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2011 South Bend mayoral election

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South Bend mayoral election, 2011
← 2007 November 8, 2011[1][2] 2015 →
Turnout20.29%[3][4]
 
Nominee Pete Buttigieg Norris W. Curry, Jr Patrick M. Farrell
Party Democratic Republican Libertarian
Popular vote 10,991 2,884 1,008
Percentage 73.85% 19.38% 6.77%
Mayor before election

Steve Luecke
Democratic

Elected Mayor

Pete Buttigieg
Democratic

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South Bend (mayoral)

The 2011 South Bend, Indiana mayoral election was held on November 8, 2011.

After serving for fourteen years, incumbent mayor Steve Luecke announced that he would not seek reelection. Luecke's decision not to run for reelection made the 2011 election the first open election for mayor of South Bend in 24 years.

The election was won by Pete Buttigieg, who, at 29 years of age, became the youngest mayor of a United States city with a population greater than 100,000.

The election coincided with races for the Common Council and for South Bend City Clerk.

Background

After serving for fourteen years, incumbent mayor Steve Luecke announced that he would not seek reelection.[5] Luecke's decision not to run for reelection made the 2011 election the first open election for mayor of South Bend in 24 years.[6][7][8]

South Bend was regarded to be a Democratic-leaning city.[5][9][10][11][12][13] A Republican had not been elected mayor of the city in the four decades,[8][14] since Lloyd Allen won his second term in 1967.[12][13][15][16]

The election coincided with races for the Common Council and for South Bend City Clerk.[17]

Nominations

Primaries were held for the Democratic and Republican parties on May 3.[18][19]

During the primaries, St. Joseph County, where South Bend is located, saw voter turnout of 16% in its various primary elections.[20] This was an increase of 6% from the primaries four years prior.[20]

Absentee voting ballots in the South Bend primaries numbered at 2,539.[21]

Democratic primary

Democratic candidates included failed 2010 Indiana treasurer candidate Pete Buttigieg, state representative Ryan Dvorak, high school teacher and St. Joseph Councilman Michael Hamann, reverend and former Clinton administration staffer Barrett Berry, and attorney Felipe Merino.[22][23][24][25][26] Individuals who had previously been running, but dropped-out or were disqualified from running, included Mark Dollinger, a business services representative at Work One (Indiana's workforce development agency) and the former manager of the city's Weed and Seed program.[23][27]

In February the race was described as being "wide open", with polls showing that 60% of voters had not even yet learned that Luecke was retiring.[22]

Dvorak was initially seen as having some potential advantages, such as media coverage of the state legislature and the fact that his father was the county prosecutor.[22] Dvorak had never before lost an election campaign.[28] Due to his strong name recognition, Dvorak was initially regarded as the frontrunner.[29] Buttigieg had entered the race with very little name recognition.[30]

Buttigieg's campaign manager, Mike Schmuhl, had previously been the campaign manager on Joe Donnelly's 2010 congressional campaign.[31][32][33]

During the campaign, Dvorak was involved in the Indiana legislative walkouts, which caused him to spend a significant part of his candidacy out-of-town in Illinois.[34][35][36][37]

Buttigieg was ultimately supported by former mayors Roger Parent and Joe E. Kernan (the latter also being a former governor).[38][39] Additionally, in its first-ever mayoral endorsement, the Chamber of Commerce of St. Joseph County endorsed Buttigieg's candidacy.[40] Buttigieg was also endorsed by the South Bend Tribune[30] in its first-ever mayoral primary endorsement[29] and the South Bend's chapter of the International Association of Fire Fighters.[31][41] Dvorak had strong labor support, which he helped shore up by participating in the Indiana legislative walkouts.[29] Incumbent mayor Stephen Luecke abstained from endorsing any candidate ahead of the primary.[42] St. Joseph County Democratic Chairman Butch Morgan refrained from formally endorsing any candidate,[22] but supported Hamann.[43] Hamann also received the endorsement of Citizens for Community Values Indiana.[19]

Buttigieg out-fundraised his opponents.[44][45] Buttigieg began to lead the pack in fundraising as early as January 2011.[27][46] By April 8, Buttigieg had raised $230,000 for his campaign.[38][47] Dvorak had raised $100,000.[38][47] Hamann had raised $56,000.[38][47]

As a candidate, Buttigieg outlined a platform for his prospective mayoralty.[48] This included an economic plan which promised to assist responsible existing employers grow, cultivate "new homegrown businesses of tomorrow", have the city compete both nationally and globally for investments, create "well-coordinated and user-friendly" economic development, confront poverty, and make investments in human capital and quality of life.[49] He outlined an action plan for these economic priorities in April.[50] Buttigieg also declared, “This election is about jobs, and the top priority of the next mayor has to be on putting people to work in good jobs. I have the most experience when it comes to business and economics. I’m the only candidate who has been involved in multibillion dollar decisions in the private sector, with some of the world’s top firms.”[40]

Had they been successful in their efforts to be elected mayor, either Berry (who is African American)[51] or Merino (who is hispanic)[52] would have been the first ethnic minority to be elected to a full-time executive office in St. Joseph County. No ethnic minority would be elected to a full-time executive office in St. Joseph County until the 2015 South Bend City Clerk election was won by Kareemah Fowler.[53]

