On Nov. 7, Gary residents will head to the polls to elect a new mayor, city clerk, city judge and city council. Nine of the 12 races are all but decided, with no Republican names on the ballot. In the other three races, Republican candidates face long odds in the Democrat-dominated city.
Mayoral candidate Andrew Delano would be the city’s first Republican mayor in eighty years. Ernst Schaible, the last Republican to hold the office, served from 1939 to 1943. Delano’s opponent, State Sen. Eddie Melton, D-Gary, unseated incumbent Mayor Jerome Prince in the city’s Democratic mayoral primary in May and is heavily favored to win the general election.
Delano, a real estate investor and Hammond native who moved to Gary in 2013, acknowledged that he is fighting an uphill battle, but said he is running to ensure that Gary residents have a meaningful choice in the general election.
– Original Credit: Andrew Delano
“I’ve lived here for 10 years,” he told the Post-Tribune. “I’m hoping that (Gary) has a good future, but I’m concerned with the direction it’s going.”
If elected, Delano said, he will work to keep taxes low by curtailing city spending. He would freeze the city’s budget and work to cut unnecessary expenditures, he said, including by eliminating the Gary Health Department and allowing the Lake County Health Department to shoulder its responsibilities. Delano cited the example of Hammond, which eliminated its health department in 2007.
He added that city funds currently being spent on new housing developments could be better put to use rehabilitating disused properties.
Ivan Ursery, running for an at-large seat, and John Collier, running to represent the 6th District, would be the only two Republicans on the nine-member Gary Common Council if elected. Ursery faces incumbents Darren Washington and Ron Brewer, as well as Mark Spencer, who made a successful primary bid for the seat in May and sits poised to fill the council’s vacant at-large seat in an October 21 caucus.
“I feel like I bring good solutions to the table,” Ursery, a graphic designer and Gary native, told the Post-Tribune.
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If elected, Ursery plans to advocate for a city program that refers first-time criminal offenders to church organizations that will provide them with mentorship and community service opportunities.
Asked to identify a city policy that he has disagreed with, Ursery voiced opposition to the COVID-19 restrictions that were first put in place by Prince in 2020 to combat the spread of the novel coronavirus, which have since been relaxed.
“I disagree with the way that was handled,” he said.
Ursery has used social media to spread baseless claims about the COVID-19 pandemic. In a Jan. 7 post on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, Ursery wrote that Hydroxychloroquine and Ivermectin — two drugs that have not been proven effective at treating the novel coronavirus despite being embraced by some conservatives — are a better treatment than vaccines, which have caused “healthy people to suddenly drop dead from cardiac arrest.”
This claim and similar claims about the dangers of COVID-19 vaccines, which have circulated among conservatives since the vaccines’ rollout, have been widely debunked by medical authorities.
Ursery told the Post-Tribune that he stands by his position “100%,” and also believes that the virus that causes COVID-19 was deliberately released by the Chinese government. While the origins of the coronavirus are disputed, there is no evidence to suggest that it was released on purpose.
Ursery also espouses baseless conspiracy theories about the results of the 2020 election, which he claims was rigged against former President Donald Trump. No evidence has emerged for this claim, which has led to Trump facing federal conspiracy charges for attempting to overturn a lawful election. Ursery said that he plans to accept the results of Gary’s elections, however they turn out.
“For the most part, I believe Lake County elections are secure,” he said.
– Original Credit: John Collier
Collier, a retired librarian and Gary native, faces Democratic incumbent Dwight Williams in the 6th District race. Collier told the Post-Tribune that he decided to run after he “found that the people’s voice was not being heard” by the city council.
If elected, he said, he wants to increase scrutiny of how city funds are spent, particularly on infrastructure projects.
“Financial management is a big issue,” Collier said.
He also plans to push for a collective bargaining agreement for Gary Police officers, who are currently working without one.