Lake County Surveyor Bill Emerson Jr. easily captured the Democratic nomination for Lake County surveyor in Tuesday’s primary, grabbing 68% of the vote over challenger Reginald Tisdale, an East Chicago teacher.
The vote counts are still unofficial.
Emerson, of Crown Point, is eyeing his third full term in November. There was no Republican running on Tuesday’s ballot.
A Democratic caucus selected Emerson to complete the term of George Van Til who resigned in 2013 after pleading guilty to public corruption charges including wire fraud and aiding and abetting.
Lake County Surveyor Bill Emerson Jr. is running for his third term, but faces challenger Reginald Tisdale in the Democratic primary. (Photo courtesy of Bill Emerson Jr.)
Emerson was elected in 2016 and 2020. Emerson, who’s an attorney as well as a civil engineer, is the son of Hammond City Councilman Bill Emerson Sr.
The surveyor’s duties include maintaining county maps and survey markers and managing Lake County’s nearly 600 miles of legal drains or stormwater system.
The surveyor also reviews subdivision proposals in unincorporated areas for ordinance compliance.
Carole Carlson is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune
Lake County Councilman Randy Niemeyer celebrated with his supporters at Buddy and Pal’s in Crown Point Tuesday night as he glided ahead of his two challengers early in the race to become the apparent Republican nominee for Indiana’s First Congressional District.
The Associated Press called the race in Niemeyer’s favor by 7:30 p.m.
With more than 80% of precincts counted, Niemeyer led with nearly 61% of the vote, Leyva tallied 24.8% and Ben Ruiz captured the remaining 14.4%, according to the unofficial election results. The tallies are not finalized until 10 days after the election, so the Lake County Election Board may review any provisional ballots.
The crowd cheered Niemeyer as he accepted the likely win.
Niemeyer was joined by his wife Madeline, daughter Myah, and parents Rich and Rita at the event. He also has a son Erik. He thanked his family, supporters, volunteers and voters. He said volunteers knocked on more than 5,000 doors.
“To win this thing this fall, it is going to take the best ground game we have ever had. We have a start at it, we only need to multiply it by 30. We really have to get to work starting tomorrow at winning this thing,” Niemeyer said.
“The current Congressman better buckle his bootstraps. We’re coming,” Niemeyer said.
This is a target race for the Republicans to win and also a target race for the Democrats to hold, he said, adding the attention on this is going to be a whole lot bigger.
“It’s going to take a lot of money to win this race,” he said.
Niemeyer, who also is the Lake County Republican Party chairman, said the whole district has changed from the foundation up, building the party one office at a time.
“We are winning races now as a party. Our message is resonating with voters,” he said.
“I don’t think I’m the only one in here who thinks this is a moment in time in our country that is concerning. This thing could go one of two ways: we can preserve this great republic or we can lose it forever … It’s going to take more than one person to make it happen. One of the biggest difficulties we have to overcome is not beating Democrats, but beating ourselves,” Niemeyer said.
“We are not going to do it by the isolationist, absolutist approach that for some reason or another embedded on our conservative movement. We need to find what brings us together and not focus on what separates us,” Niemeyer said.
“If we unite as partners and all pull our part of the rope we will be an unstoppable force in November.”
Niemeyer, who currently serves on the Lake County Council, will face off in November against incumbent U.S. Rep. Frank Mrvan, D-Highland.
Niemeyer said he has always been focused on November and ending Democratic control of the district. The Republican to hold the seat was Harry E. Rowbottom from 1925 to 1931.
Mrvan released the following statement after securing the Democratic nomination to seek re-election to the U.S. House of Representatives in 2024.
“It is my distinct honor to secure the Democratic nomination to continue to represent Indiana’s First Congressional District. I also applaud all of the candidates of both parties and at all levels of government for their willingness to step forward with their ideas and to be active participants in the democratic process,” Mrvan said in a statement.
“I am running for re-election in order to continue to create work and wealth for everyone in Northwest Indiana. I look forward to building upon my progress as Vice Chairman of the Congressional Steel Caucus and Member of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce to support the Northwest Indiana steel industry and fight for the rights of every member of organized labor,” he continued.
Mrvan said he is proud to have worked to expand Buy America requirements and bring transformational federal dollars to our region for the expansion and recapitalization of the South Shore Rail Line, for enhanced operations at the Gary/Chicago International Airport, and for securing a Hydrogen Hub designation at the BP Whiting refinery that will attract billions of dollars in private investments that will strengthen our manufacturing industries, organized labor, and create new cleaner energy jobs for future generations.
Mrvan zeroed in on the issue of reproductive rights in the wake of Roe v. Wade being overturned, which has motivated Democratic voters.
