Boone County 2020 General Election Guide

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For more on where and how to vote click here.

U.S. President

Joseph R. Biden (D)

Jo Jorgensen (L)

Donald Trump (R)*

Governor

Woodrow Myers (D)

Donald Rainwater (L)

Eric Holcomb (R)*

Indiana Fifth Congressional District

For more on the candidates in this race click here.

Christina Hale (D)

  • Personal: Hale is married to Chris and they have a son, Owen, and two dogs, Grace and Pinecone.
  • Background: Hale graduated from Purdue University with a bachelor’s degree, and she has worked for several years in leadership for a global organization dedicated to supporting global health and children. She also has worked in community and economic development and education. For several years, she has volunteered for, donated to and served in leadership for many cause-related local organizations, including the Indiana Commission on Latino & Hispanic Affairs, Indiana InternNet, Indiana Humanities, Heartland Film and the Domestic Violence Network. Her most active involvement today is with a board she helped to found and continues to serve on, the Indiana Coalition to End Sexual Assault and Human Trafficking.
  • Website: haleforcongress.com

Ken Tucker (L)

  • Personal: Tucker is married to Missy and is the father to Stella and Geri. He is a stay-at-home father.
  • Background: Tucker received his bachelor’s degree from Purdue University and spent 12 years as a public school teacher in elementary and middle schools. He spent nine years as a varsity coach and two years as the Noblesville East Middle School studio producer.
  • Website: tuckerforindiana.com

Victoria Spartz (R)

  • Personal: Spartz is married to Jason and lives in Noblesville with their two daughters. She is the senator for District 20 but is leaving that office to seek the the 5th Congressional District seat.
  • Background: Spartz was born overseas and grew up in Ukraine. She emigrated to the U.S. 20 years ago, became a U.S. citizen and then worked her way up from bank teller to business executive, CPA and business owner.
  • Website: spartzforcongress.com

Senate District 7

Tabitha Bartley (D)

  • Personal: Bartley is a disabled veteran who served eight years in the Marine Corps. She was born and raised in Lafayette and now resides in Monticello with her husband and three children.
  • Background: Bartley’s awards include Navy Marine Corps Commendation medal, Navy Marine Corps Achievement Medal with 3 gold stars in lieu of 4th Award, District Support Marine of the Year 2015, District Support Marine of the Year 2016, District Marketing and Public Affairs Marine of the Year 2017. National Defense medal and Good Conduct medal with gold star in lieu of second award. Bartley has served as the director of Women Veterans Greater Lafayette and as a member of Disabled American Veterans Chapter 27, the Tippecanoe County Veterans Council and the Midwest Women Veterans Coalition. She also has volunteered with the Library of Congress Veteran History Project.
  • Website: facebook.com/bartley4indiana

Brian Buchanan (R)*

  • Personal: Buchanan is married to Elisha and has two children, Chase and Alessandra.
  • Background: Buchanan is the incumbent for District 7. He received his bachelor’s degree in agricultural education from Purdue University. He worked as a program specialist and executive director at the Indiana FFA Foundation from 2002 to 2010. He has been in sales management and customer development in Buchanan Hauling and Rigging from 2010 to present. He has served on the board of directors for AgrIInstitute, on the Indiana FFA Leadership Center Committee, with the Boone County Youth Mentor Program, as a youth basketball coach and with the Indiana Farm bureau.
  • Website: votebuchanan.com

State Representative District 24

Naomi Bechtold (D)

  • Personal: Bechtold is married to Marty, and they have lived in Carmel since 2008. They have two children, one who went to Creekside Middle School and both graduated from Brebeuf Jesuit High School.
  • Background: Bechtold has a bachelor’s degree in public policy from Duke University and an MBA from Lehigh University. She is an Accredited Financial Counselor. She works as an extension specialist for Purdue Extension. She is a board member for the Carmel Clay Parks Foundation, founding member of the Carmel Kiwanis Club and the past president for the Indiana affiliate of the National Extension Association of Family and Consumer Sciences.
  • Website: bechtoldforindiana.com

