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Turnout | 45.2% | ||||||||||||||||
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Elections in Indiana |
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The Indianapolis mayoral election of 1967 took place on November 7, 1967. [1] Richard Lugar defeated incumbent Democratic mayor John J. Barton, becoming the first Republican to be elected mayor of Indianapolis in nearly two-decades. [1] [2] Democrats had long dominated mayoral elections before 1967, having won ten of the thirteen mayoral elections since 1930. [1] No Democrat would subsequently recapture the mayoralty until 1999, largely due to the city-county merger that created the Unigov in 1970 adding the votes of suburban Marion County, which shifted the composition the electorate towards the Republicans. [3]
Barton was unsuccessfully challenged by Marion County Democratic Party chairman James W. Beatty. [4] Beatty's challenge to Barton was seen as an act of retribution for Barton seeking to unseat Beatty as chairman the previous year. [4]
A former member of the Indianapolis School Board, [4] earlier that year Lugar had unsuccessfully sought to become President of the but lost by a vote of four to three. [1] Lugar was also the former head of Community Action Against Poverty and an executive at Thomas I. Green & Co. [4] After this, he was convinced by L. Keith Bulen, the chair of the Marion County Republican Committee, to run for mayor. [1] Lugar was also supported by the Republican Action Committee, a group of young Republicans that had organized after the party's losses in the 1964 election cycle in order to challenge control of the party from the party establishment. [4]
In the primary, Lugar defeated former mayor Alex M. Clark. [4]
Lugar made roughly 400 speeches over the course of his candidacy, discussing a wide variety of issues rather than focusing narrowly on a handful of issues. [4] Among effective criticisms he lodged against Barton was criticism of the practice of open-dump burning of refuse (including in wards that had historically been strongly Democratic). [4] He also spoke on issues such as the construction of the highway inner loop, minority demands, and a lack of adequate recreation space. [4]
Barton had been a fairly popular incumbent. [1] By the end of the election cycle, it had been widely anticipated that he would be reelected by a narrow margin. [4] Lugar's win was considered to be a political upset. [4]
Coinciding municipal elections were also swept by the Republican Party. [5] Republicans took the city council elections with a 6 to 3 majority of seats. [4]
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
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Republican | Richard Lugar | 72,278 | 53.3 | |
Democratic | John J. Barton (incumbent) | 63,284 | 46.7 | |
Turnout | 135,562 | 45.2 | ||
Majority | 8,994 | 6.6 | ||
Republican gain from Democratic |
Preceded by 1963 |
Indianapolis mayoral election 1967 |
Succeeded by 1971 |