I am a moderate independent running on the Democratic ticket. One reason I ran is simple: the District 2 seat has been held by the same person for three terms, and voters deserve a choice. I am not here to carry a party's agenda. I am here for what is good for Putnam County, and I will work with anyone, of any party, who wants the same thing. A bridge does not care who voted for it.

I do not believe data centers belong in Putnam County. They take hundreds of acres and enormous amounts of water and electricity, and they give back a handful of permanent jobs. That is not a trade worth making here, and once one is built there is no undoing it. Putnam County should lean into its rural heritage, not pave over it, and the rules on the books should say so before anyone comes asking.

I do not believe large-scale solar farms belong in Putnam County. Covering good farm ground with panels for the next thirty years is a poor deal for the county and the opposite of what makes this place worth living in. The county needs clear standards that say where industrial solar is not welcome, so the question is settled by the rules and not by whoever shows up to a meeting. A farmer or business putting panels on their own roof or barn is a different thing, and that is their call.

I am against them. A network of cameras logging where every car goes, with no clear limits on how long it is kept, who can look at it, or what it can be used for, is government overreach. The privacy and oversight problems are bigger than the benefit. If the county has a public safety need, there are ways to meet it that do not mean tracking everyone to catch a few.

A commissioner cannot raise your taxes. In Indiana the county council sets the local income tax rate and the wheel tax, and it has raised the income tax six times since 2014 and the wheel tax by 50%. What commissioners control is the other side of the ledger: what the county builds, what it signs, and whether it is growing the base those taxes come from.

My plan is to grow the pie, not to ask the council for more of your paycheck. The county gets stronger when more is happening here, not when the same residents pay a higher rate for the same services. I will push for growth and spending that stand on their own, and I will say so publicly if the council reaches for another increase instead.

Three commissioners are the county's executive branch. They own and maintain county roads and bridges, sign the county's contracts, oversee county property and operations, adopt plans and ordinances, and set the direction the rest of county government follows. The county council controls the budget, so the two boards have to work together. It is a board of three, so one commissioner who shows up prepared and builds trust with the other two can move a lot.

I run a small business, I sell cars for a living, I have served as a volunteer firefighter, and I have been sitting in commissioner and town meetings since fall 2024 reading the same packets the board reads. Putnam County has fewer people than it did in 2010, and a lot of them who left were my age. Someone from that generation should be at the table when the county decides what the next twenty years look like.