Commissioners Jackson, Groninger To Seek Re-election
Commissioners Jackson, Groninger To Seek Re-election
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David Slone-dslone@timesuniononline.com
Commissioners Jackson, Groninger To Seek Re-electionTwo incumbent county commissioners announced after their meeting Monday that they will seek re-election in 2020.
For Brad Jackson, who represents the northern end of the county, it will be his final time.
For Cary Groninger, who represents the middle district, it will be his first election race after being chosen by a caucus in November 2017 to replace Ron Truex, who moved out of the district.
The southern district, represented by Bob Conley, is not up for election until 2022.
“Bottom line is, I love this county. I think it’s a great place to live. It has great balance. It’s big enough, but not too big. It’s just low crime,” Jackson said.
When he finishes this term, Jackson said he will have served 24 years. He defeated Maurice Beer to win the northern district commissioners seat many years ago and served a number of years with Eddie Creighton and Avis Gunter.
“I take real serious spending our tax dollars,” Jackson said. “Actually, I just re-read my original campaign promise from way back when about when we spend taxes like our money. Because I catch myself, I think, ‘Would I do this in my own business if it was my own money?’ If the answer to that is no, then I don’t want to do it here,” Jackson said.
Over the years, Jackson, 57, has had a few challengers, but came out on top each time.
He said there wasn’t so much a big project he wanted to see completed if he got re-elected to one last four-year term. “That’s the thing about county government, or any government, it’s not so much big projects or whatever ... it’s just our day-to-day decisions, trying to use some wisdom and discernment. It’s not like some big project right now,” Jackson said.
He did add that he’d like to see the overpass project in Syracuse get completed, which is slated to potentially begin in 2020.
After the caucus chose Groninger in 2017 to fill Truex’s place, Groninger said he decided to seek re-election in 2020 because, “Moving forward, this gave me three years to really get a good feel for the position. I really feel as though there’s a lot of opportunities for me to still give back to the community that I love, and I think this is just an awesome opportunity to continue on with what I’ve been able to do the last three years.”
He said the county has had a “pretty full plate” over the last few years with the establishment of the Tippecanoe-Chapman Regional Sewer District and the U.S. 30 Coalition looking at the future of the highway.
Groninger is a part of the Coalition. He said, “It’s going to be something that, as the community continues to try and get that list of pro’s and cons for what route and what they’d like to see there done, we’re going to continue to be working through that.”
He said the county also is working on the communication towers to get emergency services more up to date so they can have communication wherever it’s needed in the county.
“Along with that, we’re hoping to roll in rural broadband as well,” Groninger said.
With the May primary about five months away, he hasn’t thought too much on what his campaign platform will be.
“I think the big thing is, I just want Kosciusko County to be a community that I know my three kids will want to come back to and raise their kids and live,” Groninger said. “I want to continue to make Kosciusko County a place where we all want to live and spend time in.”
He said the county has many good employees who work hard for the taxpayers.
“I’m just amazed at the number of people we have here that really do care about our community, and it shows in their work every day. I count it as an honor to be able to serve beside them the last three years and I look forward to continue to tweak processes and make it even better,” Groninger said.
Primary candidate filing for the May 2020 primary begins Jan. 8 and ends Feb. 7.