In mid-March, a poll conducted by the Feldman Group found Buttigieg and Dvorak to be in a virtual tie, both garnering roughly 30%. Roughly a quarter of voters were undecided.[36] The race had widely come to be seen as being primarily a contest between Buttigieg and Dvorak.[30]

On April 9 a debate was held at Indiana University South Bend, sponsored by Indiana University South Bend's American Democracy Project and Political Science Club as well as the League of Women Voters of the South Bend Area.[54]

By mid-April, the election was regarded to be a close-race between Buttigieg and Dvorak, with Hamann being seen as a third-place candidate trying to push his way back towards contention.[29] Additionally, by April two internal polls showed Buttigieg with leads of 2 and 14 percent.[39] State representative Craig Fry reported having seen internal polling which even showed Dvorak with a lead.[29] Both Buttigieg and Dvorak had each announced that they had internal polls showing themselves to be in the lead.[55]

Late in the race, Dvorak swiftly turned negative in campaigning against Buttigieg, a move which backfired.[30][31][56][55] Additionally, Hamann garnered sympathy after the tragic death of his wife,[56] which occurred in mid-April.[57] These two factors compounded, and Dvorak fell to third place.[30][56]

Polls

Poll source Date(s)
administered 		Sample
size 		Margin of
error 		Barrett
Berry 		Pete
Buttigieg 		Ryan
Dvorak 		Michael
Hamann
Feldman Group[36] Mid-march 400 ± 5% 4% 32% 30% 12%

Result

Buttigieg ultimately won what was considered a surprisingly strong victory in the primary.[15][18][44] Due to the contest featuring four serious contenders for the nomination, experts had predicted that the victor would only carry roughly a third of the vote.[15][30]

Buttigieg benefited from large crossover voting in support of him,[13][15][16][44] with one analysis finding that he received the votes of up to 3,000 Republicans.[15][30][15][16][44]

Voter turnout in the primary was much greater than had been predicted.[30] This is largely due to Republican crossover voting.[30] Some predictions for turnout were as low as 8,000.[30][45] The median prediction had roughly been 11,000.[30]

Democratic primary results[58]
Party Candidate Votes %
Democratic Pete Buttigieg 7,663 54.90%
Democratic Michael J. Hamann 2,798 20.05%
Democratic Ryan Dvorak 2,041 14.62%
Democratic Barrett Berry 1,424 10.20%
Democratic Felipe N. Merino 32 0.23%
Total votes 13,958

Republican primary

By April, Norris W. Curry, also known as Wayne Curry,[13] had already established himself as the broad frontrunner in the Republican primary.[36] Curry, a building contractor, had won the support of the local Republican establishment ahead of the primary.[31]

Also running in the Republican primary was William F. Davis, a self-proclaimed "independent" who had challenged mayor Luecke for the Democratic nomination in the previous election.[26] Additionally running was Wilson R. Taylor II.[26]

Result

The turnout in the Republican primary was, at the time, the lowest Republican primary turnout in modern South Bend mayoral election history.[16]

Republican primary results[58]
Party Candidate Votes %
Republican Norris W. Curry, Jr. 655 65.83%
Republican William F. Davis 248 24.93%
Republican Wilson R. Taylor II 92 9.25%
Total votes 995

General election

During the race, Buttigieg was seen as the heavy favorite to win.[9][12][32][59][60] While the Democratic nomination was roughly considered to be tantamount to election,[30][44][61] making the general election largely pro forma, Buttigieg refused to take a victory for granted declaring that, “The political graveyard is filled with people who took it for granted".[44]

During his primary campaign, Buttigieg had spent nearly all of the funds he had raised, subsequently justifying this by declaring, "“We didn’t want to lose a squeaker and have a lot left in the tank."[44] He continued to raise additional funds in the general election.[44]

Buttigieg stated that his top economic priority for South Bend was what he called "costumer service", arguing that it was important for the city to provide a more efficient response to local businesses and businesses seeking to locate in the city. He believed that this could be accomplished by establishing a single point of contact for business services that would be tasked with communicating efficiently with businesses.[62]

In the midst of the campaign, Buttigieg spent two weeks in active service in San Diego as part of his duties in the United States Navy Reserve.[44]

Buttigieg sought to run a general election campaign that was unified with the campaigns of candidates running in the coinciding council elections.[44]

A debate was held between the three candidates at Indiana University South Bend on October 27.[63]

Result

Buttigieg won all of the city's 91 voting precincts.[15][64] These included several heavily Republican precincts in the city's 5th district.[15][64] Some of western South Bend's heavily African American precincts gave Buttigieg some of his greatest levels of support in the general election.[24]

The election made Buttigieg, at 29 years of age, the youngest mayor of a United States city with a population greater than 100,000.[2][34][65][66][67][68][69] Buttigieg also became the second-youngest mayor in South Bend history, after Schuyler Colfax III, who was elected mayor at age 28 in 1898.[44][70][64]

General election results[58]
Party Candidate Votes %
Democratic Pete Buttigieg 10,991 73.85%
Republican Norris W. Curry Jr. 2,884 19.38%
Libertarian Patrick M. Farrell 1,008 6.77%
Total votes 14,883

References

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