Donna Schaibley (R)*

  • Personal: Schaibley lives in Carmel with her husband, John. They have two children and two grandchildren. Schaibley is a member of the Carmel Rotary Club.
  • Background: Schaibley is the incumbent for District 24 and has been since 2015. Schaibley was born and raised in Indiana. She graduated from Purdue University with a bachelor’s degree in education and political science. She has worked in the administration of two major universities, was a leader on the Board of Trustees of the Orchard School and served as a substitute teacher in the Carmel Clay schools and as a volunteer in the community. Schaibley is vice chairman of the Courts and Criminal Code Committee and is a member of the Insurance Committee, the Financial Institutions Committee and the Recycling Marketing Development Board. She has authored and sponsored numerous bills which she successfully helped enact into law. Her recent accomplishments include authoring or sponsoring legislation making schools more secure, enabling patients to discover health care costs in advance of treatment by requiring price transparency and strengthening the rights of victims of sexual assault and human trafficking.
  • Website: schaibleyforindiana.com or State Representative Donna Schaibley on Facebook.

State Representative District 28

Eric Shotwell (D)

  • Personal: Shotwell is married to Janet. They have two sons: Jeremy and Chris.
  • Background: Shotwell earned his bachelor’s degree and master’s degree from the IU Kelly School of Business. He is a retired engineering consultant.
  • Website: ericshotwellin.com

Jeff Thompson (R)*

  • Thompson is the incumbent for State Representative District 28. He did not respond to Current for the election guide.

Judge Superior Court No. 1

Matthew Kincaid (R)*

  • Personal: Kincaid is married to Molly and has three children. They live in Zionsville. He is a parishioner at St. Alphonsus Catholic Church where he serves as a Sunday reader and a Confrere (advisor) to the Knights of the Holy Temple. He is active in the Indiana State Bar Association, Boone County Bar Association and on the Board of the Indiana Judges Association. During his free time, he enjoys running.
  • Background: Kincaid is a 1992 graduate of DePauw University with a bachelor’s degree in economics and a 1997 graduate of Loyola University of Chicago School of Law with a juris doctorate. He practiced law from 1997 until 2003 when he became a judge.    
  • Website: Not provided

Judge Superior Court No. 2

Bruce Petit (R)*

  • Personal: Petit is married to Kelly and has two adult children, Eric and Maureen. Petit is a member of the statewide Juvenile Justice Improvement committee, the Boone County Community Corrections advisory board and the Juvenile Detention Alternative Initiative committee.
  • Background: Petit is the incumbent and is unopposed. He graduated from Purdue University with a degree in ag econ and attended McKinney School of Law, where he graduated Magna Cum Laude in 1982. He began working in a private civil practice in Hamilton County while also working in the Hamilton County prosecutor’s office handling major felony crimes for seven years. In 1989, he came to Boone County to work as chief deputy prosecutor. He was elected judge of Superior Court 2 in 2014.
  • Website: Not provided.

County Auditor

Kayla Jordan (D)

  • Personal: Jordan is married to Allen. They have two daughters, Emma and Evelyn. They live in Lebanon.
  • Background: Jordan has part of her schooling completed at Ivy Tech for a logistics and supply chain management degree. She currently works for TFT Global at SIA as a Quality Assurance Specialist/ Auditor. She also works part-time as a Realtor with Carpenter Realtors in Zionsville. She volunteers with Habitat for Humanity.
  • Website: facebook.com/Kayla-Jordan-for-Boone-County-Auditor-105302501351378/

Mike Luciani (R)

  • Personal: Luciani is married to Mary, and they have three children. They live in Zionsville. He is a member of the Indiana Economic Development Association, the Government Finance Officers association, is an assistant Scoutmaster and co-fundraising chair for Scouts BSA, is a member of St. Alphonsus church and is an Arrowman with Scouting’s National Honor Society.
  • Background: Luciani has been an agency auditor for the state of Indiana, a finance manager for a municipality with a population of 75,000, a controller of a dairy product commodity distribution company in Illinois and an owner/operator of a family grocery store. He has a bachelor’s degree in accounting.
  • Website: luciani2020.org

