Indianapolis City-County Councilmember Andre Carson emerged victorious this morning as the winner of the Democratic Caucus to become the nominee for special election for the 7th Congressional District. He won a field of eight candidates with 50.7 percent of the vote. He had 223 of the 439 votes cast.

The second place finisher, David Orentlicher had 123 votes or 27 percent and he plans to run in the May 6th primary. The rest of the candidates were in double or single digits.

I think the big challenge for Carson will be to unite his party behind him. Getting 50.7 percent of the vote means 49.3 percent of the delegates wanted someone else. Carson’s biggest problem will not be him, but the Democratic establishment which backed him and as some candidates and precinct committeemen griped to me personally the establishment force fed Carson down the throats of the rest of the party. Some of that opposition may try to unite behind a primary challenger.

If Carson can unite his party, he will have won half the battle. His next big challenge, if he wins the May primary, will be to fight voter complacency. There is a sense that because his last name is Carson and the the 7th District is primarily Democratic, that he will automatically coast to victory which could lead to a lower voter turnout and perhaps a result no one would have ever expected.

The special election will be held on March 11. Republicans will slate their candidate tomorrow night at the State Fairgrounds. Libertarians will officially nominate their candidate later this week. The likely nominee will be small businessman and local anti-property tax activist Sean Shepard.

7:30 p.m. Update - The Libertarians did select Sean Sheppard tonight to be their candidate for the 7th Congressional District. He will be formally nominated later in the week.

The first round of voting is complete out of 599 eligible precinct committeemen, 440 were registered to vote today, or about 73 percent. The vote totals are …

Andre Carson - 223 (he wins with more than 50% of the vote)

Carolene Mays -26

Stephanie McCabe 1-

David Orenlichter - 123

Randle Pollard - 6

Mike Rodman -27

Joanne Sanders - 21

Jeffrey White -8

Andre is now the nominee.

It’s 11 a.m. and the first round of voting is still going on. There are several more rows of delegates left. There is some talk that Andre Carson may make it on the second round, however I just saw supporters of Randle Pollard convince a delegate to not for Carson. I’ll report back when they first votes are tallied.

The first round of voting has begun. The list of candidates as they appear on the ballot is as follows…

Andre Carson

Carolene Mays

Stephanie McCabe

David Orenlichter

Randle Pollard

Mike Rodman
Joanne Sanders

Jeffrey White

As the candidates were introduced Andre and Carolene seemed to get the loudest applause.

It’s a little after 10 a.m. and Indiana Democratic Party Chairman Dan Parker is calling the delegates to order. There has already been some controversy. I’ve discovered that a number of candidates were sold the wrong lists of precinct committeemen. And at $500 a pop, that could be a little annoying. Especially when you’re trying to contact them to vote for you. No word yet on whether they will get their money back.