“And make no mistake, women’s reproductive freedom is on the ballot this November. Elections have real consequences, and the action of the Supreme Court has impacted the freedom of women in Northwest Indiana and across our nation. I will continue to stand with all women and fight every day to make Roe. v. Wade the law of the land and ensure that women will make their own best decisions about their health and economic well-being, not politicians,” Mrvan said.
Porter Township Trustee Ed Morales had a strong preliminary lead Tuesday night with 47% of his party’s votes and is expected to be certified by the county on May 17 as the Republican candidate for the 1st District seat on the Board of Commissioners in the November general election against Democrat Dan Whitten, a former longtime member of the county council.
The south county seat is being vacated by Commissioner Laura Blaney, a Democrat, when her term ends in December. She is not seeking reelection but is instead running uncontested on the Democratic ticket for Porter County treasurer. She’ll face off in November against Deputy Treasurer Jimmy Albarron, a Republican, for that office.
Morales was running against software developer Dean Moretton and landscape architect and urban planner Corrie Sharp. Moretton had a preliminary count of 32% of the vote and Sharp 20%, though those percentages were carved from a dismal voter turnout. Only 13% of the county’s 136,874 registered voters came out on Tuesday.
Morales’s campaign focused on public safety, drainage and zoning. “My passion is public safety,” he said. “It always has been.”
Ed Morales (Provided)
He would like to address specific public safety challenges such as, “How are we going to afford and keep police and fire?”
Creating jobs, however, is not the board’s job, he believes. “It’s serving the public,” Morales said, by understanding zoning, focusing on jails, courts, roads, and the 1,100-plus employees the county already has.
Morales was endorsed by Porter County Board of Commissioners President Jim Biggs, R-North, who ran for reelection unopposed on the Republican ticket in the primary, as well as Citizens Against Malden Solar.
He’s been Porter Township Trustee for 17 years and said his 9,600 constituents there and in the rest of south county feel unheard. “You have to be accessible and especially for my district that I’m running for, that hasn’t happened in a very long time,” Morales said, referring to Blaney.
He thinks she would have been better as a city official. “Her thing has been for many years the opera house and the arts, but that’s not what people in south county are concerned with,” Morales said.
Shelley Jones is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
A Michigan mother who pled guilty to suffocating her newborn twin sons and dumping their bodies in unincorporated Stickney Township 21 years ago will serve 20 years in prison, authorities said Tuesday.
Antoinette Briley, 44, of Holland, Michigan, was first arrested in January 2021 after DNA evidence linked her as the likely birth mother of two infants found dead in a trash bin in unincorporated Stickney Township in June 2003, according to the sheriff’s office. Autopsies showed the babies had been born alive and died from asphyxiation, authorities said.
After her arrest, Briley confessed to killing the boys and disposing of their bodies, per the sheriff’s office.
At the Bridgeview Courthouse Tuesday, Briley pleaded guilty to murder before Cook County Judge Terry Gallagher, who sentenced her to 20 years in the Illinois Department of Corrections, according to Sheriff Tom Dart’s office and court records.
The new era for the Chicago Sky will be delayed for at least another month after No. 3 WNBA draft pick Kamilla Cardoso suffered a shoulder injury
in Friday’s preseason game.
Cardoso exited her preseason debut after taking a hard fall, although the team has not indicated whether that incident was the source of the injury. She will be sidelined for the next four to six weeks and then undergo re-evaluation.
Coach Teresa Weatherspoon declined to specify the nature of Cardoso’s injury, but she expressed frustration over the early roadblock for the rookie to make her debut.
“She was playing extremely well and it’s an unfortunate situation that we’re having to deal with,” Weatherspoon said. “But we’re going to deal with it in the right way. We’ve been told four to six weeks, but she’s a pretty tough young lady so it could very well be before that. She’s working hard.”
Injury rehabilitation is already an isolating experience for athletes. For a rookie like Cardoso
, Weatherspoon is well aware of how overwhelming the next two months might feel. Cardoso stayed on the bench with her teammates for Tuesday’s preseason matchup against the New York Liberty and could travel with the team for the regular season.
Regardless of the length of her absence, Weatherspoon has one focus for Cardoso: keeping the rookie engaged with the team when she can’t be on the court.
“Not being able to perform, it can kind of be heavy on you,” Weatherspoon said. “And she’s one who wants to play. She wants to play and she has the heart of a lion. She’s an amazing young lady, an amazing player. And we will never make her feel that way. We don’t want her to feel that way. She’s a huge part of our success.”
No. 13 draft pick Brynna Maxwell also suffered a knee injury in the preseason that will sideline her for the first three to four weeks of her rookie season. No. 7 draft pick Angel Reese
is the lone rookie available for the Sky during Tuesday night’s preseason game against the New York Liberty. The team begins the regular season May 15 on the road against the Dallas Wings.