County Recorder

Deborah Ottinger (R)

  • Personal: Ottinger is married to Ralph J. Burroughs lives in Lebanon. She has two children, Ryan Ottinger and Ashley Nelson, and two stepsons, Corbin and David Burroughs. She is a member of Lebanon Church of the Nazarene; is a member of the Lebanon Kiwanis Club; is a member of the Mental Health of America Boone County Board; and is a CACC/Sylvia’s Place member and a Boone County Republican Central Committee chairman.
  • Background: Ottinger is unopposed. She graduated from Lebanon High School and attended Ball State University. She serves as the Boone County treasurer.
  • Website: Not provided

County Treasurer

Lauren Hernandez-DeCrane (D)

  • Personal: Hernandez-DeCrane is married to Drew and they have two daughters.
  • Background: Hernandez-DeCrane received a degree in communications studies from IUPUI and an MBA in marketing at University of Indianapolis. She was a member of Lambda Pi Eta National Communication Association. She worked from with the IU School of Medicine from 2012-2018 primarily in the Emergency Medicine Dept. as the technology and marketing coordinator. She left to work with Arlington/Roe, an insurance company, for a year and a half and then returned to Indiana University in the summer of 2019 to work for the School of Social Work as a communications and marketing director. Hernandez-DeCrane loves to play volleyball and coached fifth- and sixth-grade girls volleyball at St. Luke Catholic School from 2014 to 2019. She is a member of the Women of Impact for the Boone County Foundation.
  • Website: laurenhdecrane.com

Nicole Baldwin (R)

  • Personal: Baldwin is married to Jim, and they have two sons: Zackary and Mathias.
  • Background: Baldwin graduated from Lebanon High School and completed two years of general studies at Ball State University. She earned a paralegal certificate from IUPUI, while working full time at Land Title of Boone County. Baldwin then served as deputy treasurer at the Boone County Treasurer’s Office for eight years. In 2005, she accepted the position of deputy recorder and was later promoted to chief deputy. In 2012, she ran for Boone County Recorder and won. Baldwin attends Traders Point Christian Church. She has served as a board member of the Boone County Historical Society and the Boone County Women’s Republican Club where in 2013 she was voted Republican Woman of the Year. She is active in the Indiana Recorders Association and the Association of Indiana Counties where she recently was elected vice president of the West Central District. She also was a recipient of the 2020 Zonta Rose Day Award.
  • Website: nikkibaldwinforboonecountytreasurer.weebly.com

County Coroner

Justin Sparks (R)

  • Personal: Sparks is married to Cami and has three daughters, Alyssa, Isabella and Hailey. They attend Saint Maria Goretti parish in Westfield. Sparks volunteers as a flight paramedic and serves as the director of training for Grace on Wings, America’s only charity air ambulance. He also serves as a reserve deputy marshal for the Thorntown Police Dept., where he is a patrol officer and a certified Indiana Law Enforcement Training Board instructor.  He also is an IHSSA baseball and football official. 
  • Background: Sparks is in his 15th year as a firefighter and paramedic for the Wayne Township Fire Dept. in Indianapolis. He is a captain. He also has worked for the Boone County Coroner’s Office for the past seven years as a medical and legal death investigator. He served six years in the Army National Guard and was honorably discharged in 2004. He has studied organizational theory and EMS special operations at the National Fire Academy in Emmitsburg, Md. He graduated from fire service management courses at the Alabama Fire College, Tuscaloosa, Ala. He studied fire science at Vincennes University, sociology at Indiana University in Kokomo and public administration at Ivy Tech community college. 
  •  Website: Not provided

County Commissioner District 2

Donnie Lawson (R)*

  • Lawson is the incumbent county commissioner for District 2. He is unopposed. He did not respond to Current for the election guide.

County Commissioner District 3

Jeffrey Wolfe (R)*

  • Wolfe is the incumbent county commissioner for District 3. He is unopposed. He did not respond to Current for the election guide.

