{"id":1751,"date":"2023-05-03T19:54:08","date_gmt":"2023-05-03T23:54:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/?p=1751"},"modified":"2023-05-03T19:54:10","modified_gmt":"2023-05-03T23:54:10","slug":"melcher-knocks-off-incumbent-councilman-in-primary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/2023\/05\/03\/melcher-knocks-off-incumbent-councilman-in-primary\/","title":{"rendered":"Melcher knocks off incumbent councilman in primary"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

DANE FUELLING<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

WZBD.com<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

With a straight split of Election Day ballots in the race for the republican nomination for Decatur City Council in District 1, it was a four-vote difference in early voting that made the difference for challenger Gina Melcher as she defeated incumbent Wylie Sirk by the slimmest of margins in Tuesday\u2019s primary. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI am humbled and excited to be chosen,\u201d Melcher said Wednesday morning in an interview with WZBD. \u201cTruly every vote counted. One household made the difference.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Melcher is congratulated by her husband after Tuesday’s results were announced. <\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

While Melcher is happy about the outcome and excited about turning her sights on the general election in November, she expressed concern over the voter turnout. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Adams County election officials listed the turnout at 16%. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a bit disheartening that we didn\u2019t have more votes,\u201d said the republican. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Melcher, who campaigned on listening to citizens of Decatur and her diverse background in business, had plenty of support from donors, raising $5500 in campaign contributions leading up to the primary. Campaign finance reports, a matter of public record in Indiana, listed 12 different contributors to the campaign, with the largest contributions coming from Ted & Emily Porter and Charlie Brune. Each contributed $2000 to her campaign. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the incumbent Sirk, $1540 was raised, with $1000 coming from Riggs Florence, owner and operator of the new meat processing plant in Decatur. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI would really like to thank the individuals who motivated me to put myself out there in public,\u201d admitted Melcher, who discussed the challenge of building up the courage to run for office.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s tough to set yourself up and be vulnerable but my fears were second to my passion to work for the community, so I really wanted to thank those who backed me up and gave me the confidence that I could be a viable option.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Melcher noted that many people in the community supported her and told her that she had the personality, demeanor and experience to be on the City Council.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFor me, it comes down to servant leadership and wanting to do things differently,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now her focus turns on the November general election, where she will face Democrat Jenny Bowers-Schultz. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI do not want to take a pause. I want to keep up to date on what the council is currently doing,\u201d she says. \u201cI want to learn more on more issues. I want to be involved in all the city events this summer and understand how we get better.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While Melcher noted how she wanted to continue to educate herself this summer, she noted that she is, in fact, good friends with her future opponent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cJenny and I are friends,\u201d she said. \u201cWe spoke over the phone Tuesday night. We are two strong women who love our community.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Melcher summed up her victory with an inevitable outcome in November.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAt the end of the day we will have a woman on city council.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

DANE FUELLING WZBD.com With a straight split of Election Day ballots in the race for the republican nomination<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1752,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[14,15,21],"class_list":["post-1751","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-decatur","tag-featured","tag-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wzbd.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/IMG_8636.jpg?fit=960%2C900&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1751","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1751"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1751\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1752"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1751"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1751"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1751"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}