And so it begins…

Hello, all. Hope everyone enjoyed their holidays and are getting back to it. As you know, 2025 was mostly an election-free year but that is over and now we head into the midterms.

Please forgive me if this column is a bit heavier on local politics this year.

The reason being each year I learn a little more about how the game is played and the more I learn the more amused I am.

Make no mistake, I am such a noob at this stuff, but it is starting to sink in.

With that, I would like to give you a rundown of the political topics for January.

Accountability

In 2024 our reporter Isabella Zarate conducted just shy of 100 interviews of candidates for the primary and general elections of 2024. That is a lot. Go, Isabella.

In those interviews, Isabella asked why they were running and what they hoped to accomplish while in office.

Over the holidays I went through the interviews of every candidate that won their election in 2024 and made notes on their stated goals.

This last Monday we sent emails reminding them of their interviews. They were asked if they made any progress on the issues on which they ran.

One year is not enough time to get much accomplished in politics, especially if this was their first year in office.

However, there is no reason they couldn’t make progress on their platforms. So, I asked each of them about their progress.

This is the first time we had done anything like this so who knows, they may not even respond.

Just so you can play along, here are the officials that were asked for updates after one year in office. If you don’t see a response from any of the following by the end of January, feel free to reach out and ask them why they chose not to respond.

Given the relationship The Republican has with our representatives I expect 100% participation.

(Note: I have given our Statehouse reps extra time to respond because they just began their legislative session.)

Becky Cash, House Dist. 25 (Brown and part of Lincoln Twps.)

Jeff Thompson, House Dist. 28. (Middle, Union, Eel River, Marion, Center, Clay, Franklin, Liberty, and part of Lincoln Twps.)

Greg Steuerwald, House Dist. 40 (all of Washington and part of Guilford Twps.)

Craig Haggard, House Dist. 57 (most of Guilford Twp.)

Brian Buchanan, Senate Dist. 7 (Brown, Middle, Union, Eel River Twps.)

Brett Clark, Senate Dist. 24 (Lincoln, Washington, Center, Marion, Clay, Franklin Twps.)

Michael Young, Senate Dist. 35 (Guilford and Liberty Twps.)

Brad Whicker, Hendricks County Commissioner District 3 (Guilford and south half of Washington Twps.)

Dennis Dawes, Hendricks County Commissioner District 2 (Brown, Lincoln, north half of Washington Twps.)

Larry Hesson, (Hendricks County Council at-large)

Nancy Marsh, (Hendricks County Council at-large)

David Wyeth, (Hendricks County Council at-large)

124th General Assembly Bills

For the fi rst time in my life I am going through every bill being submitted to the assembly. Thank God this is a short session because there are a lot of bills.

Once the deadline for submitting bills has passed I will be listing all the bills authored, co-authored, or sponsored, by our state representatives so you can see the issues that are important to them.

Along with the bills from our reps I am making note of some interesting bills being authored by other reps around the state. Commercial advertising on school busses is one of them. Then there is the Ten Commandments bill.

The City of Brownsburg?

Have you heard about the effort of current Brownsburg Town Council member Glenn Adams to get signatures on a petition to ask Brownsburg residents if they want to become a city?

I am jumping in deep on this one. We will be explaining how you get such a vote on the ballot, the number of signatures needed, why Adams is calling for it, why the most popular radio host in Indiana is behind it, what town officials think about it, and reactions from Brownsburg residents.

Don’t worry.

For those of you who do not want to hear about politics in this column all the time, don’t worry. There are plenty of exciting things going on with the newspaper and the community in 2026 and we are looking forward to another wonderful year being a part of your lives.

Just to prove it:

Quick electric car update:

Not once have I had to pump gas in this cold, wet winter. Win!