County Council At-Large (Choose 3)

Don Lamb (R)*

  • Lamb is an incumbent for county council at-large. He did not respond to Current for the election guide.

Elise Nieshalla (R)*

  • Personal: Nieshalla is married to Chris and has four kids. She is a member of the executive committee of Boone County Family Recovery Court, a board member of Sylvia’s Child Advocacy Center, a board member of Boone County Convention & Visitors Bureau, a board member of National Federation of Republican Women, the council liaison to the Boone Economic Development Corp., a judge for Future Farmers of America, a volunteer for Habitat for Humanity, a State Republican Convention Delegate in 2014 and 2018 and a Vice Precinct Committeeman.
  • Background: Nieshalla is an incumbent for county council at-large. She is the vice president of the Boone County Council and also serves on the council’s budget committee. She is the vice president of the Indiana County Councils Association and received the 2018 County Councilor of the Year award from the Association of Indiana Counties. She serves on the legislative committee for the Association of Indiana Counties. She is the owner and manager of real estate investments. Nieshalla was a member of Gov. Mitch Daniel’s Economic Development Transition Policy Team, a former Head of Business Attraction for the Indiana Dept. of Commerce, a founding faculty member of the Hoosier Leadership Series and a former adjunct faculty at Indiana University.  She has a master’s degree in public affairs from Indiana University. Some of her key accomplishments while serving on the Boone County Council include managing a fiscally responsible budget, funding school resource officers, reviving the Big 4 Trail connection project, winning the “Dark Box” court case protecting taxpayers and representing Boone County on a Japan Trade Mission with the Boone Economic Development Corp. 
  • Website: EliseNieshalla.com.

Marcia Wilhoite (R)*

  • Personal: Not provided.
  • Background: Wilhoite is an incumbent for county council at-large. She is the owner and principal of Marcia C. Wilhoite, CPA; a member and secretary of the Boone County Redevelopment Commission; a member of the board of directors for Boone County REMC; a partner and operator at Wilhoite Family Farms; a partner and operator in Wilhoite Land Co.; a shareholder and secretary in Fairway Farms; a member and president of the Boone County Solid Waste Board; a committee member of the 4-H Pavilion Building. She graduated with a bachelor’s degree in accounting from the University of Notre Dame and received her Certified Public Accountant certificate in June 1983.

Jeff Papa*

  • Personal: Papa has two daughters, who both attend Zionsville Community High School.
  • Background: Papa is the incumbent, and he is unopposed. He is the chief of staff for the Indiana Senate. He is a former Zionsville mayor and town council president. He is a board member of Bosma Visionary Opportunities Foundation and Bowen Center for Public Affairs. He is a former immigration law partner at Barnes & Thornburg, and a former two-term chair of the Indiana Chapter of the American Immigration Lawyers’ Association. He is a member of the Rose-Hulman Board of Trustees and a former president of the Rose-Hulman Alumni Association. He also is the former president of Indiana Leadership Forum. He has a PhD in education leadership and administration, a JD from IU, a master’s degree in applied business economics and a bachelor’s degree in economics and Russian. He has a graduate certificate in higher ed and student affairs and he also completed the Academy for Teaching and Learning Leadership. He is a former adjunct professor at both IU McKinney Law School and IU-Bloomington and served on external advisory boards at Ball State and Rose-Hulman. He taught English in Nepal and Korea. He has completed the Zionsville Community Schools Citizens’ Academy.
  • Website: yetikids.org 

Katie Aeschliman*

  • Personal: Aeschliman is married to Jake, and they have two children, Reese and Brody, who both attend Zionsville Middle School.
  • Background: Aeschliman is the incumbent, and she is unopposed. She worked in local government for eight years, serving in both the Controller’s Office and the Bond Bank for the City of Indianapolis. She also has experience in banking, as she is the senior vice president of the BMO Harris Bank Institutional Market group. She has served the community as a seven-year member of the Zionsville Education Foundation’s Board of Directors including three as board president.
  • Website: Katie Aeschliman for School Board on Facebook.


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