Rohli Booker wins Fort Wayne City Council 6th District caucus
Rohli Booker wins Fort Wayne City Council 6th District caucus
Current FWCS Board member defeated four other candidates on the first ballot
It took just one round of voting for Rohli (pronounced RAH-lee) Booker to win the Allen County Democratic Party’s caucus to replace Mayor Sharon Tucker on Fort Wayne City Council.
The current Fort Wayne Community School board vice president triumphed over four other candidates on Saturday morning at the Bricklayers Union No. 4 hall on the southeast side of the city.
Booker and Adams Township Trustee Denita Washington sat side-by-side in the front row as party chair Derek Camp called the room to order to announce the winner. Booker and Washington, who were thought to be the frontrunners, held hands as Camp declared Booker the winner.
“I will listen, I will collaborate, and I will advocate and I will fight for us,” Booker told the assembled crowd in a brief acceptance speech.
As with the mayoral caucus, Camp did not announce the actual vote count, and a spokesman for the Allen County Democratic Party confirmed that they would not be making the final tally public.
Each candidate was allowed to have a representative monitor the count, and two sources independently confirmed that Booker netted 10 votes. With 18 of the 20 precinct chairs from the 6th District present, 10 votes were the minimum required to win (50% plus one).
In addition to Booker and Washington, the other candidates were Michael Bynum, Delois McKinley-Eldridge, and Larry Gist. Before voting began, each was given five minutes to speak to the audience.
Booker talked about her desire to leave Fort Wayne as a young person — she mentioned living in Indianapolis for a time — and how that changed as she got older and saw the progress happening in the city. She said she chose to return and intentionally decided to live in the 6th District.
Washington began her speech with notes but quickly decided to jettison them, taking off her glasses and addressing the room unscripted. The move gained cheers from the crowd and seemed to help relax her, though she checked her phone near the end of her remarks, which caused her to lose some momentum.
Washington mentioned her role as the founder of Girl Rock and her desire to rebuild the Southeast Partnership. “That’s where the voice of the people here and outside of this room have their moment,” she told the room.
As I reported yesterday, the precinct chairs I spoke with in the lead up to the caucus said they planned to wait until all the candidates delivered their speeches before making a final decision.
“Booker’s speech solidified my decision to vote for her,” one of the chairs told me after the caucus was over. “Denita came close and was my number two.”
Booker needed every one of her 10 votes to win on the first ballot. Had she fallen short of that number, a second round of voting would have been required. The lowest vote-getter would have been cut and all the remaining candidates would have been given two more minutes to speak before the precinct chairs would again cast a ballot.
Instead, Booker was declared the victor just 35 minutes after the caucus was first called to order.
In accordance with Indiana law, she’ll have to resign her seat on the Fort Wayne Community School board. Because Hoosier school boards are non-partisan, her replacement will be selected by the other board members, not through a caucus.
Anyone residing in District 4, which Booker represented, can apply to be considered.
Caucus Photo Gallery
