiting until after the polls close. In addition, she said that for the first time, cell phones will be issued to all polling places, so that election workers can call the county offices in the event of any problems.

Not only is Tuesday’s election expected to be a big time, but it’s also the first for Fish as county clerk and for Sundae Kubacki, the Republican board member of the Voter Registration Office. Fish, who last year shadowed the elections, said there might be new people running the election, but that they’re well prepared. “We are excited, but we have been preparing for a long time,” she said.

Because it’s impossible to predict how many ballots for either party to order, Fish said if need be, the county will be able to print up ballots on demand if any polling site runs out of ballots for one party or the other.

Candidate Preview: GOP

Despite the excitement in the Democrat contests for president and Indiana governor, Porter County Republicans actually have more contested primary battles.

One is for 4th District State Representative, between incumbent Ed Soliday and Republican challenger Shawn Olson. Recent campaign mailings, either from the Olson campaign directly or from groups that support him, have been highly critical of Soliday’s vote in support of the Indiana’s newest tax law, HEA 1001. Soliday, in turn participated in a press conference Saturday denouncing the mailings. The winner of the primary will face Democrat Larry Chubb of Chesterton in November.

Republicans will also have two well-known names to choose from in the race for Porter County treasurer, which pits former Porter County Clerk Dale Brewer against former Porter Township Trustee Bob Wichlinski. Brewer is running on her years of experience in county government, not just as clerk but also as county auditor executive deputy. Wichlinski, on the other hand, is promising to work to abolish the treasurer’s office and combine its duties with the county auditor’s. The winner of the primary race will face Democrat Mike Bucko, a Porter County Council member, in the fall.

Five Republicans are vying for the three seats on the Porter County Council. Two are incumbents, William Carmichael of Chesterton and Jim Burge of Valparaiso. The others are Donna Levi of Westchester Township, George Mrak of Porter, and Sandra Snyder, also of Porter. Carmichael and Burge have cited their experience, while the other three have all taken issue with the late property tax bills and have called for a change in county government.

Also on the Republican ticket is a contest for South County Commissioner between long-time county officer holder Jim Murphy, currently the county treasurer, and long-time precinct committee member Andy Vasquez. The winner will face Democrat incumbent Carole Knoblock in the fall.

Candidate Preview: Dems

Democrats, meanwhile, will not only vote in the highly charged presidential primary, but also in the race for governor.

In addition, Democrats in the 10th State Representative district will have three candidates to choose from. In a rematch of the Democrat caucus from last fall, the race pits incumbent Gregory Simms, a Washington Township high school teacher, against Porter County Council President Robert Poparad of Burns Harbor and former Portage School Board member and business owner Chuck Moseley of Portage.

All three have cited their experience: Simms as a newcomer to the Statehouse who successfully authored a bill aimed at helping adult education; Poparad, for his years as an elected official holder, not just at the county level but also at the municipal level in the town of Burns Harbor; and Moseley, for his years of work in business and the community sector. The winner of the Democrat primary will face Republican Kenneth Kaminski in the fall.

In the 3rd district, voters will choose between long-time legislator Charlie Brown and attorney and community activist Bryan Bullock. Both are from Gary. There is no Republican candidate yet.

Democrats also have a four-way race for the three at-large seats on the Porter County Council. The candidates are incumbent Dan Whitten, an attorney; Laura Shurr Blaney, a business owner who formerly served on the council; Sylvia Graham, a member of the county tourism board who last year ran for state representative against Soliday; and political newcomer John Steffan.

Poll Watchers

At Saturday’s election board meeting, the board dealt with a matter involving the contentious presidential primary.

The Clinton campaign had submitted a request for 10 poll watchers in Tuesday’s Porter County primary, while the Obama campaign submitted a request for three poll watchers.

Election Board attorney Clay Patton said poll watchers are appointed by county party chairmen, with credentials issued by the election board. However, neither the Clinton nor Obama campaign went through the county chairman. The election board unanimously agreed not to act on the request from the Clinton campaign, since its request was not put in writing and no specific names for poll watchers were presented. The board rejected the Obama request, on the grounds that the county chair needs to be the one to make the appointments.

The Obama request was for attorneys Kenneth Allen, Hugo Martz and Cynthia Minor to serve as poll watchers at the following precincts: Jackson 1, 2 and 3; Westchester 2 and 13; and Center 2 and 3.

Audience member Kenard Taylor noted that in the past, the county chairmen could appoint poll watchers up until the night before an election. In response, Election Board President J.J. Stankiewicz said the county chair can still appoint the poll watchers as usual, but that the two requests presented couldn’t be approved since they didn’t follow the required process.

The election board also took note that a firm hired by the National Election Pool will survey voters outside of the polling place at Jackson 1 and Portage 25.

Posted 5/5/2008