Davis re-elected to Board of Supervisors

    Washington County Supervisor Steve Davis was elected to four more years in county government. Davis, running as a Republican, defeated his Democratic challenger Rodney Stogdill 61 percent to 39 percent in the District 3 race. Davis won 1,118 of the 1,846 votes cast.

    Davis awaited the election results in the Washington County Courthouse Tuesday evening, along with a few dozen other candidates and activists from both parties. Davis commented that he does not take elections lightly, and that he was anxious as he watched results come in on the computer screen that flashed vote totals from each of the 10 precincts in the county.

    ?It has you worried,? remarked Davis. ?Anything can happen.?

    District 3 runs along the east side of the county and contains Crawfordsville, Ainsworth and Riverside. Davis said he saw Ainsworth?s precinct had reported, and knew that Riverside?s precinct would be coming in soon afterward. He said Riverside leans more Democratic than the rest of the county. To make inroads into the northeast section of the county, Davis said he has attended a few Riverside City Council meetings. He said he visited with a number of Riverside residents after a recent meeting there on the secondary roads project. He also sees many people from the town at his place of employment in Crawfordsville, at Wyman Grain.   

    The future home of the Public Health Department was one of the top issues of the campaign, said Davis. Public Health operates out of multiple buildings in Washington, mainly in the sixth floor of Federation Bank and the second floor of the former library. Public Health Administrator Edie Nebel has asked the county to provide a new location for her department. Davis said that finding a home for Public Health will be one of the main concerns of the supervisors in the next session.

    Davis mentioned that another issue likely to come before the supervisors is the location of the dispatch center. The Communications Commission and E911 Board have spent the last several months discussing moving the center to either the second floor of the former library or to a brand new building at Orchard Hill.

    Davis has known Stogdill for 40 years. Davis is from Crawfordsville and Stogdill was raised there. Davis said it was a nice, clean campaign. 

    ?We didn?t say anything negative about each other,? said Davis. ?Rodney would have been a good man if he had been elected.?

    Stogdill reported that he did not have hard feelings about the election and wished Davis the best for the next session.

    ?I?m pleased with the campaigns that both of us ran,? he said. ?We didn?t do any mudslinging.?

    Stogdill said Tuesday was not a good night for Democrats in the county, state or nation. He said he will continue to follow county politics, although he said it was probably his last run for office.     

?I?m getting to the age when I should start slowing down,? he said.

    Stogdill commented that he appreciates all the support he received during the campaign. He said he was glad to live in a country that offers free and fair elections.

When asked what advice he would give to Davis, Stogdill said it was not his place to do that.

?Steve was the one elected. He?ll have to run the office as he sees fit,? said Stogdill.  

For more, see our Nov. 3 print edition.