Colwell: Apathy could be a contender in South Bend mayor's race
South Bend Mayor James Mueller, the Democratic incumbent, is seeking a second term in a race against apathy.
“No one seemed to know there was an election,” Mueller said of the reaction when he began campaigning in neighborhoods right after Labor Day.
Mindful of the upsets of Democrats in St. Joseph County last fall, when apathetic Democratic voters stayed home in droves, Mueller, though highly favored to win, said he will wage a full-scale campaign this fall. He plans TV and digital appeals and mailings and continued door-to-door campaigning.
Those efforts will be aimed at more than just an impressive win over the Republican mayoral nominee, Desmont Upchurch, whose guilty pleas to criminal charges in the past have left him without usual Republican organization support. He has scant funding.
Mueller hopes as ticket leader to bring along to victory Democrats who ran as part of his team in the May primary, Bianca Tirado for city clerk and city council candidates who would support administration initiatives in his second term. He experienced the difficulties with a city clerk who wouldn’t work with the mayor and council during his first term.
Column: GOP mayoral candidate on past criminal cases, lack of party support
The mayor said a poll taken for his campaign in August showed him with a 66% approval rating, 27% disapproval, high marks that should bring easy reelection if those approving his mayoral work also cast ballots for him. He said a breakdown by party showed approval ratings of about 80% among Democrats, 60% among independents and 40% among Republicans.
The poll rating among Republicans is significant. There’s no way for a Republican upset in South Bend, a city where no Republican has been elected mayor since 1967, if there is no strong Republican dislike of the mayor and that is coupled with favorability among Democrats and independents.
Did the poll test an Upchurch vs. Mueller matchup?
“We did, but we don’t talk about that,” Mueller said. Presumably that’s because the results could leave Democratic voters overconfident and at home again on Election Day.
Upchurch, seeking to become the city’s first Black mayor, said he remains hopeful of winning. He said he finds expressions of support for his contention that he should be evaluated as he is now, at age 46 and after two decades in the Army, rather than when he was charged with assault involving a girlfriend and larceny involving a credit card over two decades ago in his home state of North Carolina. He pleaded guilty in both cases. He served no jail time.
Upchurch publicly disclosed the two cases after becoming aware that information about his past had become known to both the Republican and Democratic organizations.
More: Mueller easily wins Democratic nomination for South Bend mayor, to face Upchurch in fall
He said he still isn’t receiving funding help from the Republican organization or invitations to some party events. His problems with the party go back to when he was the Republican nominee for county auditor in 2022. Although he came within 1 percentage point of winning, party critics say he would have won in a time of Republican upsets if he had campaigned more actively.
The two mayoral candidates will appear in a virtual forum at 6 p.m. Monday on The Tribune's Facebook page, sponsored by The Tribune.
Mueller said he is confident that he can prevail in discussion of what he sees as top concerns of the voters. He cited full staffing of the police force after years of shortages here and around the nation, expanded infrastructure programs and plans for more affordable housing.
Upchurch could present dissent on the mayor’s handling of those concerns. But will even Republicans listen now to the nominee who ran unopposed for the party’s mayoral nomination? It’s not Upchurch’s fault that nobody else ran for the nomination. But his faults in the past leave Republicans with a ticket leader not effectively leading.
If Upchurch has been written off in his own party, Mueller isn’t in a race with him but in a race against apathy.
Jack Colwell is a columnist for The Tribune. Write to him in care of The Tribune or by email at jcolwell@comcast.net.
This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: South Bend mayor James Mueller fears apathy will affect mayoral race.
